New life in an old space
Similar to its incubator building at the NEXT Innovation Center on Church Street and the soon-to-be-completed NEXT on Main space on the third floor of the Bank of America Building at 101 N. Main St., NEXT Manufacturing at 400 Birnie St. will provide small and startup companies competitively priced space needed to collaborate without signing long-term leases or purchasing large buildings that they’re not quite ready for. Plans also call to make the “look” of the building similar to the others, to create a NEXT brand.
Workers are sprucing up the 36,000-square-foot building on Birnie Street to make way for “about four to 10 companies” with potentially 75 or more employees, said Dennis Braasch, who along with his son, Russ, president of Braasch Building Group, owns and is developing the property, and has also been pursuing all of the relationships with NEXT, the school systems and city leaders.
“We had three goals when planning this. We wanted it to be a viable business, of course, but we also wanted to be a good partner with the school districts and be a positive in the community,” said Dennis Braasch.
The Braasches closed on the property earlier this year and said they chose the property because of the “feel, energy, lifestyle and proximity to the future new city park.”
In the NEXT fashion, the building will feature plenty of open space and glass walls, and a clear-story roof will provide natural light. New windows and new electrical will also be part of the build-out. “It will be light, bright and colorful and encourage transparency,” said Jeff Tiddy, an architect at McMillan Pazdan Smith, which is designing the project. Panels, overhead doors and walls will be moveable and conference rooms will be flexible.
The building also has plenty of wood columns and beams. “We’re bringing the character back to the early 20th century industrial building,” said Tiddy.
Centrally located bathrooms and break areas will encourage people to walk by each other and interact. NEXT Manufacturing tenants will have also have access to shared amenities, such as meeting spaces at all NEXT facilities.
The building sat vacant for about a year and was most recently home to an insulation company and before that, a box manufacturing plant. An old piece of boxing equipment will be cleaned up and displayed in the lobby area to pay homage to the building’s past.
Phase one of the project will be to get ready for one or two companies that want to move into the space by August, said Russ Braasch. Subsequent phases will continue the build-out with additional spaces and conference rooms along with a glass wall in the rear of the building that could look out over the proposed new city park. They also hope to add bike racks, showers, lockers and maybe even a B-cycle station to allow tenants to take advantage of the proximity to the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail, said Dennis Braasch.
The current building sits on three acres – plenty of room to expand in the future if the want or need is there.
The Braasches have also worked with the city of Greenville, which is assisting with streetscaping improvements, both in front of the building, and extending down Birnie Street to what could become one of the main entrances to the new proposed city park.
“The city is going to be looking for ways to improve Birnie Street by planting trees, improving sidewalks and street lighting,” said Ginny Stroud, community development administrator for the City of Greenville. Stroud said she is also working with the Braasches to plan visits with the neighborhood associations and continue to meet with community leaders in the coming months.
“There a lot of benefits and good things that are happening because of the NEXT Manufacturing Center,” said Stroud. “Not only is it bringing new life to a formerly closed building, but it will provide mentoring and educational opportunities as well.”
