When national chains started leaving Haywood Road for Woodruff Road a few years ago and shoppers followed, some called it the death knell for Haywood as one of Greenville’s leading commercial corridors.
Wrong.
“Just a few years ago, a lot of people worried about the future of Haywood Road. That day is over,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White. “Haywood offers a retail alternative to Woodruff Road, and that is a good thing for managing our growth.”
Buoyed by the opening of Haywood Mall in 1980, Haywood Road emerged as one of the region’s primary retail corridors. National chains located in the mall and nearby shopping centers. Two movie theaters located there, too, offering the latest blockbusters and dollar movies.
The area languished in the early 2000s, however, with no significant new commercial developments and the closing of stores in the shopping centers that were already there. During that time, the city invested heavily in downtown and Woodruff Road, which was becoming one of the retail hot spots in the Upstate.
“Haywood Road had been neglected,” said Greenville architect Joe Pazdan, whose family owns land along Haywood Road. A group of business and property owners raised $40,000 — half the money needed — for the city’s master plan.
The 2009 plan called for beautification projects, buried power lines and more walkable streets.
Gross sales in the city’s Haywood Road corridor slumped to $501,084,490 in 2010 after the some big-box retailers relocated to Woodruff Road or closed their doors altogether during the recession. Some said it was only the beginning of the end.
“We weren’t going to let that master plan, like so many master plans, sit on a shelf and collect dust. We knew that there was still life around the Haywood Road corridor and interest from retailers,” Pazdan said.
As the economy improved and the city and stakeholders along Haywood invested in the corridor, the picture started to change. New, highly sought-after national retailers such as Apple and restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory opened in the mall.
“Just a few years ago, a lot of people worried about the future of Haywood Road. That day is over. Haywood offers a retail alternative to Woodruff Road and that is a good thing for managing our growth.”
Greenville Mayor Knox White
Tracy Ramseur, development coordinator with the city of Greenville’s economic development department, said mall management has told city officials that Cheesecake Factory restaurant sales are far exceeding expectations. Sarah Brocker, the mall’s director of marketing, would not comment on the mall’s vacancy rate or performance of tenants, but she did say that the mall is “doing very well occupancy-wise and its tenants are extremely pleased.”
New junior anchor stores opened in renovated existing shopping centers. In 2015, total gross sales rose to $720,071,626, behind only downtown and Woodruff Road, both of which contain more acreage.
“Haywood continues to be one of our primary retail corridors,” said Ramseur. “Prior to doing the Haywood Road master plan [in 2009], we didn’t have any major significant investment on Haywood. That’s changed.”
Beautification work by the city has changed the way Haywood Road looks. Utility lines have been buried from Interstate 385 to Kanpai of Tokyo through the city’s undergrounding program. With the utility lines gone, the city made improvements to the Haywood-Woods Crossing intersection, adding sidewalks, decorative pavers and mast arms for traffic signals and street signs. New decorative streetlights have also been installed.
Pazdan said making Haywood Road more walkable is important to connect the residential development in the area to shopping and to connect shopping areas to one another.
“The redeveloped areas have sidewalks. Right now, they’re sidewalks to nowhere. But we hope they’ll eventually connect and make that area walkable,” he said.
In addition to the city’s investment, the private sector invested in Haywood’s rebirth as well. Across the street from the mall, the space where Toys R Us and Circuit City had been were redeveloped and junior anchors Designer Shoe Warehouse, TJ Maxx, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Burke’s Outlet took their places. Grill Marks just announced in October that they were expanding to Haywood Mall, opening in summer 2017. The Galley Shopping Center invested in façade improvements.
But retail is not the only new development on Haywood. Haywood Reserve Apartments, a 292-unit development by Daniel Corporation, is now leasing units. Haywood Ridge Park, an office-flex space development by Central Realty Holdings, is also planned.
What likely won’t come to Haywood Road is a grocery store, something city officials had pushed for, Ramseur said. “That area didn’t make sense for them. They didn’t think there was enough single-family housing in that area. They said people will go grocery shopping on their way home from work, and people who work on Patewood aren’t going to drive to Haywood Road to get home.”
White said he’d still like to see sidewalks and more sign conformity to further the corridor’s walkability and aesthetics.
Pazdan said he expects Haywood to continue to be a viable commercial area as more people decide to forego the traffic gridlock on Woodruff Road for Haywood Road’s easier access from Interstate 385 and Laurens Road.
“On Haywood Road, even in the height of the holiday shopping season, you can get around. Woodruff Road is a nightmare,” he said. “We think Haywood will capitalize on that and renewed investment from the city and the private sector.”
Some of the Haywood Road master plan recommendations have yet to be implemented. Consultants recommended turning Haywood and Mall Connector roads into tree-lined boulevards with sidewalks and building an amphitheater for family entertainment on 25 areas near Fluor Corp.’s campus. Other ideas included creating a public art program for the area and increasing tourism efforts to include outdoor festivals and concert series.
But there are areas on Haywood Road the city can’t do much about — at least right now. Part of Haywood Road — from Laurens to the Chili’s restaurant — are not in the city limits. That stretch includes the lots that are used to sell Christmas trees.
But White said the city hopes to see that section annexed in the future so it can be upgraded, too.
