Cityplanner

All I stated was the exact text in each of my posts, and then you attacked my “mindset” and claimed that I view certain groups of people as “deplorable” and a “problem”. I found your response extremely offensive and judgmental. Don’t read things into what people say. I say what I mean and mean what I say. If I wanted to make disparaging statements, I would, but I did not. I simply stated facts. As someone who is and has been heavily involved in pro-transit and pro-social justice work, I am very offended by your posts. You’re the one who is making offensive statements.

Well, I’m very pro-transit and have worked in CATS advocacy within government. Facts are facts. Bus riders at off hours are not high-income. Should transit be improved so that it appeals to more people? Yes. But denying facts serves no purpose. Shall we pretend that bus riders who use the transit center late at night are upper-income? If so, what good would that do?

Unfortunately buses at non-rush hours likely attract a clientele that cannot afford a car, so being right next to the bus station helps that demographic access the Epicentre.

Yes, you are correct. It’s just one less store that would attract me to Northlake.

Pottery Barn closed, too? And -1 anchor? Seems like this is the next Eastland. Really, really unfortunate, since it's such a nice-looking mall.

There are plenty of old office buildings that are converted and upgraded into Class A office space, with the entire building gutted and redone, or converted into residential. For example, http://www.390madison.com is one of many in midtown Manhattan. It looks really stunning and modern now, although it was built in the 1950s. I'm surprised that this hasn't been done a while ago. Plus upgrading or converting the Landmark Building could hopefully eliminate the swastika-like logo.

Epicentre is really just the wrong use of the site. A block surrounded by a Ritz-Carlton, BofA office buildings and business-oriented hotels ought to have things that appeal to higher-income office workers. Get rid of the businesses (if any remain) that attract a rough crowd and rebuild the site so that is elegant, it's easily accessible from the Ritz-Carlton and BofA office buildings and hotels, and so that it's not accessible from the bus station. And then re-tenant it. Bring in a small collection of high-end retail stores (things that ought to be in Founders Hall, but aren't) and business-oriented restaurants. As Northlake Mall empties out, the stores that were on its upper level may choose to come to the Epicentre: an Apple store and a few others that I see on its directory: Chico's, Loft and White House Black Market are certainly stores that would appeal to some office workers uptown. (Wow, where did all of the nicer store at Northlake go?)

And when did we work? I can’t fathom going clubbing 4 nights in a row.

After the Nordstroms in Richmond and Norfolk closed, Nordstrom would open in Greenville? This sounds like the former poster who saw a Nordstrom gift card for sale somewhere around town and was adamant that it meant that a Nordstrom was definitely opening at Haywood.

I don't see how the market can support millions of square feet of additional suburban commercial space, unless it's storage or warehouse space. Office and retail? Nope, the market is already significantly overbuilt.

I don't want properties along I-385 developed. The last thing we need is more car-centric suburban sprawl. If we're going to have suburban commercial development, I'd like it to be like BridgeWay; I think that it's a very nice-looking development, and pedestrian-friendly. But most development along highways is not. EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, everyone. I'm not looking to fight, and Skyliner, I'm definitely not looking to disagree with you or your posts. I just carried away once I get on soapbox. I'd just love a spotlessly-clean, walkable and transit-friendly urban core, full of upscale everything. Greenville's definitely getting there, and it's far ahead of a lot of cities.

For zoning, the city and county could simply ban office developments above a certain number of square feet in suburban areas. And set the maximum permitted amount pretty low. Result? Any large office developments have to be downtown. Now we don’t have the idiots in charge who allowed 3 large malls to be built near each other within a 12-year span, but the same mentality of “build anything! Growth at all costs! Woo hoo!” is still around.

Agreed. And the city and county could simply adopt zoning that would prioritize large-scale commercial development downtown, but they don't. That wouldn't cost a cent of tax "incentives". However, the fact that the Hughes have so much development downtown (part of Riverplace, ONE, etc.) indicates to me that they think that both can coexist. Clearly both downtown and suburban offices can coexist; downtown has only about half of Greenville County's office space (if that). Building more suburban developments doesn't help, though.

I don't think that this will hurt downtown. (The Hughes have so much invested in downtown that they wouldn't want to cannibalize their own buildings there.) This will hurt dinky suburban office buildings. It's such a tenant-friendly market that surely tenants who are already in suburbia would jump to upgrade their space by moving to Bridgeway. I don't think that this project will suffer by having a smaller developer behind it (vs. a large national developer like the County Square developer).

I would think that the main "loser" from the Bridgeway Station development would be existing suburban office space. There's already a glut of it, and in this real estate market, anyone who wants to upgrade to Bridgeway Station and get new, nice space could probably do so at a pretty reasonable cost. I'm not sure if a larger office developer would necessarily prevail over a smaller one. The Hughes Co. already landed some prime retail tenants downtown at ONE over Simon's Haywood Mall.