Greer Mill’s adaptive reuse project moving through rezoning process

August 16, 2019 1112 Views

STATUS: Moving through rezoning

The 286,000-square-foot historic former cotton mill built in 1908 sitting on 8.37 acres at 300 Connecticut Ave. sold last year for $1.4 million.

The owners, the Walker and Black families, who also own the Southern Bleachery property at Taylors Mill, plan to renovate the building into up to 120 apartments consisting of studio and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Amenities will include pool, gym, coffee shop and cafe, and resident lounge.

The proposed development also includes office and retail space and 1.4 acres of common space with pedestrian promenade and outdoor seating.

If the development proceeds as expected, the build-out will be completed in 24 months, Lawrence Black says.

The project is moving through rezoning, architectural drawings are 99% completed with Tara Hile of SHLTR Architects as lead, and construction bids are out, Black says.

“We’re looking at turning dirt the first of the year,” he says.

Unlike the “imaginarium” of Southern Bleachery, as Black calls it, Greer Mill will be a much more traditional adaptive reuse project, like Brandon Mill in the Village of West Greenville or Drayton Mills in Spartanburg.

Paige Pollard with Commonwealth Preservation Group is serving as historical consultant to ensure the project follows the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

Sitting within an Opportunity Zone (OZ) as defined by the Investing in Opportunity Act, the project has garnered interest from OZ investment funds. Black says the project will benefit from a combination of OZ funds, state and federal historical tax credits, state textile credits, and potentially the new market tax credit program.