[New Greenville developments]

Speaking as a young professional that lives downtown, (24 F in comm. RE finance), I believe there are four legit places you'd want to look at. It really depends whether or not you want to buy or lease...

1. West End Cottages- this is where I live currently, and you can't beat the location. I don't know where the prices are now, but I'm assuming they're in the low to mid $200k to buy. There are several units available to both buy AND lease now, and I believe one of the leasable units has a purchase option. The tenant mix is mid 20's to 30's, although there's not much of a community vibe...i.e. I don't see my neighbors everyday, but we I do we're friendly...it's definitely worth checking into.

2. Pendleton Place- much younger mix, and the units are cheaper...very nice though. The less expensive price is because of the location, which is very close to Downtown but in a less desirable area (near Spiro's Petes). Younger crowd, very communal.

3. The Brio- won a development award in 2006; upper 100's in terms of price. I don't know if they lease or not. Built for young professionals looking to own their first home, and being built right off of Church St. there's no doubt these will appreciate in value as well.

4. Wachovia Place- right off Main St., available for lease. Cannot beat the location- you can walk everywhere

5. McBee Station- I don't know the profile here, but they're close to downtown as well and newly available for lease.

Hope this helps!

That would be a perfect place for such a residential highrise. I simply don't see why a developer has not done this yet, unless they feel that there is still room in the high-end residential market downtown. Given the cost of land and building costs, they would obviously need to build up and have more residential units to offset the initial investment - but that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Seriously though, if I someone is a young professional or recent college grad who wants to live downtown, where would they go? Is it even possible?

[New Greenville developments]

I work in the NBSC building, and to my knowledge Hughes Leasing has no intention of adding a retail component to this building. I know a new southern fusion food restaurant is opening at McBee Station (former Rick Erwin chef and a restauranteur from NYC), and a deli is also coming in soon, so that might attract more food traffic and thus more retail interest. Maybe that will prompt the city to look at revitalizing the sidewalks to be more pedestrian-friendly.

I sure hope the city does something to the length of McBee. The completion of the Peacock will probably help bring the change to that portion, but I hope that someone (the City or the building's owner) will do something with the 'plaza' at the SunTrust building. They need to get rid of those pavers and update that area. A fountain at the corner and an entirely new scheme would do wonders. Back when it was built, the curved side was meant to be the main access point for the building. In the 90's when my dad worked there, there was a parking garage with no street level presence, and a Firestone tire place on that intersection ( I can't remember what used to be on the land where NBSC now stands). But the McBee/Spring Street sides of the building are much more important now to pedestrian activity in general and needs to be addressed.

I know that Suntrust recently reorganized their space inside and consolidated its employees to the lower floors, but I wish they'd add some retail along McBee, if not Spring Street, too. NBSC needs too as well