Best $13 Million Invested in a Downtown

Posted by on April 21, 2008 |

Greenville's Falls Park on the Reedy is a gem of a downtown park. I've seen nothing to compare.

Mayor Knox White explained to me tonight at dinner that it wasn't easy getting the people excited about featuring a falls most had never seen. (The fact that the park was paid for by a $.02 convention tax helped.) But the City proceeded with its plans, convincing the State to donate a road bridge, that the city then tore down for a $1 million and invested another $12 million in a sweeping new pedestrian bridge and the park.

Falls Park is just one aspect of the city's charming downtown, but it is a breathtaking addition.

I wrote earlier about the new ad campaign for Upstate SC (Greenville and Spartanburg). It's theme is "I Was Blown Away." And, indeed, I was blown away.

This is a very cool city.

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Greenville, South Carolina

Posted by on April 21, 2008 |

Greenville, SC, may be America's next break-out city. It is just gorgeous. It has a vibrant and growing downtown with a truly fabulous urban park at its center. It has a surprising number of local retailers and restaurateurs, the buildings are "right sized" for Greenville, signage is handled really well, there is lots of new housing and several new hotels. Housing prices are apparently holding up well. The biggest problem in that sector is people who can't sell their homes in other markets to move here.

Per capita income lags peer cities, but that may be a hold over from the fall out over loss of the textile mills. More later

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