Greenville, South Carolina - Downtown Renewal

Downtown Renewal

Greenville has one of the last Frank Lloyd Wright homes ever built, constructed in 1954.

At one time the retail center of the region, Greenville's downtown district began to languish in the 1960s as shopping centers lured the retailers and customers to the suburbs. In response, the City started a downtown renewal project.

City leaders initially focused on improving the streetscape along a portion of Main Street in the Central Business District. This included narrowing the street from four lanes to two lanes; installing angled parking spaces, trees, flowers and light fixtures; and creating parks and plazas throughout the central core of downtown. Initial planning began in the 1970s and under Mayor Max Heller, an Austrian immigrant who wanted to implement some of the urban features he had seen in Europe. The downtown streetscape renovation was designed by Landscape Architect Lawrence Halprin.

In the 1980s, Greenville turned to laying the foundation for their downtown vision and providing an example of business potential to encourage business relocation to downtown (examples include the Greenville Commons/Hyatt Regency hotel). The city worked with consultants to develop and implement a downtown master plan and facilitated public-private investment partnerships which resulted in the city's first luxury convention hotel on Main Street.

Through the 1990s Greenville continued to strengthen its public/private partnerships to create strong anchors throughout downtown. The city redeveloped a languishing industrial area adjacent to the West End Historic District into a thriving performing arts complex that incorporated historically significant buildings. It then stabilized the stagnant historic district with the transformation of an abandoned cotton warehouse into the West End Market, a mixed-use project of shops, restaurants, and offices, which in turn encouraged adaptive reuse of several other historic buildings throughout downtown. The city's initiative to invest in its blighted urban center at a time when such revitalization was unpopular, not only successfully encouraged private investment, but also eventually garnered recognition from municipalities across the United States.

Although the majority of Greenville-area residents live outside of the central urban core, the last decade has brought a significant increase in downtown living and working as new luxury condos, apartments and lofts go up and more businesses are moving their offices to the now thriving downtown.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Greenville with the Great American Main Street Award in 2003 and 2009. Since then it has been featured in numerous publications, including Southern Living Magazine and the U.S. Airways Magazine (March 2010).