When the portion of the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail outside Southernside Brewing was cordoned off last July for the construction of a bridge spanning the river, the local brewing company and restaurant saw an immediate hit in sales.
“Right away, our business was down 40%,” said owner Nate Tomforde.
Sales never did pick back up, which was especially troubling for Southernside’s business model. Compared to the other businesses along that portion of the Trail — including Soul Yoga, ComRADery CoWork and Swamp Rabbit CrossFit — Southernside’s success is vitally dependent upon foot traffic.
“For most people, you don’t just decide on a whim as you walk by that you’re going to go in and do some CrossFit,” Tomforde said. “But for us, we rely on those people going by, deciding to come in for a beer or something to eat.”
The problem was not scheduled to remedy itself until April 2022, when the planned Spinks Bridge was set to open, connecting that side of the trail to The Commons on the other side of the river.
But when the bridge project wrapped-up earlier this fall, Tomforde reached out to the city to see if the trail could reopen early.
“I think it was just a matter of them not realizing how much it was impacting us,” he said.
The city listened.
“They came to us a few weeks ago,” said Beth Brotherton, director of communications and neighborhood relations with the City of Greenville, speaking during the formal opening of the bridge. “Really to me, this is an example of the city recognizing that when our businesses say, ‘Help,’ we listen when we can.”
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The Spinks Bridge officially opened to crossing traffic on Friday, Oct. 22, and since then, Tomforde said the increase in traffic and sales has immediately bounced back to where it was before the portion of the trail closed.
“We’re up 40%,” he said. “Exactly what I thought we were down, we were back up. We had our best weekend since May.”
Now Southernside is looking forward to more foot traffic as it hosts live music nights on the weekends and tailgate crowds to watch sports on its 86-inch outdoor television under the covered patio, while traffic passes smoothly back-and-forth from The Commons.
For the city, it’s the first step in bringing to fruition the connectivity that has been the promise of the park from the beginning.
“When we talk about the concept of Unity Park, I think people get kind of turned around,” Brotherton said. “But as the construction gets closer and closer to being done, I think people will have a much better idea of how everything connects around here and all the businesses are together.”
