Yesterday afternoon, I spent about a few moments looking at a space in downtown Spartanburg with my stepfather, Bob of Bob’s Pretty Good Bookstore, who is vaguely considering moving his shop downtown. The space was right off of Main Street, and while it had a lot of things going for it, the location alone meant that the rent was likely to be much, much higher than is ideal for a small used bookstore.
It got me thinking: Where could someone like Bob open anything in downtown and hope to be successful? The rent would have to be low, the building not in need of massive repairs, and it would still have to be close enough to the heart of downtown to allow walk-in traffic. It would have to be a good location, but no one that is so good that it’s already been made into a commodity. It would have to be a place with hidden potential.
So, on a whim, I took Bob on a quick tour of some of the places I thought might fit that description. To explain my thinking, I’ll have to outline some of my basic assumptions.
1. Success is a self-sustaining business. Before anyone starts talking about how Starbucks closed their shops and how no one will ever get rich in downtown, let me just head this off at the pass. I’m not talking about getting rich. I’m talking about smallish, independent businesses which employ only a few people. These aren’t about getting rich, they are businesses opened by people in the community and intended for the community. Call them “niche” businesses if you prefer.
2. Forget Main Street. It’s already seen as a commodity, and the rather unimaginative commercial real estate community in the city seem to prefer the idea of a bunch of high-priced empty spaces to reasonably affordable ones actually filled with tenants. While there may be individual locations and deals that can be made, those are exceptions.
3. People will go to crummy locations and ramshackle buildings if there’s something they like about it. As long as the ceiling isn’t about to cave in, a space can be made appealing to customers. (In fact, I personally prefer places with “character” over safe ones.) Want proof? The Nu-Way is still open, ain’t it?
4. The downtown of today isn’t the downtown of two years from now. The impact of the two new downtown college campuses (USC-Business and Spartanburg Community College), the RJ Rockers brewery and pub, the developments around the HUB-BUB (not the least of which being the Hub City Co-op), the Farmers’ Market, the revitalization of Hampton Heights and various other projects in downtown will — and already are — changing the “good” locations in downtown. The savvy renter (or, for that matter, landlord) will look for places likely to become the new community centers.
All of this brings me to today’s Big Idea: Where are the buildings, or even city blocks, that will become the magnets for the inevitable boom of the small downtown businesses of tomorrow?
And since it’s unfair to ask someone else to start the brainstorm, I’ll be happy to go first.
To me, the area immediately near the Evans Building is the one to watch. Once Spartanburg Community College takes over the building, there will be something like 1,700 students taking classes there. And since it’s a community college, there will almost certainly be both early morning and night classes. Think about the potential of that.
A cafe nearby (I know, I know, I won’t shut up about cafes) could expect a steady stream of students all day long. Parking wouldn’t be an issue, because most of them would already be parked at the school itself.
Because the Evans Building has served as a County services building for such a long time, most of the area around it hasn’t been seen as particularly desirable. There’s a kind of dingy tint to a lot of the nearby buildings, a sign that most haven’t had a new paint job in at least a decade. And yet there’s nothing particularly wrong with them, either. Sure, a lot are basically squat cinderblock boxes, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be interesting, appealing businesses with a little imagination and/or a new facade.
My belief is that more-or-less every building on Kennedy Street, at least as far as the Nu-Way, will start to be seen as having “potential” the moment SCC takes occupancy of the Evans Building. But that’s just one example, and there are many more just within downtown.
So let’s hear your thought and ideas of where the next desirable area of downtown will be. Also, keep in mind that this is a brainstorm, so there are no bad or stupid ideas. Unlikely ones, sure, but even the most bizarre views can sometimes serve as a springboard for brilliant ones.
Steve Shanafelt
Bob should look at the basement of the City View apartment building. (On the diagonal from Pres. Trust office on Spring/Henry). I’ve always thought something cool should go there like a bookstore!
That is a cool spot! I’ve always wondered about that space.
Something I found interesting on the internet the other day ….
http://www.walkscore.com
Basically, how walkable is your home/business?
(mine scored 85 out of 100)
something to consider.
Cool link, gb. I got a 74, which is “very walkable” on their scale. Once the colleges and the associated businesses come in, I expect it’ll go up by quite a lot.
I got the same “74″ score, but that’s no surprise since I am buying on Spring Street in the next few months… I’d love to see something develop in that couple of blocks between Henry and Broad along Spring – the logical pedestrian connector between Hampton Heights and the square.
Ezell Street has amazing potential… especially now that RJ Rockers is locating there, and its just around the corner from Sonny’s. People have been paying that area a lot of attention lately. See if you could get the Ezell St. building right on the railroad tracks. It used to be a passenger depot!
Anything that connects Hampton Heights and downtown. There are only a few places along Spring Street still left, but even they are underutilized. I’d love to see something cool replace Petty’s Automotive. That’s actually a neat building.
Something needs to move into the old Spartan Hotel. Filling that single spot with a good tenant could be a huge boost to that area. There’s 2 Morrows next door and the farmer’s market just down the street. Magnolia Street closer to Morgan Square is just starting to pick back up, but it could use a boost too. I’d also like to see some businesses do something with the Spring Street side of those Magnolia Street buildings.
There’s a vacant house on Harris Place that housed a lawyer’s office until recently. I think it needs a little work, but it’s one of only two buildings left on what was once a dense urban residential street.
I second the comment that Ezell St. has amazing potential. I was looking at one of the Hub-City books recently at Barnes and Noble (in the great local book section they have) and it referred to the “emerging Little Ezell St. restaurant district.” This was written several years ago, and from talking with someone recently I guess that “district” hasn’t taken off as quickly as once thought.
I’d also add the Barber-Rhyne building to the comments about Magnolia St. above. That would be another location to open a nice local watering hole, dive, or maybe cafe.
I know you said forget Main St., and I agree with your reasons why. But it is still a tragedy. Morgan Square is doing good (notwithstanding the closing of the Sandwich Shop) but Main St. between Church and Dean is a ghost town. It’s a shame that there are vacant storefronts that would be perfect for a small bookstore (not to mention some 1950′s-era businesses that do low-volume business). Count me as one of the many residents of the city who would like to see us take some lessons from Greenville and see our city leaders embark on transforming our Main St. into a destination.
There was a used bookstore until a year or two ago right on Main next door to the jeweler’s. It was a decent, quiet little place. I guess they just couldn’t make a go of it.
I work right downtown and a decent used bookstore would probably see me more often than WW or Thai Taste does!
Now that RJ is generating some buzz west of Spring, think down that next block or two.
(Good Gawd, I wish someone would take down the “Yes, we’re open” off the Thai place’s sign! That place was closed before I moved to town 6-7 years ago!)
Next door to Coca Cola, that church has put their property up for sale. I’d love to see a performance space made out of an old church building. I bet the acoustics are great. It wouldn’t take a ton of work to de-church the facility. It may need upgrading but I bet it would already have commercial kitchen equipment. ….but I’ve veered way off the used bookstore idea!….
Last I heard, they weren’t asking that much for it, at least considering the available square footage. I think it was less than $250,000. It’d make a great business incubator.
I think they’re turning that same Church into an Art Co-op. Here’s the entire message I received just yesterday on my facebook wall from an artist I know:
“All-Art Co-op
Great new art/studio opportunity in Spartanburg!
Good News!!! Spartanburg will soon have an all arts cooperative. A labor of love and sweat equity project. If you need “affordable” studio space for creating and exhibiting your art then attend the meeting scheduled for 5:30pm, Tuesday, 22 …September at 578 West Main in Spartanburg. This is the old West Main Baptist Church located next to the Coca Cola plant. A cooperative set up to support 2D, 3D, photography, print making, graphic arts, architecture, interior design, ceramics, jewelery, writers, musicians, and possibly theater is planned, your imagination is your limit. If you make original art then affordable space in this 20,000 Sq ft building might just be what you need. If you require additional information prior to the meeting contact Howard Solomon at 864-285-0386(leave message and number).
Host:Howard Solomon and Teresa Prater
Time:5:30PM Tuesday, September 22nd
Location:West Main Baptist Church”
It’s a little vague about what space they’ll actually be using for studios, but it’s clear they’ll be having the meeting for it there.
Am I mistaken? (There are so many churches around…)
Here’s the facebook link I forgot to add:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=128192889961&ref=nf
How have I not heard about this already? This is going right to the front page!
I don’t know if it’d be a really good idea, or a really bad idea to open a bookstore across from the library, but the old place where Ground Zero first was, Zapata’s before that, would possibly be ideal.
It’s directly across from the front of the library in between a florist and a gym on either side, with the police station directly behind it. I guess it’s nothing more then a door in a brick wall now, no windows I think, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
Several great spaces come to mind, the first of which is the building in the triangle of land between Union, Kennedy and Dean Streets across from the Evans Building. I believe that place used to be a bookstore forever ago, and it doesn’t look like it needs a ton of work. When the Community College opens, the bookstore would be in a perfect location to capture those students. Especially if he had a carafe of Little River coffee on tap. There is also adequate parking in front of the building.
Another space is the nook behind Carolina Gallery on Wall Street, across from the new Cornbread to Caviar restaurant. I think it used to be a tea room. It is tiny, but because of that, wouldn’t require a costly upfit. It is not ADA compliant, unfortunately. Not sure if that would be an issue.
Another possibility could be the empty storefront next to the new children’s store on Main St – it may be more pricey because it is on Main, but it has been vacant for some time.
The jewelry store on the corner of Dunbar and Church Street is now vacant. The folks who own the Palmetto Building now own it. I am not sure their plans, but that could be a nice space as well.
It would be amazing to have a bookstore back in downtown. We need a locally-owned place to sell Hub City Writer’s books!
This might be a great opportunity to work with SCC to sell their textbooks. Conceivably, there could be students who attend classes there but not at the main campus and it would be better for the college and the students if textbooks were available at a location downtown.
I’ve often wondered how it would affect downtown life if the local colleges had locally-owned, off-campus vendors handle that.
The same goes for the business school too, of course.
How about the vacant storefront in Masonic Temple?
Steve, I didn’t re-write this second post, something’s fishy.
It must be some weird glitch making it double post. I deleted the second one.
If said used book store had a legitimate coffee shop component it would fill a major gaping hole in my downtown existence. If they served Little River Coffee I would be utterly complete as a person.
(Yes, I know I’m about four months late on this, but…)
I think Union Street has a lot of potential. I was already contemplating the effects of a skate shop in conjunction with a comic book store, right across from the new skate park, in terms of getting the teen set to linger downtown. Sure enough, it’s got a skate shop now (surprise surprise) so now I’m just waiting for that comic book store.
I would bet that the rent’s pretty good in that area too. Really I think that just-south-of-main area is on its way to becoming something.
I really miss Books n’ Stuff (The old bookstore on Main Street). But the rumor I heard was that it closed its doors simply due to a good old fashioned retirement.