The Village of West Greenville’s historic Flatiron Studios building (originally called the Triangle Building) at the intersection of Burdette and Pendleton streets is almost fully renovated and entirely leased out, owner Katie Skoloff told the Greenville Journal on Sept. 10. Tenants will begin moving in as early as Dec. 1.
Skoloff bought the iconic, triangle-shaped, two-story, red-bricked mill-era building in 2020 and within a month of announcing her plan to save it, had it completely pre-leased, she said.
“We have the common area being filled by art brokers … who will put art on the walls from Greenville-based artists,” she said. “We want to emphasize our local artists. The rest of the tenants are in creative fields.” Skoloff’s company, In Site Designs, will also office there, she said.
Exterior work now underway:
- Awnings will be installed over all first floor windows and the main gallery entrance
- Streetscaping is underway and will take about three months. Improvements include:
- 13 parking spaces
- Landscaping and irrigation
- Shade trees
- An enhanced bus stop
A public art plaza will sit at the apex of the triangle.
Interior work now underway:
- Finishing touches on the replica pressed tin ceilings
- Completion of the restored hart pine floors (some of which is from pine milled in the 19th century)
- Completion of two interior staircases and an elevator
The building has a history. No one knows exactly when it was built — sometime in the late 1920s — but everyone knows why: Piedmont Plush Mills used it as a sewing shop for plush fabrics.
“Chenille draperies, car upholstery … items like that,” Skoloff said. As renovations have gone on, workers have uncovered tidbits of the building’s history, she said. A thimble, a 93-year-old penny, minted in 1928. But what Skoloff said she’s most proud of? “Getting it onto the national historic register. If it wasn’t for that, the project likely wouldn’t have happened and the building would’ve been condemned.”
The name — Flatiron Studios — is an homage to the artists that once occupied it. “‘Flatiron’ is the generic named used for triangular buildings,” Skoloff said, explaining that a flatiron was a triangular iron used to press clothing and other textiles.
Public funding for environmental cleanup, facade improvements, the Bailey bill (abandoned building) subsidies and state and federal historic preservation grants has helped offset renovation costs which, in turn, is helping keep rent in line with other, nearby spaces, she said.
And through it all, Skoloff said, a self-discovery of her own.
“I think I’ve been most surprised by how much I’ve loved the process. And, it’s been far more work than anticipated — hours everyday. It’s like a child — the work you put in is the reward you get out of it.”
She said working with Southerland Construction has been “a joy,” too. “I’m literally wowed by them.”
