Word on the street is that the local Sportsclub has been purchased by ACAC out of Charlottesville, VA. No word yet as to what plans ACAC has for Sportsclub but many suspect there will be some nice improvements to the equipment and hopefully the facilities. I believe ACAC stands for Atlantic Coast Athletic Club.
I’ve been a member of Sportsclub for three years and it’s a great club! The staff is very friendly as well as the members. The facilities definitely could use some renovations and those of us who spin are crossing our fingers that they plan to buy new bikes!
Sportsclub has facilities in Greenville, Simpsonville and Five Forks.
The Greenville Zoo is about to get some nice improvements. According to the story running in the Post and Courier the Zoo will see the following:
“A giraffe feeding platform. An upgraded, more accessible Africa plaza. A new orangutan enclosure and an renovated siamang exhibit. An expanded farmyard section.
Those capital projects are in the pipeline at the Greenville Zoo, upgrades intended to enhance the experience of visitors and keep the facility in line with Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation standards.
Altogether, the improvements are expected to cost more than $5 million, part of which will be covered by a $1 million earmark in the state budget for the current fiscal year and the rest of which will be funded through private donations.”
I was kind of a amazed that Greenville has a Zoo given the size of the Upstate but this is just another sign of the continual improvements being made here and the quality of life is tough to beat!
Check out the Greenville Zoo’s Facebook Page for more information and some fun photos!
Dustin Tenney, a local commercial real estate agent with SVN Blackstream, posted on the Simpsonville, SC Facebook Group basically asking the 25,000 members what would they like to see developed at the 3 sites in the pictures he posted. (Update: here’s a link to one of their Simpsonville Retail Listings ).
In less than about 12 hours, there were already over 500 comments to his post. I also live in Simpsonville as does Dustin. We have seen lots of new commercial development as the city of one of the most desirable places to live in the country right now. The joke is that if something new is being developed, it’s either a dental office, a Waffle House, a car wash or an oil change station. But Dustin Tenney and his business partner, Daniel Holloway, are looking for perhaps something that the city doesn’t have yet and he solicited the public’s opinion on it. What ensued was a lot of fun and craziness and the mentioning of an incredible amount of companies and brands. I tried to go through the post and identify the companies, stores, brands, services that people wanted to see. Frankly, it was a bit mind numbing and I only made it through maybe the first 35-40% of the comments. So my analysis below is by no means scientific and I don’t vouch that it’s 100% accurate but directionally it gives you some idea what people are looking for in terms of new development in Simpsonville, SC.
Below is Dustin Tenney’s post in the Simpsonville Residents Facebook Group:
“Simpsonville! I would love for ya’ll to provide input on these three sites and “play broker/developer”. I’m serious in my interest to hear from you – I am a resident of Simpsonville as well and do a good amount of work in our city. My business partner and I know what what we don’t need any more of, as ya’ll are very vocal about that. But sometimes we don’t always think of everything we do need.
Back story, because of the cost of the dirt, we really need national tenants here, and because it’s a major thoroughfare, national tenants are what make sense anyways. The mom and pop and regional tenants are better suited with what we have going on along Main Street around Burdette.
With that said, feel free to drop me a line here, shoot me a DM or send me an email at dustin.tenney@svn.com.
SVN Blackstream Reedy River Retail
Here’s what I came up with after combing through the post comments. If a company was mentioned, I noted how many Likes / Loves it had and have attempted to add them up on a spreadsheet. As noted above, I did not get through the entire post given the number of comments. I don’t even know if this is helpful, but clearly people want a Trader Joe’s grocery store and a Texas Roadhouse. There was also lots of interesting comments about areas needed for families and kids….skate parks, ice rinks, trampoline parks, arcades, roller skating, bounce houses, mini-golf, movie theater…but the overwhelming responses where geared toward restaurants and grocery stores. There were several comments asking for coffee shops (not Starbucks) and bookstores.
Wants Likes / Loves
7Brew 4
Academy 5
Aquatic Center 5
Barnes & Noble 22
Bingo Hall 2
BJ’s 4
Buc-ees 2
California Pizza Kitchen 2
Carrabbas 3
Cheddars 1
Chicken Salad Chick 16
Chipotle 5
Clean Eatz 5
Container Store 1
Cookout 20
Copper River Grill 1
Costa Vida 2
Costco 22
Culvers 13
Dave and Busters 3
Dunkin Donuts 9
Fazoli’s 2
Fresh Market 11
Fuddruckers 7
Go-Carts 17
Half-Price Books 4
Harris Teeter 7
Home Goods 3
IKEA 4
In-n-Out Burger 14
Indoor Bounce House 8
Jason’s Deli 8
Jimmy Johns 2
Krogers 7
Lidl 6
Logans 3
Lowe’s Foods 1
Marshall’s 8
McAlister’s 9
Menard’s 4
Mini Golf 10
Mo’ Bettahs 2
Movie Theater 3
Noodles & Company 12
Old Navy 1
Once Upon a Child (thrift) 2
Pappadeux Seafood 4
PDQ 3
Pei Wei 4
PF Changs 2
Portillo’s 5
Raising Cains 8
Red Bowl 1
Red Lobster 13
Red Robin 7
Roller Rink 5
Sam’s Club 21
Shake Shack 4
Smash Burger 4
SoftSurroundings Clothing 1
Spare Time 3
Taco Cabana 2
Taziki’s 1
Texas Roadhouse 58
Top Golf 1
Trader Joe’s 92
Trampoline Park 22
Tupelo and Honey 14
Ulta Beauty 3
Uno 2
Urban Air 17
Wegman’s 31
West Elm 7
Whataburger 20
Zoe’s Kitchen 10
Below are other images of sites Dustin Tenney and Daniel Holloway are working on in Simpsonville, SC. If you’re looking for help with retail in the area, these two are doing a great job!
The Upstate of South Carolina is a consistent stronghold for conservative Republicans. With the massive influx of people from the north and northeastern US, there are concerns that the vote will change from bright red to perhaps a more muted purple. An article recently published in the Greenville Journal says that despite the many new people who have moved to the Greenville area, nothing much has really changed as of yet in terms of voting.
Time will tell if this is the case. Certainly there are plenty of people moving here with different opinions on politics. But I also come across a lot of people who are moving here because it is a more conservative area. We often here from conservatives that the new folks that are bailing out of their blue states for a variety of reasons, please don’t bring your same voting habits here to the Upstate. We don’t need to turn this place in to yet another blue haven.
The City of Greenville, SC has been updating its zoning and land use regulations to help achieve a more livable city as part of the GVL2040 Comprehensive Plan.
The city held a public meeting recently to provide an update with where they are at with the thinking. Upstate Business Journal has a good synopsis.
The main points are:
- Limit the amount of land that can be developed
- City to purchase vacant land as it tries to keep a significant amount of greenspace
- Maintain the character of existing neighborhoods
- Make development more walkable – less reliance on cars
- Create more affordable housing
The city has hired CZB of Maine to help them with this planning update.
The City of Greenville continues its steady growth. All one has to do is drive around and see all the construction going on. New construction…additions…renovations…restorations. You name it, it’s happening here.
“As of June 30, the city had completed 14,110 building inspections compared to a little more than 25,000 in all of 2021, Greenville’s current high water mark. In 19 of the first 27 weeks of the year, the city saw an increase in inspections over the previous year.“
Greenville continues to attract more people and businesses by the day. See where people are moving from to land in Greenville.
One of the things I’ve noticed here in the Upstate is just how many different organizations there are when it comes to economic development and growth. Of course with economic growth comes more businesses locating here with the additional housing to accommodate the growth in employees. It’s a terrific place for business – particularly those in manufacturing, distribution and logistics. It seems a bit light when it comes to IT tech and med tech but there are movements afoot to try to bring more of those companies and or divisions to the Upstate. The Upstate Business Journal has an excellent summary of Upstate Economic Development organizations.