Spartanburg Journal Discussion

[Spartan]

Ohhhh thats right. Thanks for reminding me.

The Z-mart sounds like a great thing for the people who live downtown. I'll have to check them out.

[GSP Tiger]

look for a new shopping mart at the corner of Floyd and Cannons Campground roads.

Food Lion at Pinewood

How much longer will it be until Food Lion opens its first Bloom in Spartanburg? Knowing where they are locating stores in Greenville, I would not be surprised for Cannon's Campground Road to have one.

[Spartan]

^Good question.

[Spartan]

TBA's this week

• Watch for retail shops coming to Ezell St between Daniel Morgan and Spring

• Sonny's is expanding into the building adjacent to it (facing QS/1)!!!

• an Oyster Bar is coming to the Java Jive site

• the mexican restaurant on Main st will be authentic (not texmex)!!!

• Indexx Printing is expected to make an anouncement about a new location. It promes to be interesting...

So th new info here is that shops are coming to Ezell St, which is awesome. Thats a cool street. Also, Sonny's is expanding. Nothing monumental, but a couple of good tidbits

There is also an article about Duke's Sandwich Shop's 5 store expansion. They say that all of their locations are new construction, and that the look will fit the area. They don't mention anything specific about their downtown location. The owner is from Arcadia, and he is opening a shop there as well.

There is another article about the Cultural Center.

[lynturner99]

Where did you get the Indexx Printing info?

[Spartan]

^The Spartanburg Journal. This thread is dedicated to posting info from that publication. the TBA's are very imformative

[lynturner99]

Thanks Spartan!

[hub-city]

From this week's journal.

A large article about Spartanburg moving into Forbes magazine's top 200 best places to live. The magazine ranks Spartanburg rather low at 184, but it does put the city into a more national spotlight. The editors looked at six criteria - business cost, living cost, crimes per 100,000 people, % of population with college degrees, 5 yr. annualized growth of income and 5 yr. annualized growth of jobs. Spartanburg was now eligible because it now has it's own metro area. The figure they used was 266,000 which includes the citiy's 40,000. 3 other SC cities made the list:

Charleston - 56

Columbia - 91

Greenville - 141

TBA's:

Kohler's 5 million dollar expansion

watch for an announcement about a surprise at The Music Camp near Cannons campground in June.

[hub-city]

Some TBA's from today's journal:

The Palmetto Building (old Belk's) is converting it's apartments above Sandella's etc... into condos. Renters have been notified.

Two donors have contributed 10 million to build an upper school at Spartanburg Day.

The 5.5 million condo project at Converse could resurface with lower priced units. The units would be in the $200,000 - $250,000 range instead of $300,000 - $400,000.

[goodbye]

It is good to hear that the apartments above Sandella's will be converted into condominiums. I was surprised that they weren't already condos when I first inquired about them. They are rather sizeable and have been running around $1000 per month. This is a positive step to getting more permanent residents into downtown.

[krazeeboi]

Great news. I think the condo market in DT Spartanburg is relatively untapped. While not yet having the critical mass to support such projects as those in Greenville and Columbia, a market is definitely there.

For reference, these are the units (Spartan's photo):

[Spartan]

This week's Jounal had a lengthy article about the new Hub City Connector trail that if now officially open. Apparantly its proving to be more popular than they thought it would be.

TBA's are dead this week...

[hub-city]

Not a lot of TBA's this week.

One article about First Baptist opposing the opening of a new lounge/bar (Oscar's) in the former Mimi's on main street . I think the law is basically no less than 300 ft. from the church to the front door. Since the door is on Main street, it has been ruled OK, but FBS wants to challange on grounds that the Hanger student center is right at the back door.

[goodbye]

Not a lot of TBA's this week.

One article about First Baptist opposing the opening of a new lounge/bar (Oscar's) in the former Mimi's on main street . I think the law is basically no less than 300 ft. from the church to the front door. Since the door is on Main street, it has been ruled OK, but FBS wants to challange on grounds that the Hanger student center is right at the back door.

That's the one thing I hear by local residents more than anything else about downtown Spartanburg and its recent growth. People are saying that the churches "own" the place and don't want it to become more diverse by allowing such places to come into the core of the city. It is rather ridiculous if you ask me. Hopefully the City will look beyond this one sector of the community and meet the needs and desires of the broader community.

[tdreamweaver]

this is the 2nd time this church has tried to keep tax PAYING businesses away.

I'd like to see the City start charging these churches taxes...at least make them pay for City services. Some of them have other sources of income--daycares, for example...i assume they pay no tax on those either? Yet they're trying to tell the City who should/should not move in next door? You gotta be kidding me?

Hopefully the City will move to change the ordinance.

Regardless, I would think the least these mega-churches could do would be to pay the City something...I can only think of one of the larger churches--the one across from Wofford with the year 'round soup kitchen--that supports a service to the community worthy of making them tax-exempt.

If there are other year 'round, daily programs that impact our community (i don't mean a once a year canned food drive or concert or health fair...I mean substantial impact) I'm just not aware of them or maybe I don't realize who is backing what.

:-) t

[emo]

i disagree with you. the hangar has had a great impact on downtown. the boys and girls club meets in there all of the time. it's definately a COMMUNITY center as well as being the churche's youth center. go by and visist sometime this summer. you'll see what i'm talking about.

[hub-city]

I also have to disagree with you tdreamweaver. Emo mentioned the hangar, but FBS also operates a helping center with clothes, items, and financial aid to those in need.

I also understand their position in regards to the blue law ordinances, but if the business is within the law set forth, then it should be dropped there.

[tdreamweaver]

I'm sure the Hangar is great for the community as well as strong tool for the church...does it and the other services offered equal the taxes the City doesn't receive on FBC property taxes? I have no idea.

Dealing with churches and tax status is a touchy issues...but hey, I get hit up for money all the time living downtown. We've bought kerosene and food and gave away blankets. I do not get a tax break. ;-)

Our City is pretty desperate for cash. I think the least some of these churches could do would be to pay their share for the city services they utilize. And, as I said, quit trying to run out businesses that will bring people and dollars into our community.

:-) t

[Spartan]

I have mixed opinions on whether churches should pay taxes. Generally speaking, they provide many other services as was mentioned before, which the city doesn't have to pay for. But First Baptist and First Pres. have large plots of land and are ever expanding, taking up land that coudl be used for other purposes. Right now though, they are fine. Taxing them may run them out of town.

All of that said, I don't want to see First Baptist run off a new business of any sort. That section of downtown needs a boost somehow.

[tdreamweaver]

I'm definitely not picking on churches or non-profits by any means. BUT, considering the City is taken up by so many non-profits, I feel some sort of compromise needs to be reached.

There was an article in yesterday's paper http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...337/1051/NEWS01 about the City's struggle to come up with $$$.

One of the suggestions: Scott's proposal included charging a $5 per month ($60 per year) solid waste fee. Levied on an estimated 13,000 single-family households, the fee would raise an additional $780,000 per year for the city.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....just hmmmmmmmmm....at this point. I need to learn more.

:-) t

[Spartan]

Part of the problem is that about 1/4 of all land within the city limits is non-taxable land... churches, hostiptals, government property, higher learning institutions. The City has been trying to expand its boundaries to make up for that disparity, but that takes time, and lots of effort by planners.

[djh1963]

It would be a great boost to the city coffers if the could annex the land along 29 out to 85 with the new growth and development going on out that way.

[Spartan]

^ and along Reidville road towards Roebuck.

There was an article in the paper a comple of years ago that highlighted the targeted areas of annexation. I have seen little evidence of what is going on in this regard, except the Hillbrook annexation issue.

[hub-city]

Didn't get much time to look over the journal this past week. It looked like most of the articles and tba's were like Greenville's.

One thing I did notice was there is plans to renovate the building behind Hub-City's building to the same look etc... Don't really know what building they are talking about, but still sounds great.

[Spartan]

There is an old brick building behind the Hub-City building/Gilbert Shoe Co. building that looks like its part of the the same structure... but its not. I am glad to know they are going to do something with that. Did they say if it will be part of the Hub City project or will it be something separate?