West Greenville’s 800,000-square-foot historical redevelopment project is set to receive $16.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits for the completion of its $19 million commercial phase, in conjunction with historic and S.C. mill tax credits.
The site’s 1950-era 107,269-square-foot warehouse will house Feed and Seed, a local food security nonprofit, and the YMCA of Greenville, which will extend over 13,000 square feet of the building. Other tenants will include a 12,000-square-foot music venue and 30,000-square-foot Rockoon Climbing Gym and equipment store according to developer Tom Taft, Sr. of Taft Family Ventures, based in Greenville, N.C. Taft is partnering with Belmont Sayre Holdings in Chapel Hill, N.C., on the project.
Taft said the yet-to-be announced music venue will draw both regional and national groups to the area.
“It’s really a nice mix of community service and recreational activities, quite frankly,” Taft said. “We’re really excited about it. It’s going to be a major step forward for the entire project.”
The second phase follows the ongoing redevelopment of the roughly 100-year-old former Milliken mill into 204 loft-style market-rate and workforce multi-family apartments expected to reach completion in February or March 2021, Taft said, adding that the project was about 65% complete. Future plans will open up space for additional office, residential and retail tenants including potentially 30,000-square-feet of available space in the warehouse site. Three additional buildings on site – part of the project’s third phase – are the target sites for additional tenants.
Eventually, Taft also hopes to transform the project’s mill smokestack power house – a community landmark – into an “Class A” upscale restaurant within the next year.
Read more at GSA Business Report