Over the past few years, Downtown Spartanburg has gone through a number of renovations and openings. Many new projects have set sail and according to upstatebusinessjournal.com, these renovations and updates have totaled over $700 million. Most of the projects are very close in distance and centered around Morgan Square. These projects are aimed to bring a positive impact to Spartanburg’s economy and citizens.
Some of these projects include 375 new apartments; 200,000 square feet of office space; 1,500 new parking spaces; and a 150-room hotel. However, the most ambitious of these projects is a 3,500-seat baseball stadium for the Texas Ranger’s minor league team, the Down East Wood Ducks.
Bella Gibbs (11) is very aware of new projects coming to Downtown Spartanburg, with her family owning Little River Roasting Co.
“As downtown grows, business is better. Little River is very excited about the new baseball complex being built across the street,” Gibbs said.
One downfall to these new projects is the increased traffic that has been brought into Downtown. This congestion makes it important to build safer routes for pedestrians, bikers and drivers. Renovations are in progress for the West Main Street entrance to get protected bike lanes, a pedestrian trail and smaller travel lanes with more on-street parking. Spartanburg is also trying to be environmentally friendly by planning for Morgan Square’s new design to have 70% more green space.
Darren Meyer, the principal designer for MKSK, told goupstate.com of his plans for Morgan Square’s redesign and how he wants to make Downtown Spartanburg more visitor-friendly.
“It’s really sort of built on the notion of Spartanburg as a hub city and specifically, Morgan Square as being a place where for decades…people came together for commerce, for civic life, for public life,” Meyer said. “We wanted to make the square more inviting, more accessible, more welcoming, easy to get to, easy to move through and easy to understand.”
This modernization of Downtown has also brought recent openings. One major launch has been the new courthouse. The huge investment was opened to the public on Jan. 22 on Magnolia Street. The funding for the project came from the local option sales tax approved by county voters in 2017. These taxes have been the start of the wave of renovations.
However, with the redesigning of Downtown, some local businesses have closed their doors. The Tulip Tree and Bar 1884 have both announced in the last month that they are shutting down. Both restaurants have shown their gratitude to the citizens of Spartanburg for bringing their businesses to light over the years. The spaces will now be available to the public to rent or lease.
Raj Patel, the owner of Main Street Pub & Eatery, told wyff4.com about his excitement for the revamping of Downtown Spartanburg.
“We believe in the growth. We believe in what’s happening. We’re just happy it’s happening in Spartanburg,” Patel said.
