Hello everyone
and welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville
your favorite real estate podcast here in Greenville,
South Carolina, I'm your host, as always
Stan McCune Realtor right here in the Greenville,
South Carolina market
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today I want to be talking with you
guys about some of the exciting
developments
and some of the things going on in Greenville County
and in Greenville City
and yeah there's just
there's just a lot going on
there's been there's been some new updates lately
some of these things we've talked about in the past
but I know I've got a lot of listeners
tuning in from outside of the Greenville area
really interested in what's actually happening here
and and
and not just now
but in the future for Greenville specifically
and so I just wanna
go over some of these things and
and
to be completely transparent I am not
I'm not an expert in I don't have inside sources
I mean well
I could if I wanted to I know people
you know on the planning commission
all sorts of things
but I don't waste their time by asking them about
you know all the different things that are
that are going on in the county and in the city
that being said I do track these things
from my perspective from my Vantage point
as a realtor
I follow the news all of that
and I'm happy to share with you guys
some of my thoughts some of what I've seen
so I'm going to this actually
is gonna be a great episode to watch on YouTube
cause I'm gonna be sharing
a lot of
a lot of different
renderings and what not
of different projects that are going on
so let me see if I can do that real quick
share my screen alright here we go
so
hopefully you guys can see what I'm sharing here
hold on give me one second
I use zoom
for this and sometimes zoom is a little bit clunky
alright there we go
so we're gonna start off right away with
with the County Square redevelopment
now if you don't know what this was about
the basically all of our county government offices
real property services
registered deeds etcetera etcetera
they've all been downtown ish
really it wasn't an area that you know
if you were downtown
you weren't going to the county office
you know just walking around there
you you had to really seek out County Square
in the past well
a few years ago they completely demoed County Square
and put up a brand new
development that was started
with basically the government offices okay
and if you've been there
you know what I'm talking about but it's a very
very different building I
I don't particularly care for the design of
the building myself
it's not the worst thing in the world
but you know I just personally
I just don't really care for that specific building
but
it is much nicer on the inside council chambers much
much nicer than what they used to be
just the county office
as as a whole is on the interior is much better
the parking situation fantastic
so there's a lot of good that they did there
but that was just phase one
phase 2 is to basically incorporate
the County Square development really
within downtown Greenville as a whole so
you know it's really been considered more downtown
adjacent for a really long time
because as I already said
it it really wasn't an area that you were going to
to you know it
you're either going downtown
or you're going to County Square
you're typically
not doing both of those things at the same time
but the the long term plans are
and have always been
to make it a much bigger destination
mixed use an area that you can walk around
you can shop
I believe
there's even gonna be residential as part of it
if you're looking on YouTube
you can see
a a little overview of the
of the master plan and kind of
some of the ideas of what they are working on
and this is going to be
extremely accessible to downtown Greenville
because they actually you know
if you're on the Swamp Rabbit Trail
and before you get to Cancer Survivors Park
there's a little ramp that goes up
well it's actually quite a big ramp
it's massive it takes you all the way up
that takes you up to I believe Church Street
which if you're again
if you're looking on YouTube
you can see Church Street over here
and then you can literally just cross over
which right now is a little bit dangerous to do
so I'm not sure what their plans are for that
but you can literally just cross over
and then access this entire area in that way
and so right now this is all a
a demo zone if you
if you go by County Square
you can see where the the
the main buildings that were part of phase 1
where those were developed
but then you go to
to County Square to the rest of it
and I mean it's just red clay
you know
our classic dirt that we have here in Greenville
it's just red clay everywhere
because they are grading and and
and prepping for what's to come
and actually
I'm thinking about piggybacking off of this show
and actually going by this development and the others
and
and recording some some
little video that I would share on my YouTube channel
so please
make sure that you subscribe to my YouTube channel
at Stan McCune
on YouTube
that's s t
a N m C C
U N E
okay so let's just go through some of these pictures
so these are all just renderings
renderings oftentimes are not accurate and
and
you know if you're again
if you're looking on YouTube I'm
I'm showing this hawkers Asian street food
I don't think that that is like
what's actually going to happen
that doesn't sound like a real
a real place anyway hey
you wanna get some Asian street food at hawkers
yeah
I I've never heard of that
I don't think that that's real
I think that these are just generally conceptual
what they're planning to do and you can see it
it has labeled multi family building No. 1
okay so
that's some
residential that they're trying to include in there
and again
like I said mixed use
a lot of what they're doing these days is doing retail
and
you know restaurants
what not on the main floor
and then residential above that
people love that right
because it really
this is obviously
what they've been doing in big cities for
for forever right
New York City San Francisco
they've been doing this sort of development
high density
sort of mixed use housing and retail for forever
well Greenville's smaller city
that hasn't been in huge demand until fairly recently
and this model has been proven to be popular
because if you want to live downtown
you don't want to live you
you want to feel like you live downtown right
you want to be able to experience
the downtown lifestyle and what better way to do that
than to be able to just
take the elevator from your loft apartment
go downstairs and guess what
there's a Chipotle down there
or there's a chick fil a down there
there's a place to to shop at
you know you can shop at Rei
whatever those
these are the sorts of things that people want
and this is all part of what they had planned
for that County Square development
so it's not just going to be in the past
you only went there for government related reasons
they're making it into an entire destination
and I for one am
am quite excited about it
I think it's going to be something that
that people go to
and that also will encourage more involvement in
in the local government process as well
currently
there's not as much as involvement as there should be
it's it's mostly just loud
cranky voices that show up to these
county meetings and what not
and that's that's not good
that's not healthy
we need a mix of people showing up for those
and I think that this will encourage that
because there will already be people in the area
and there will already be other things to do
beyond simply going there to
because you need to pay your property taxes
for instance or go to the county tax sale
if you're if you're into that
so County Square redevelopment
super awesome I am very
very excited I think that this is going to open up
a section of downtown Greenville
that
up to this point has basically not been accessible
right this has not been
something that people have been going to
excuse me one second while I mute my phone
rookie mistake I didn't do that
alright
moving on from here
this has been another one in Greenville City
the Gateway Project
the Greenville Gateway Project
they just announced some details on the
the Gateway project recently
specifically that they're planning to include
next to the Bonsai Core Wellness Arena a
an amphitheater which I think is gonna be awesome here
I'm gonna show you guys if you're
if you're on YouTube
I've got to move my face here I'm gonna show you why
what exactly this this gateway project is all about
so currently
there's a few different ways to get into downtown
Greenville OK
you can take 3 85 into the city
this is the most common way to do it
you can go down North Maine
that's one way to do it you can go down 2
76 it's another way to do it
you can take Pete Hollis in another way to do it
if you're coming from the south
again
you can take Mills Avenue to where it kind of becomes 3
85 you can also take 1
23 and there's a few other little ways to get in
but the by and large
the primary ways the
the primary way to get into Greenville is 3
85 and this is where the Gateway project is
this is the part of Greenville whoa
this is the part of Greenville
that the Gateway project is targeting
and so basically
so I had a meeting with the mayor not too long ago
and this is kind of like in his mind
merrick's White the
the final piece of his legacy
is this Greenville Gateway project
so
if you're looking on YouTube
you can see and if you're not looking on YouTube and
and if you're a Greenville resident
you've already done this before right
you take three eighty five
until it turns into East North Street
and then you drive past Bonsackor Wellness Arena
on the right
you've got the Charlie Wyatt School of Real Estate
on the left if you're a realtor
you probably went there
or if you're a realtor
that's been in real estate for greater than 5 years
you probably went there at some point
and
so this is
this is the gateway again
if you're looking on YouTube
you can see
this is what it currently looks like
is it aesthetic no
it is not aesthetic it's
you know you've got the
the arena on the right
it's just kind of free floating there
you've got all these kind of ugly offices
just kind of all around the area
a very busy
obviously East North Street is an extremely busy road
they tried to pretty it up with
with a little tree canopy
but it's still really really ugly
you know it's just not
this is not a pleasant way to enter a city
and so I believe that this was the Genesis my
my understanding from talking to the mayor
the Genesis of this project
was we need to simply make the city look nicer
as you enter into it well
guess what is right there
it's the main arena that we have in Grenoble
the bond secure
at some people pronounce it bonsecours
with an s at the end'cause it does have
actually an s at the end but it's a French word
I don't I think the s is silent
I don't know I'm not French
but
but the arena is the focal point of that area
and so the concept that the city has
they want to
to essentially make that a complex
not just a free floating arena
in an otherwise nondescript and kind of ugly area
they want it to be an entire complex
and when you enter into Greenville
you're entering into that complex
it's the first thing that you see
and it's beautiful and the
the announcement that was made
a week couple weeks ago is that they are going to be
including an amphitheater there
which I think is a great idea
I think it's gonna be a 60
500 person
amphitheater
and I love the idea of having an amphitheater
you can kind of see it
in
in the a photo that
that I'm showing on YouTube
but it's a great idea currently
the main amphitheater that we have is in Simpsonville
and
it's fine it's definitely
worse for the wear
but the main thing about the
the Simpsonville Amphitheater that drives me crazy
getting to and from
and parking is an absolute nightmare
because it's basically surrounded by
by residential
and so literally you I found myself getting there
going through neighborhoods to like
going past people's homes to try to get there
and that is not ideal right
you've got a bunch of traffic lined up in a subdivision
nobody wants that the residents don't want that
it's it's just not a a great setting for it
and so
so I'm not sure if you guys are gonna hear
the video that I'm currently playing
Breaking News
I'm I'm just trying to get to okay
here we go here's the rendering
I wanna show you guys the rendering of okay
so here's the the rendering again
I apologize if you're not watching this on YouTube
but the
the rendering of kind of what they have for the idea
it looks pretty cool right
and they
I went to the journey concert at the Bonsecours Arena
what a lot of locals call the well okay
which is a horrible nickname
but it's better than saying Bonsecours Wellness Arena
I went to the journey concert last year
and they did a whole like
party ahead of time and they tried to
you know
there's limited space currently when you go there
now one thing I love love about the well
I'm just gonna call it the well now
one thing I love about the well is how
accessible the parking garage is to it
I mean it is right there
and it appears from this rendering
that the parking garage is going to remain
in that location that's fantastic
it's literally like 200 feet from the arena
and it's great
I've never gone to an event where that parking
garage has been sold out
which is also fantastic
and and they don't hike the prices too crazy
I think it's like usually like 20 bucks
you know to park there for an event
which is which is quite reasonable in my opinion
now the question that I have is
are they gonna have people in the amphitheater
and in the arena at the same time
they might need to add some parking
and I think that they are
adding parking as part of this
but long story short
when I went to the journey concert they had
you know stuff outside
and there's just not that much space for it
but you can see they're adding green space
they're doing all sorts of
of interesting stuff
and the idea is that this is going to be an area and
and
I'm just talk you know
the the photos here
that I'm showing you guys
are really focused around the arena
but the entire area around it
the plans are to add housing
to add stores to add restaurants
to make it again
another destination
as you're entering downtown Greenville
you don't just pass it
unless you're wanting to go to an event
you actually have things to do
even if there isn't a sporting event or a concert
or something like that that you're going to
and I'm super duper excited about this
I you know I
I do agree with the mayor
I think it's going to be
a great
addition
to Greenville and and a great addition to his legacy
here are a few other
a few other renderings
some ideas that
of how it could end up
looking after it's all said and done
and they copied it's interesting
they copied essentially
yeah here
here's some more renderings I'm showing you guys
so you can see here's
here's the the arena
my guess is that there's gonna be a whole lot less
available
a whole lot fewer lanes I'm
I'm not positive about that
but I think I think it's going to
make it more congested
entering into downtown Greenville
but people are going to and
and I I don't know that for a fact
and I know that they've done traffic studies
for all of this so
so the the city is on top of
of the ramifications of it
and and they feel like the
the advantages outweigh you know
the the disadvantages
but
but yeah that's
there's definitely gonna be some
some changes that happen I'm looking for
so part of this whole Greenville Gateway project
they actually
looked at other and I
I can't find it at the moment
but they looked at other metro areas in the southeast
I believe Atlanta I believe Charlotte
I think maybe Raleigh Durham
and the main entertainment complexes in those cities
and just how nice they were
and they basically concluded if we don't fix our area
we are going to fall behind
and guess what
that means that you don't get things like March Madness
you know we had men's March Madness here in Greenville
a couple of years ago
if that whole area was a lot nicer
we would get more of that
we've not had a whole lot of great concerts
in Greenville in comparison
you know typically
we're having to go to Charlotte or Atlanta for
like a really good concert
you know Greenville has had I
you know I mentioned journey
I've been to a few good concerts in Greenville
Linkin Park's coming here
you know back in the day Prince came here
we're we're getting some decent comedians that are
that are coming here as well this year
Tom Segura is gonna be here
Aziz Ansari was actually in Spartanburg
a few months ago
so it's not like there's nothing happening
but the concern is we're going to be left behind
in terms of people actually booking
a space at the the Bon Score Wilmington Arena
I think that that's a legitimate concern and
and on top of that
city sees an opportunity to redevelop
potentially the entire area
and make that gateway look aesthetically pleasing
and be functional too
be a a destination
a place that people want to go
so I'm
I'm super stoked for this
I think it's really
really necessary and
and I just think it's going to completely change
that section of Greenville
and so I'm again
I'm excited
we're seeing this is how a city like Greenville grows
right people don't want it to just all be congested
around Main Street and Falls Park
because eventually you just
it gets to be too congested right
but the urban sprawl
where the city already has all of this land
it's already being used
but it's just not being used well
they are finding ways to use it in a better way
to invest the money that the city has and
and I'm and I'm super stoked about it
I think you know
Greenville City
it has been very well run for quite some time now
obviously
you know not everyone loves the mayor
that's fine
I think the mayor has done a great job I
you know
without him we wouldn't have Falls Park
in in addition to many
many other things
he travels around to all sorts of different cities
including other countries
to see what they're doing with their
with their downtown areas
and then the city council generally speaking
has been quite good over the years as well
so I I don't have a whole lot of
negative to say about how the city
is run so I am optimistic
that these projects are going to be done well and
and hopefully my optimism is not misplaced
the next one I want to talk to you guys about is Po mil
we've talked about this in the past
so it came out recently that
part of Pomil so well
let's back up for a second
what is Pomil okay
if you're if you're looking on Google Maps
you're going to see an area called
oh gracious
pressing pressing some bad buttons here
you're gonna see an area called Park Place
Park Place yeah
that that's like an old name
I guess I don't know
there is a church there called Park Place
I think church of God
but generally speaking this is what people call Pomil
and you can see the Pomil Skatepark is there and
and and really this is an area it's
it's very unique right
cause you've got North Main over here
North Main is is a historic neighborhood
has some of the most expensive
real estate in all of Greenville
and there's a simple reason for that
and that's because
there's really not a whole lot of residential
real estate in downtown Greenville
outside of condos North Main you can get a nice house
a big house and it's within walking
biking distance of downtown Greenville
really one of the few neighborhoods that are like that
we do have some other historic neighborhoods
you can see Hampton Pinkney over here
you can see you know
the East Park Historic District is over here
Heritage Historic District
there are still some residential homes in these areas
but they almost never come on market
and you know it's just really
really hard to get a home there
so you've got
you've got North Main which is a
a really well established and popular community
and then you've got Sansuichi which is also
I mean completely different than North Main
really a transitional neighborhood
that's really popular right now
really hippie
sort of community
an area that
a lot of first time home buyers like to target
an area that has a lot of Airbnb's that are
that are really popular
things of that nature this is a
this is an area that you go to if you're
if if you're just looking for a more
a hipster sort of feel or if you're looking for
perhaps a fixer upper
there's sometimes some opportunities over there
and and like I said
a lot of people
I know a ton of people that when they visit Greenville
they Airbnb in that neighborhood
OK and
I should mention it's very accessible to the
to the Swamp Rabbit trail as well
which is a big pull as well
this is the Swamp Rabbit Trail cutting
I believe cutting right by
yep cutting right by San Sushi
so you've got wedged in between
a really expensive neighborhood
and a really well known up and coming neighborhood
this Poe Mill area
that has just kind of been left behind
tons of rental properties
in that area
that have not been touched for a long time
homes that are in a state of disrepair
and the area it needs an injection of money now
here's the thing that's confusing to me about pommel
a while ago we're talking about
I believe 20 20
maybe 21
part of the mill was sold by
the county of Greenville to a developer
this part of the mill up here
over Victor Street
I think technically the address is 300 Hammett street
but I believe it's mostly accessible via Victor Street
so this mill right here
I will pull this up on Google Maps as well
for you guys to see 300 Hammett
so there's a whole plan for what they
call the villages at Po Mill to be at this mill
and I need to go by and see if they've done anything
but I've not heard anything about this project
for quite some time
but news came out recently
that a different part of the mill
which is down here this little section
where bunkand Pinkney Street come together
that this has been sold to a developer
and you can see here
yeah just happened a month ago 6.2 million
the other site was sold for 1 million okay
so if I had to guess
unfortunately this is this is really really sad
I think this developer that bought
what they're planning to be the villages at Po Mill
like $1 million is like chump change for
for something like that
I think they're just sitting on it
and that's exactly what has happened over here
to this property that
that just sold you can see
it was originally bought by International Cotton Depot
Inc back in 2008 for 1.3 million
and they've done nothing with it
I don't know who they are
or what their plans were originally obviously 2008
things happened right we had a global financial crisis
that happened that year
so probably an ill advised investment but they sell it
you know almost not
not quite 20 years later
for 6.2 million to South Sterling LLC
and so South Sterling LLC plans to
to do a nice development there and here
oh before I get into that
on YouTube again you can see
this is pictures of what the villages at
Po Mill were supposed to look like again
I've not heard this article is from 21
I've not heard anything about this since then so
long story short
this former cotton warehouse near Po Mill
they are planning to actually utilize it
to build
more than 400 apartments
and hold on give me one second here
okay yeah
more than 400 apartments
roughly 40,000 square feet of commercial space
I think that that is
I think that that's great
and it does reference in this article
Contour Companies bought
the now raised Pomell Textile Factory 2021
I believe that
that is the
villages at Po Mill that I referenced before
but long story short
and again this is where kind of like
there's gaps in my understanding
so I I
I really do need to just
go by this area and actually see
like what they've done
maybe they are slowly going about it
like
it's hard for me to believe that the county sold off
that one section of the mill for $1 million
without some sort of agreement in the contract
that actual development would be done
like that would be a really
stupid thing for the county to do
but unlike the city
which I do trust the city government
I do not trust our county government
to
to make good decisions there
it's just kind of a mess
over there in county council chambers
so it it is what it is I
I don't I don't know if they did
if they went about it the right way
but I'm very excited
for the idea that there could be multiple
different things happening in this neighborhood that
that needs a lot of help now
the Pommel Neighborhood Association
they don't want any of this to happen
because they're concerned about gentrification
and I completely understand that
it it
gentrification is a is a tough thing
but gentrification when homes
gentrification doesn't mean that people are being
forced out of their homes
that's
generally speaking
what people think of when they think of gentrification
people in homes that they love
in homes that they've been in for forever
they're being forced out I'm telling you
if you go through this area
the homes that we're talking about are homes
generally speaking people shouldn't be living in
and it's it's sad to see
and this is one of the areas
where you can get the cheapest real estate
in all of Greenville is this little area
and that's because of
of how much neglect there has been
and so
the thing is that people that have
that are sitting on a piece of property
that might be worth like
$50,000 right now
because the roof is caving in on them
if all of these developments happen
their home might double or triple in value
and so they they might end up selling
and gentrification
might end up happening as a byproduct
but they're $100,000
wealthier than they would have been
had it not happened so
I'm not a fan of gentrification
but I also see
I I see it a little bit differently than others do
where it can help pull people out of poverty
but at the same time
it can be a sad thing for people to
you know if they have been living
you know in a home for for 50 years to have to
to have to move out because
they haven't been able to keep up with their home
because they don't have the the means to do it
that is a very sad thing when that happens and and
and extremely unfortunate
okay last but not least
and I'm not gonna get too much into this one
but I do wanna include this
as part of what we're talking about here
and that is the in at Altamount
this one's probably not gonna happen like
let's just be real about this
the idea for this is a luxury resort style
hotel in the Paris mountain area and as it turns out
I don't think that there's a single Greenville resident
that's like
jazzed about this project
now I personally
listen Paris Mountain is a state park okay
and
and this is the argument that so many people are making
is we want to keep our state parks pristine
but Paris Mountain has a ton of development on it okay
if you go to this section
where they're wanting to put the
this hotel
I personally don't think it's disrupting the
the beauty of the area in any meaningful way
me personally now
I've heard that bikers
aren't happy about how it would disrupt
what they would do so I
I totally understand some of that
and people right now
we've talked about quite a bit on the show
they don't want development in their backyard
there's a reason why the term NIMBY
not in my backyard
has been formed to describe these people
it's because they just oppose any and all development
get rid of it get rid of the development
we don't want it we don't want more
we don't want to see houses
we don't want to see hotels
they're okay with stores and restaurants
they're okay with that okay
now they wouldn't be okay with that on Paris Mountain
that would that would still be something
that would be a problem for
for the nimbies
but anyway
I'm not going to put the sound clip out there
that I think that this hotel should happen
I think that the that the people
their voices have been heard
Travelers Rest just announced
they aren't going to Annex it into the city
that was I think the last ditch attempt by
by Divine Group who is trying proposing this project
I think that that was their final attempt
at trying to get it through
because Greenville County Council
is just not going to approve this
it's just not gonna happen so they thought well
maybe we can get the city of Travis rest to Annex us in
and then they will approve it and
and the city of TR said sorry
you're on your own and that's not super surprising
the city of TR this
this doesn't benefit TR
in any meaningful way I mean I
I guess you could make the argument that it
it could you know bring traffic north
because Paris Mountain is not that far from TR
obviously
but if it's disrupting bike lanes and things like that
that doesn't benefit TR
cause a lot of bikers bike up to Traver's rest
so long story short
I don't think that
that the Inn at Altamount is going to happen
I don't know what they're going to do with that land
that's there but I don't see it being a resort hotel
so we'll keep we'll keep tabs on that
we'll see exactly what happens
I don't I don't know exactly what's gonna happen
but that one again
I don't really have a dog in the fight
would I stay there
probably I like to to do
the occasional staycation around here
if it were there I would probably stay there
now what is it a big deal for me
no no
because it's not housing
and that's really what Greenville needs more of
is more housing
we don't inherently need more hotels in my opinion
now I think this one would be unique
but is it a need no
absolutely not it is not a need
it would be something interesting
something that could bring more
to the economy of that part of Greenville
would certainly benefit Cherrydale
which is the main shopping area
right near there and
and it would benefit North Greenville County in many
many ways but the reality is that it's
it's not something that we need
and with the amount of backlash
that there has been about it
it's not something that we're going to get either
so we can we can punt on the in at Altamount
it ain't happening and
that's my I'm gonna go out on the
on the line and make that prediction
let me know
if you guys have any questions about any of this
like I said
if you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel at Stan
McCune please check it out
I do have the desire to go by and
and record a little bit of some
of these areas so that you guys can actually see
see what we're talking about
and actually kind of visualize
you know what exactly is going on and
and what might be happening in some of these areas so
so stay tuned for that
hopefully I'll be able to
to crank out some content for that
I really have a lot of big plans
for the YouTube channel I just need the time right
this is the busy busy time of the year
in real estate
but there's always room for more so
if you know someone that needs a realtor in Greenville
let me know if you need a realtor in Greenville
let me know contact info in the show notes
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