Greenville’s North Broad area will undergo a transformation – what’s changing

The City of Greenville’s Design Review Board has approved dramatic transformation plans for the city’s downtown North Broad District.

Hughes Commercial Properties’ plans for 300 E. McBee Avenue include adding first-floor retail, new lighting and glazing, widened sidewalks and a passenger drop-off area, which will transform the landscape of the historic building just one block from downtown Greenville’s Main Street, it said. In the statement.

The design by the Charlotte office of Gensler, a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco with the world’s largest architecture firm by revenue and number of architects, reimagines the building at the corner of East McBee Avenue and Spring Street and is a central Busy of shops, restaurants and offices anchored by the emerging North Broad District.

“I’m excited and proud to make this project happen,” said Jackson Hughes, founder and CEO of Hughes Commercial, whose father and uncle operated out of an office across the street at 303 E. McBee Ave. “I’ve always loved this building.” and its potential as a hub for the northern Broad.

Currently, shadow is often cast over the building’s north-facing covered entrance. The new design brightens the front facade by replacing stained glass at ground level with clear glass, adding light and color, and making it more pedestrian-friendly with wider sidewalks, new plantings and lush landscaping, the statement said.

“We see 300 E. McBee creating a new center of gravity that connects the residential and retail areas along McBee Street with Greenville’s exceptional Main Street,” said Harrison Hughes, executive vice president of Hughes Commercial. “We think it will be the greatest ‘new old building’ in the city.”

Prisma Health is the anchor tenant of the building, which was constructed in 1983 for the U.S. Federal Reserve. Designed at a time when there was little activity in the city center after 5pm on weekdays, the six-storey, 165,000-square-foot building includes an interior atrium that brings daylight to all offices, large ceiling heights and plenty of parking.

“Concrete construction would be expensive today, but it means the building has incredible bones and feels solid and massive,” said Bryce Cameron, Hughes Commercial president and chief operating officer.

The DRB previously approved changes to the rear of the building to remove the original bank walkways and create a new stairway and entrance with new landscaping that links to the green space under the Church Street Bridge.

Construction on this part of the project is expected to begin early next year, with work on the facade of the building beginning in the second quarter of next year.

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