Speaking of co-opting, I just came back from a meeting about starting a new, mostly local and organic food co-op downtown. Should be up and running by spring.
They’re well on their way. Tonight’s meeting was a call for a board of directors—they asked me flat out to be on it—and to give the community the basic idea, since retail co-ops are kind of a new thing around here. But they’re negotiating for the space under the Hub-Bub (sweet spot, too) and have a clear groundswell of support. The meeting was packed, so even if they don’t pull it off (and I suspect they will, given how organized they are), SOMEONE will end up doing something like it, because there’s clearly demand.
I know you’re all on the edge of your seat, so I’ll get right to it. Downtown Spartanburg is getting a second college campus—Spartanburg Community College—which will mean that there will be FOUR colleges within a mile of downtown. Converse and Wofford are already basically downtown, USC-Upstate’s business college is currently being built, and the SCC will take over the old Evans High School campus (a gorgeous building, currently used for the Department of Health and several other county services).
Researching how to have Asheville’s hipness with a fraction of its tourism money, and Greenville’s industry with a fraction of its skilled worker population. But at least we’ve got spunk. (Tasteless joke in 3 ... 2 ...)
BusinessWeek, working with Zillow.com, formulated the strongest housing markets by ranking metro areas based on the share of single-family homes “in which values rose in the second quarter compared with the second quarter of 2008,” according to the magazine’s Web site. According to the magazine, 56.81 percent of homes in Spartanburg increased in value, and homes had a median value of $106,900.
The magazine attributed some of Spartanburg’s success to its colleges, which BusinessWeek said “somewhat buffered” the city from the downturn by providing “solid jobs and a steady flow of apartment and home renters.”???????????
You have to keep in mind that downtown Spartanburg is actually starting to show signs of a micro-boom, economically speaking. They unemployment is still very high in the county—it’s well over 12 percent, last time I checked—but that’s mostly for menial labor. The tech sector is hopping, the RJ Rockers Brewery just relocated downtown (it’s a little smaller than Highland, I think), the building sector is doing OK ($45 million is going into the new USC-Upstate campus and parking garage alone) and there’s a thriving market for refurbished houses near downtown, which are still well below market rate. There’s also a significant amount of crafters and artists moving here because it’s so cheap to get a house. Also, there are tons of companies looking at Spartanburg as a place to relocate to specifically because it’s so close to Columbia, Charlotte, Greenville and Asheville.
As to the colleges, by 2011 Spartanburg will effectively have four downtown colleges (Wofford, Converse, USC-Upstate Business, Spartanburg Community College Downtown) and four within city limits (Sherman Chiropractic College, Spartanburg Methodist College, USC-Upstate, Spartanburg Community College’s main campus). Also, while some of the details and timeline are murky, Virgina Tech is bankrolling a medical school in Beaumont Mills (about as close to downtown as Biltmore Village is to downtown Asheville), which should open in a few years. So, that’s like nine campuses in a town with a population of like 40,000 (and 150,000 in the greater metro area). All of those students have to live somewhere.
The upshot: I’m not looking quite so crazy for moving here any more.
Also, while some of the details and timeline are murky, Virgina Tech is bankrolling a medical school in Beaumont Mills (about as close to downtown as Biltmore Village is to downtown Asheville), which should open in a few years. So, that’s like nine campuses in a town with a population of like 40,000 (and 150,000 in the greater metro area). All of those students have to live somewhere.
The upshot: I’m not looking quite so crazy for moving here any more.
Are you Spartanburg propaganda specialist hired by the Chamber of commerce?
