The Greenville City Council recently approved for the building of a much needed parking structure in Greenville’s fast growing West End. According to the article in the Greenville Journal, “the council approved $5.6 million for a mixed-use facility in Greenville’s West End — an area that has long been lacking in adequate parking, according to council members — that would include 560 parking spaces to be leased to the city over 30 years.”
Additional development will also take place at this location with 250 apartment units and 15,000 SF of retail space. The Post and Courier published a story about this development back in February and has a few more details. Apparently there are plans to have a roof top plaza on top of the parking garage. I can’t quite visualize how all of this will come together but Seamon Whiteside is the architect. They do amazing work so I’m sure this will also be quite remarkable.
The garage will be located next to the Eggs Up Grill on Augusta St.
On the heels of the election results still being tabulated a couple of days past election day, we can safely say that South Carolina continues to be a deep red state and in fact may be more red than ever. I’ll see if I can get some more information on that. Florida has gotten all the attention in part because of how front and center they were during Covid and Gov. Ron DeSantis starlwart stance throughout. He deserves credit. But little South Carolina should not be overlooked.
My wife and I were one of those people who wanted to leave our deep blue state of Minnesota many years ago. We finally were able to make the leap and moved here the summer of 2019 and love it! We got out before George Floyd and ensuing riots and not the incredible rising crime there. This election seems to have solidified some states as remaining deeply blue while others particularly in the south remain red.
Here are the results for the 2022 midterms in South Carolina. You won’t find many elected Democrats and non in state level offices. In South Carolina we have 2 so-called Republican Senators – Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. For Congressional House Representatives, South Carolina has 6 the 7 are Republican. In case you’re wondering why a big swatch across the center part of the state is blue – well that’s Rep Jim Clyburn’s district…no gerrymandering there! 🙂
But in all seriousness…if you need to get out and are searching or a place to land, consider the Greenville area otherwise known as the Upstate of South Carolina. We are 90 minutes to the mountains and 3.5 hours to the beach. The Upstate has a thriving and increasingly diverse business base. It is incredibly strong in manufacturing and distribution. Downtown Greenville is absolutely charming and may be one of the best small cities in America. Charleston is just a little over 3 hours away. There’s so much to do and see in South Carolina. It’s both business friendly and family friendly.
If you’d like a tour or are looking for an agent to help you find a home, I’d be happy to help. Just give me a call or send me an e-mail. John Murphy, eXp Realty, 864-276-1448, john.murphy@exprealty.com.
Opportunity Zones are designatured by the federal government as areas where they would like to see new investment to revitalize communities. The benefit is that if you make the investment and improve the property that meet their guidelines and hold the property for at least 10 years, then you won’t have to pay capital gains on the property when you go to sell it.
There are a number of areas here in the Upstate of South Carolina. You can zoom in on the HUD Opportunity Zone map and take a look.
For those of us who live here in the beautiful Upstate of South Carolina, we know it’s a fanstastic place to live. More and more people are discovering the charm, beauty and quality of life that is here in Greenville, SC.
Porch.com recently published results of the hottest housing markets in the U.S. and they say Greenville, SC came out on top.
Greenville, SC is getting so many accolades these days that it’s hard to keep up with them. I see new ones posted seemingly every week on LinkedIn and I keep thinking their duplicate posts but they aren’t. The most recent one was Conde Naste recognizing Greenville, SC as a top place to live.
Don’t believe the hype? Come for a visit. There’s plenty to do and see right here in the Upstate but remember, the mountains are a short 60-90 minute drive and the ocean is just 3.5 hours away if you’re looking to take in more the area.
Greenville, SC continues to hit list after list of top places to live, work, open a business and visit. It was a top spot during Covid and the peak work from home movement. Now CNN is saying Greenville, SC is a top destination for those looking to places to visit this fall. Pretty incredible really. While I love Greenville, it’s hard to imagine it’s in the same class as those places mentioned in CNN’s article, but it’s still great for the area to receive such recognition.
Below is an eclectic group of photos from around Greenville.
Another subdivision has been approved by Greenville County. Stanley Martin Homes will build 171 homes in a new neighborhood called Parker’s Summit adjacent to the CESA Soccer Complex in Greenville along Anderson Ridge Road. Stanley Martin builds beautiful homes and it’s a great location being just 5 minutes to Five Forks and right next to the soccer field. It’s also probably about a half mile or so from one of my favorite spots here in Greenville – the Enoree Transfer Station at 1311 Anderson Ridge Road. (If you know me, you’d know I’m not joking…you can throw just about anything away there at no charge…it’s super convenient!).
Just the other day I was driving down Anderson Ridge and it’s busy and it’s a narrow road. For those who are new to the Upstate, you’ve probably noticed the lack of any kind of shoulder on most South Carolina roads. Anderson Ridge is definitely one of those roads. Traffic can stack up pretty deep there at the light at S. Bennetts Bridge Road at Anderson Ridge.
So far with all the news of a housing market slowdown, we are not seeing a slowdown yet in new developments. Developments are certainly not a leading indicator because of the time and expense to see these through to approval but I suspect once we start seeing withdrawals of new developments, then we’ll know the housing market will likely soon bottom.
Lennar has a new development going in across from the soccer fields. That land has been cleared for a number of months. I haven’t heard when building is starting but it must be soon. That’s a gorgeous piece of land…more on that in a future post.
Just have to run a plug for my Catholic parish here in the Upstate of South Carolina. Prince of Peace was recently named the “Best Place of Worship in the Upstate for 2022.” On the Prince of Peace Facebook page, the church published the following…
“We are deeply moved and profoundly grateful to have learned that Prince of Peace Catholic Church was named the 🏆 2022 Best Place of Worship in the Upstate 🏆 in the annual contest hosted by the Greenville News and representing over 40,000 participants. Our parish was up against solid competition across a diverse group of denominations and non-denominational churches in the area! This award belongs to every member of our parish and school community for the way in which they live their faith pursuing sainthood, welcome and serve others, and spread goodwill as Catholics in the Upstate. Thank you to each one of you who voted!
“Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.” – St. Jane Frances de Chantal”
We have found Peace of Peace to be a wonderful community and an event better place to worship!
A running joke on one of the Simpsonville Facebook Group’s that I’m part of is that when new construction starts on a particular parcels, people will jump in and try to guess what’s being built. Most of the time they are looking for new restaurants or a Trader Joes. I just published an article on this exact topic. The most common sarcastic comments tend to be…carwash, Waffle House, and dentists offices. Well I think we could now add a meme around banks being built because there have been a lot of new bank branches that have been built across Greenville County.
On Woodruff Road right now between I-385 and Five Forks, there are 3 brand new bank buildings currently being constructed. Fifth Third has made a big move into Greenville and they have two of the buildings going up. The other building is for First National Bank.
Building these bank buildings is not cheap…but again nothing is cheap today when it comes to commercial, or residential, construction. I suspect part of the differences in these prices might well be the size of the parking lots but also perhaps the site work that needed to be completed to build these buildings. For the Fifth Third buildings, they are both replacing old gas stations that were not exactly pleasing to the eye. It looks like in reading of the tax records and the building permits that each of these buildings are owned by different entities and these banks are leasing the space from them. According to the building permits filed with Greenville County, the Fifth Third Bank building at 1510 Woodruff Road will cost $1,950,000. The Fifth Third Bank building at 2608 Woodruff Road in Five Forks will cost $2,350,000. The First National Bank building at 1217 Woodruff Road will cost $1,500,000.
Here are the other two banks being built along with a list of other banks along Woodruff Road. It’s a popular location for banks I’m sure in part because the traffic counts are typically about 90,000 per day in the area.
Here’s a look at the other banks along Woodruff Road between I-385 and the Five Forks area.
