Sparkle City Headlines: Former Bi-Lo To Become New Piedmont Community Actions Project

If there’s one thing Spartanburg has more than enough of, it’s large, empty storefronts. Few things make a city look as desperate and run-down as a wealth of hollowed-out shells where businesses once lived. So, it’s hard to see the recent announcement that local non-profit Piedmont Community Actions Inc. has acquired the former Bi-Lo on John B. White Sr. Blvd as anything but good news. And, as the Spartanburg Herald-Journal‘s Trevor Anderson reports, the new facility could be quite a community resource.

An eyesore building near downtown Spartanburg will get a face-lift with funds from a federal stimulus grant.

Piedmont Community Actions Inc., a private, nonprofit agency that provides assistance to low-income families in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, has purchased the 30,000-square-foot former Bi-Lo grocery store at 601 John B. White Sr. Blvd.

William Ross, executive director of PCA, said his agency will use the $1.7 million grant to expand its Head Start program, revitalize the 4.4-acre site and hire up to 35 new employees.

“We’re very excited about it,” he said. “It will give us some room to do some things. Everyone asks where the stimulus money is going, and here’s an example of it being used to take a building with the potential of becoming an eyesore, revitalizing it and putting it to use for citizens on this side of town. It’s a godsend.”

Ross said PCA has big plans for the site. The center will be used for programs tailored to benefit low-income families and for children enrolled at the center.

It will include a resource center that features additional child care services for infants and toddlers, job training and educational services for parents, and a large kitchen, where PCA employees will teach parents to prepare cost-efficient nutritional meals, Ross said.

He said PCA’s board has widened its campaign to get additional funding for the project to add other components, such as early childhood health services and financial counseling for parents.

Although I know very little about PCA, this seems to be a good fit. The new location will provide the group with a boost of 5,000 square feet of new space over their current facility on South Daniel Morgan Avenue, and that space has already been purchased by manufacturing company Taos LLC from Anderson. It’s hard to find any room to grumble about any development in the area immediately south of the Beacon, and this facility will actually put a number of valuable services within walking distance of one of Spartanburg’s poorest areas. It’s not clear when the new facility will be open, although “phase one” (not defined in Anderson’s article) of the redevelopment is scheduled to be completed in eight months to a year.

Anderson’s reporting hit most of the big questions, and while the story itself is rather brief, it’s a solid piece of reporting with very little filler. This is one of the rare cases where I’d be interested in reading the reactions of other local business owners and members of the nearby community, but that’s hardly a complaint.