The 60,000-square-foot facility consolidates the public transportation system’s administration, dispatch and maintenance services under one roof. Construction of the facility began in 2023 and cost more than $50 million to complete.

A ribbon cutting for Greenlink’s new facility at 205 Arcadia Drive was held Dec. 18. James Keel, Greenlink’s director of public transportation, explained maintenance staff moved into the new facility on Monday.

The larger space was built to replace Greenlink’s landlocked maintenance facility in downtown Greenville. The old property at 106 and 154 Augusta St. is currently on the market. The new facility includes seven maintenance bays, two service bays, 10 natural gas fueling stations and 16 electric bus chargers. 

Greenlink staff also have access to a fitness center, multiple break areas and a quite room at the new facility. Keel believes the new space and amenities will help with the organization’s workforce recruitment and retention. 

With the new facility, Greenlink plans to expand its transit services to meet the growing needs of residents in Greenville County. Amanda Warren, board chair for the Greenville Transit Authority, said there has been an exponential growth in transit ridership across Greenville County since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Greenlink intends to launch 17 new bus routes, implement a Sunday service schedule, increase route frequencies and decrease customer wait times. The expansion plans are outlined in the organization’s transit development plan created in 2018. 

“The completion of this maintenance facility successfully removes any capital barriers that would’ve prevented these plans from becoming a reality,” Warren said. 

The maintenance and operations facility sits on 26.5 acres of land on Arcadia Drive which once housed the former Washington High School in the New Washington Heights neighborhood. Greenville County donated the property to the Greenville Transit Authority in August 2020. 

Federal, state and local dollars were used to fund the new facility. Greenlink received a $11 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The city of Greenville also appropriated $1.4 million for the project. Greenville Mayor Knox White said the new facility is one of the great successes for Greenville County in the last 10 years. 

“It’s a new day for Greenlink and a new day for Greenville,” White said. 

Exponential growth

Across Greenville County, there has been an exponential growth in transit ridership since the COVID-19 pandemic. Amanda Warren, board chair for the Greenville Transit Authority, said that from January 2021 through August 2024:

• Fixed ridership has increased by 34%
• Paratransit ridership has increased by 125%

Expanding operations

James Keel, Greenlink’s director of public transportation, said the new maintenance and operations facility will allow the transit system to grow from operating 17 buses to 43 buses.

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Greenville Mayor Knox White said the city’s current headquarters at 206 S. Main St. will be demolished to make room for a new mixed-use building. The city plans to retain ownership of five to six floors – approximately 63,050 square feet – to use as City Hall, with the city’s council chambers on the first floor.

The project will be completed through a public-private partnership. Greenville City Council unanimously approved a non-binding Letter of Intent with M Peters Group for the sale and redevelopment of City Hall on Sept. 23. 

According to the city, a formal development agreement will come at a later date. White explained they hope to complete the new building in two and a half to three years and the city plans to invest $10 million in the project. Renderings have yet to be created for the new City Hall. 

Old vs. new

M Peters Group was chosen by the city and NAI Earle Furman to redevelop City Hall in March 2023. Original plans had the Greenville-based developer up-fitting the existing 10-story building originally constructed in 1972. White said M Peters Group concluded that it would cost “significantly less” if the building was torn down and rebuilt. 

Several of the city’s departments, including the management and budget department, are currently moving to the new Public Safety Complex on Halton Road. Therefore, the city will not need as much space within the new building, allowing for residential and commercial uses to be added. 

“We need more open, flexible, decent space for employees to work in and find inspiration and creativity – all the good things you want in a workspace,” White said. 

Last year, the city explored relocating City Hall to the Bowater Building at 55 E. Camperdown Way. The city hoped to acquire and renovate the first two floors of the office building, a project expected to cost approximately $14 million to complete. 

Plans changed, however, when the 2.4-acre property was put on the market in October 2023. According to CBRE, the Bowater Building property is under contract to be purchased by a buyer who is currently confidential. 

Even though plans to relocate City Hall fell through, White said it was always the dream to keep City Hall on Main Street. The city’s headquarters have been located at 206 S. Main St. since the 1930s. 

“We want this to be a truly beautiful building and a signature building for downtown,” White said.

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No detail was overlooked when it came to the $2 million redesign of the private business and social club located in One Liberty Square. The renovated club includes two ballrooms, a private boardroom, mini-meeting rooms and a revamped lounge with two dining areas and a bar. 

Tour the renovation of City Club of Greenville in photos

Many of the club’s new design elements were chosen to pay homage to the city of Greenville – from blue and gold carpet resembling the Reedy River to wallpaper mirroring the Blue Ridge Foothills which can be viewed from the club’s 17th-floor panoramic windows.

Jim Coyne, founding partner and executive vice president of operations at BNG Hospitality, explained the new design helps bring up the club’s sophistication and make it a place members are proud to come. 

“We’re finding that a lot of our members today are joining the club because they either want to meet new people or they want to expand their business portfolio and connection,” Coyne said. “We knew that we had to make it a little bit more relevant and a little bit more adaptable for everybody to use.”

Along with the renovations, City Club received a new name and brand to help bring new life to the club after 40 years in Greenville. It was formerly known as Commerce Club of Greenville.

Kimberly Loper, director of membership, explained the club has also tweaked its programming to provide an enhanced experience for members. The new event calendar features a mix of social and business networking events for members to attend, including a women in business luncheon. 

“Everything about coming to the club has been looked at and scrutinized and we’re really making it more convenient, easier and more welcoming for the members,” Coyne said. “We’re really excited for the members to see it.”

Meal break

New breakfast, lunch and bar menus were created for the City Club of Greenville to include refined cuisine offerings with local ingredients. Each food menu was crafted by the club’s executive chef Addison Stone.

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Approved: Later hours, outdoor patio

On The Roxx, LLC, applied for a special exception permit to operate a bar/nightclub after midnight in an MXS-D zone (shopfront downtown district) and add an outdoor patio to the facility. 

On the Roxx is a bar/restaurant located at 732 S. Main St. in Greenville.

The patio’s location would require at least a five-foot easement to accommodate an exit.

The board approved the outdoor area, but required On the Roxx, LLC to have the right of ingress and egress granted by adjacent property owner Weekes Construction and submitted to the city.

The matter of the special exception permit arose after the business had a partial change of ownership. The person who departed the company held the special exception permit, which is non-transferable.

The board unanimously approved this application, with an amendment requiring the business to retain an off-duty law enforcement officer as an outdoor security person. The board also concluded that the requirement may be reevaluated in a year.

Other news

The board elected a new chairman, Ken Betsch of Betsch Associates, an architectural firm on North Main Street. It selected Lauren Rounsville as vice chair.

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Consisting of six parcels at 130 Prospect St., the property will be used to develop The Dunean Mill Townhomes, a 60-unit, infill townhome community.

“We’re excited to get started on our first project in the Greenville MSA,” said Lincoln Avenue Capital Regional Project Partner Rusty Snow. “The site’s proximity to many of the major employers in and around Grenville drew us to this location, and there is high demand in the submarket for a thoughtfully designed, attainable rental community.”

The project is slated to break ground in late 2023.

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This location will be franchised by Upstate businessman Yogi Patel, who is also Bohemian Bull’s Upstate franchisee. Patel will work with The Farehouse owners in Taylors to bring the same concept to the Golden Strip, said Dustin Tenney of Reedy River Retail at SVN Blackstream, one-half of the brokerage team that helped to lease the space.

According to Tenney, The Farehouse in Fountain Inn will undergo renovations and is expected to open in late summer or early fall.

Once open, the eatery will offer a variety of:

• Sandwiches
• Pasta
• Pizza
• Entrees such as steak, smoked pork belly, grilled salmon, seared duck and shrimp and grits

Location: 111 N. Main St., Fountain Inn

Website: thefarehouse.com

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These are just a few of the terms applied to the site of the old Greenville Memorial Auditorium, a forlorn triangle of land near the Bon Secours Wellness Arena and sitting at the gateway to Greenville’s downtown heart.

But those names may soon fade into memory with the unveiling of plans to transform the site into the anchor of an emergent arts and entertainment district that promises to ignite investment along the whole of the city’s Gateway corridor.

Miami-based NR Investments revealed this week plans for the property that local leaders hope will kick off a new chapter in Greenville’s growth.

Gateway’s ‘Gracie Plaza at the Arena District’ unveiled

NRI has dubbed the new Gateway project as Gracie Plaza at the Arena District: where the community meets, according to founding partner Nir Shoshani.

The project will feature two interconnected towers — one at 16 stories and the other at 7 stories — and offer 294 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail space. The towers will be anchored by a central public plaza accessible from N. Church Street and Beattie Place and will be designed to be a community hub that will feature frequent events aimed at energizing the Gateway District.

NRI closed on the property March 9 and is scheduled to present plans to the city’s Design Review Board at its April 6 meeting. NRI has been working with Greenville’s Johnson Design Group for more than a year on the project.

The property has languished for decades following the demolition of the auditorium in 1997. The inadequate “Little Brown Box,” as many locals called it, sat on a key triangle of property at the doorway to the city’s central business district, but the challenges of redeveloping the site seemed to doom each attempt at renewal.

But according to Shoshani, those very challenges were part of what attracted him and his team to tackle the project.

“The company feels very comfortable with challenges,” Shoshani said. “This was a unique site (and) not an easy one.”

Greenville Mayor Knox White said Shoshani’s interest in looking at a property with a problematic redevelopment history indicated the NRI team was bringing new perspective and a special skill set to the table.

From derelict to dynamic

Tackling difficult projects is very much in NRI’s DNA, according to Shoshani.

The former Omni district just north of downtown Miami was a blighted, largely depopulated and derelict section of town with no sense of community and no sense of a present or future, Shoshani explained.

But the NRI team saw opportunity and a litany of assets like a central location, proximity to growing and dynamic neighborhoods, and good transportation infrastructure. Those attributes were ripe for the type of project that would draw all the pieces together and resurrect a key portion of Miami’s landscape.

And so the Miami Arts + Entertainment District was born, transforming a cultural desert into a vibrant community that has become one of the premier destinations in the region.

Shoshani said this is the vision for the Gateway project — to take a property that has been an unremarkable waypoint people pass on their way somewhere else and transform it into a destination in and of itself.

The project promises to inject new life into an emerging entertainment district and spark new projects all along the Gateway corridor, according to Beth Paul, general manager of Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

Watch: Miami Arts + Entertainment District – creating a community

“This project will spur the Greenville Arena District to consider many options for the future of the BSWA Campus,” Paul said. “I’m impressed by NR Investments’ efforts to understand the importance of the location, and its potential for the district.” 

The mayor concurs the project will serve as a crucial catalyst for further development in the area that will see it blossom into an entertainment destination.

“This will light the match,” White said. “This will become the place people will want to go to before an event and stay afterward.”

What’s in a name?

Gracie Plaza at the Arena District.

This is the new name chosen for NR Investment’s project to bring new life to the old Memorial Auditorium property and reflects the welcome and enthusiasm the company found in coming to Greenville, according to founding partner Nir Shoshani.

“You can’t do this (type of project) without grace,” he said. “We believe there is no better word to refer to Greenville in the sense of generosity and kindness. That is what we received from everyone we met.”

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Years later, Al’s younger brother, John, gave Mark what he calls a “what-am-I-doing-with-my-life speech.”

At the time — this is the late 1970s — Cothran was studying finance and banking at the University of South Carolina, where he recalls a conversation over lunch with his Uncle John:

“I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to be a stockbroker.’ He said, ‘A stockbroker? Why?’”

Cothran’s answer was simple. One of his friend’s uncle was a stockbroker, he explained, and Cothran had heard that this man earned more than $100,000 a year — and drove a Porsche.

But Cothran’s Uncle John told him he didn’t know any brokers making that much money and so encouraged his young nephew to try real estate instead. After all, John had developed such Greenville properties as Sugar Creek, a residential community, and the Foxcroft neighborhood, and he helped launch Greenville Builders Supply in the early 1970s.

“I didn’t know anything about careers, right?” Cothran says now. “You’re a high school guy. Doctors clearly —  according to everybody — make a lot of money, and attorneys make a lot of money. You didn’t have like a whole list of things. It wasn’t like there was a career day back in the day.”

Now Cothran, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur-developer, is CEO of commercial real estate firm Cothran Properties and residential company Cothran Homes.

But it was after college that he tried real estate sales in Columbia.

“I did not like that,” the Greenville native says flatly.

As for a Porsche, he now owns one of those too — among his collection of high-end sports cars. Those include a 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider; a 1974 Triumph TR6; a 1980 Corvette; and a 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale (“actually the most aerodynamic production car until the 1980 Corvette,” he says).

His background in finance continues to drive his thriving businesses.

“Well, I figured that was the purpose of business. You find something to do, what you like doing,” he says. “Especially when you’re a finance guy, you come up with something and it has to be a viable business.”

He opened Cothran Properties in 1986. Before that, he started working for U.S. Shelter Corp. in 1983, acquiring apartment complexes west of the Mississippi, though not the West Coast.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, he says, “Like everybody else, we were scrambling, trying to figure out what the new frontier was going to look like.”

So he started buying up property, a lot of it — from industrial sites to failed subdivisions.

“If you could take out all the stress of being involved in it, which was pretty stressful, I probably learned more in that four-, five-year period than I did in the previous 12 or 13 years,” he says.

At one time, Cothran Properties was Greenville’s third-largest operator of office space with 450,000 square feet. Today, Cothran Properties and Cothran Residential own or develop $75 million in assets.

And it all goes back to Uncle John, who mentions that while his nephew was in school, Mark worked in construction at Cothran & Darby Builders. Later, they partnered in developing Caledon Wood, a mixed-use development with 350 apartments and 71,816 square feet of office space off Haywood Road.

“I don’t have anything but admiration for how he’s taken things and has created his own path in life and taken his early learnings and education,” says John Cothran, 90, a member of the S.C. Builders Hall of Fame and onetime president of the Home Builders Association of Greenville.

“I’ve been delighted he’s that he’s done so well. He’s very good at shooting for the target and hitting it.”

Cothran Properties and Cothran Homes by the numbers

• Portfolio includes about 40 properties
• Cothran Homes’ sales last year totaled around $25 million
• Annual revenues for both companies are between $30 million and $35 million
• Both companies combined have approximately $75 million in assets owned or under development
• Employ 20 people, most of them in residential

Source: Cothran Properties

A few high-profile Greenville projects include:

• One21, townhome development on Stone Avenue
• The historic fire station on Augusta Road
• The 67-acre Global Commerce Park, a 600,000-square-foot collection of Class-A industrial buildings across Interstate 85 from BMW, which Cothran sold for $20 million 13 months ago.

Other developments include, among others:

River Walk, a 450-site residential community
Pelham Ridge Business Center, a 240,000-square-foot showroom/office
Greenville First Bank headquarters, 14,000-square-foot office building

Acquisitions and rehabs include, among many:

• Le Chateau Apartments, 136 units
• 105 Spring St., 29,016-square-foot multitenant office building
• 100 Coffee St., 41,000-square-foot multitenant office building

Select other projects:

Acquired and marketing the Cove at Butler Springs — 80 lots and remaining inventory of homes
Acquired and completed The Reserve at Plantation Greene — 13 townhouses and 24 lots
Acquired and completing the Townes at Brookwood — six townhouses and 89 lots
Redeveloping Rainbow Market, Charleston, South Carolina

Sources: Cothran Properties and Cothran Homes and LinkedIn

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Approved: Subdivision on Bob Street and Pack Street

Applicant Neal Fogleman presented plans to divide one lot into four lots located on Bob Street and Pack Street. Fogleman intends to build a single-family home on one lot and sell the remaining three lots. Located on the intersection of Bob and Pack streets, the development utilizes public roads with no proposed new streets.

Zoned as a Single & Multi-Family Residential District, the property exists within the West Greenville overlay district and special emphasis neighborhood. City staff found “the proposed subdivision would enable development that is generally consistent with the master plans and future land uses proposed in West Greenville.”

The board approved the development with conditions that sidewalks would be reviewed during each building permit stage and city staff will consult community members about sidewalk requirements.

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“The space was a perfect selection by Shelby Dodson at CBRE and checked all of our boxes: contemporary, turn-key, walkable to downtown and accommodating for expansion in the coming years,” said Zenith Real Estate Chief Executive Officer Christiana Pott. “We expect our young culture to thrive in this new environment and we are pleased to make McBee avenue our home.”

The company moved its 20 employees who serve the Upstate into the space at 617 E. McBee Ave. on Nov. 1. Zenith plans to add 18 employees to this office in 2023.

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The properties include the historic Anderson Post Office at 401 N. Main St. in Anderson and the historic Bank of Woodruff at 140 S. Main St. in Woodruff, both of which will undergo full restorations with designs from SHLTR Architects, bringing them back to their early-1900s glory.

The restorations come as Coldwell Banker Caine, the residential and commercial real estate services firm with $1.3 billion in sales in 2021, joins forces with the existing Coldwell Banker Exclusive Reality & Management in Anderson, which will now fall under the umbrella of Coldwell Banker Caine. With the joining of the teams, Coldwell Banker Caine will have about 220 agents spread across six offices in the Upstate, according to President and CEO Stephen Edgerton.

Here’s a look at the two properties.

Anderson Post Office

• Located at 401 N. Main St., Anderson
• Built in 1908
• Designed in the Beaux Arts French style
• Three stories
• 15,055 square feet
• Previously served as a federal post office, followed by a funeral home, before sitting empty
• Restoration set to be complete in late 2023

The restoration of the old post office will remove non-historic elements and return the interior of the space to what it looked like when it opened more than 110 years ago, including the marble floors and postal worker teller windows.

“We have the original architectural drawings of the space and it’s being fully recreated,” Edgerton said. “We want this to be a true community space.”

The lobby area will be open for community gatherings from local churches and organizations, gallery art shows from local artists or simply as meeting spaces for anyone in the community.

The exterior of the building will include a patio area that will likely service a restaurant concept that will occupy the remainder of the building, according to Edgerton.

Bank of Woodruff

• Located at 140 S. Main St, Woodruff
• Built in 1901
• Served as the first financial institution in the town of Woodruff
• Closed during the Great Depression, was used as commercial space before sitting empty
• Set to be nominated to the National Historic Register as part of Woodruff Historic District

Coldwell Banker Caine’s investment in the city of Woodruff comes as the small city is seeing massive growth, owing in part to the announcement of a $700 million BMW battery assembly plant, although Coldwell Banker Caine made plans to invest in the area before that announcement.

Related: Woodruff expects BMW plant, 4,000 new homes to drive explosive growth

Edgerton sees the city as yet another example of the broader Upstate’s appeal.

“I think we’re starting to see the real estate markets in these tertiary cities and more suburban cities become part of a much larger real estate market,” he said.

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The 20,000-square-foot facility will be used to hold weddings, corporate events and socials while High Spirits Hospitality’s space at Judson Mill undergoes a $5 million renovation.

“Due to post-pandemic construction delays that everyone is experiencing, we have made the radical move to rent a temporary space for our events,” said High Spirits Hospitality CEO Tammy Johnson. “This is another way that the event industry is evolving. 405 Westfield is another opportunity for the High Spirits team to do what it does best – create amazing events. We are excited to be going to 405 Westfield and know our many partners will be excited too.”

For more information, visit eventsatjudsonmill.com/westfield.

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The 4,000-square-foot facility will serve AnMed Health, which closed its blood donor center in 2018 and has been using TBC as its sole blood provider. It will house:

• 10 donor beds
• Offices for local staff
• Operational space to stage bloodmobiles for local blood drives

“TBC has been a part of the Anderson community for a long time thanks to loyal donors here and our friends at AnMed – it’s only fitting that we should finally put down roots here and continue to grow with and support Anderson,” said TBC President and CEO Delisa English.

TBC’s Anderson facility is expected to be complete and open by spring 2023.

The organization has donation centers in Asheville, Hendersonville and Raleigh, North Carolina; Greenville, North Charleston, Easley, Florence, Greenwood, Lexington, Myrtle Beach, Seneca and Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia.

For more information, visit thebloodconnection.org/anderson.

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If built, the estimated $40 million, two-story elementary school would occupy the empty field on Isbell Lane, where J.L. Mann’s sports teams practice.

Multiple people told the board they’re worried about issues such as increased traffic flow, possible stormwater overflow, the threat of overloaded infrastructure and public safety for pedestrians, especially students walking to and from class and sporting events.

Although the plans had been discussed at length during school boarding meetings, BZA voted to defer the decision until a more focused meeting with community residents could be held.

The proposal will come before the board again on April 15.

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The fast casual Mediterranean restaurant took over the former Zoe’s Kitchen location behind Starbucks. 

Hours: 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

Patrons of Chipotle and Moe’s will find a similar line-style ordering system and menu options at CAVA, albeit with a focus on Mediterranean ingredients. Offering bowls, salads, pitas and other health-food meals, originally from Washington, D.C., the concept is gaining nationwide attention.

The opening of CAVA on Augusta comes after CAVA’s parent company, CAVA Group, purchased Zoe’s Kitchen outright and is in the process of converting Zoe’s Kitchen locations to Cava locations.

CAVA offers walk-in ordering as well as drive-thru pickup on orders made online in advance.

 

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What’s on the menu?

• Start with a base: salads, greens and grains, pita, grain bowls and more.
• Then add dips and spreads like tzatziki, harissa, hummus, roasted eggplant and more.
• Followed by a protein: falafel, spicy lamb meatballs, harissa honey chicken, roasted veggies, grilled chicken, meatballs, braised lamb, or roasted white sweet potato.
• Finish with a wide variety of toppings and dressings.

Check out the full menu

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