Activating a street through ground floor retail isn’t a new concept. Go to Paris or Barcelona and you’ll see it’s been done for hundreds of years. What’s changed is that now, in Greenville and places like it, building and planning code is catching up to it. It’s becoming a rule.
Brian Schick, development partner at Woodfield Development, said that wasn’t the case when he was developing The Greene apartments in Greenville in 2019.
“[Back] then, there was no clear guidance that said ‘thou shalt have retail.’ It really came about with some back-and-forth negotiations in the design and review board. Since then, the city has created the 2040 Vision Plan and they’re working on updating their municipal code to codify more clear guidance for what they want to see developed,” Schick said.
Rule or not, it’s just good practice. When developing The Greene, Schick connected with folks at The Whale: A Craft Beer Collective, who were a sure fit for the building’s floor level.
“[Ground floor tenants] have to peacefully coexist [with residents]. We have to make sure they don’t make too much noise late at night, that they don’t put off any offensive odors, we have to make sure none of our residents will find what we put in there unpleasant. The Whale is a great example,” Schick said. “When we owned The Greene, we never had a complaint about them being too noisy. They’ve been wonderful. They offer specials to residents. It was a great partnership.”
“Developers of residences are looking for ground floor tenants that better their residents’ lives,” said Rakan Draz, senior associate at CRE firm Avison Young. But it’s not just that.
“It’s a product of land prices. The more you’ve got to pay for a piece of dirt, the more you have to monetize that. You want to get as good of a return as you can,” he said.
Woodfield is now developing 408 Jackson, a 227-unit apartment building with 4,500 square feet of ground floor space. They’ve signed a lease with a restaurant for most of that space — though Schick wasn’t at liberty to say who — and the remaining 900 square feet will likely go for a high-end salon.
The Parker Group develops mostly urban infill townhomes, and though there’s space between his residential properties and commercial properties, it’s not much: while developing The Hub in Greenville, founder Drew Parker and his team were able to develop a Starbucks, too, just steps from the homes themselves.
Parker is developing Maverick Station and Maverick Yards in Mauldin, two projects on 23 acres that will eventually become Mauldin’s downtown — something the area’s never truly had. Alongside the 55 townhomes he’s building this year will be a biergarten, eateries, and an “eatertainment” center; and two nearly-open restaurants: Sully’s Steamers, an Upstate favorite for steamy bagels; and Bohemian Bull, a Charleston-based concept serving up beer and burgers.
“People don’t want to live downtown and have to go drive somewhere. They want to live downtown and be able to walk to different amenities. Being able to provide a walkable amenity is critical to what we do,” Parker said.
