News Article
Project One receives $18.5M investment
Greenville New Markets Opportunity LLC announced today more than $18.5 million in below-market financing for Project One.
Project One is a mixed-use development at the corner of Main and Washington streets in downtown Greenville. Hughes Development Corp. developed the $100 million project adjacent to Piazza Bergamo.
Project One aims to transform the site of the now demolished Woolworth building to a place for business, retail and community gatherings. Developers and city officials believe it will bring jobs, investment and activity to the area and surrounding streets.
“There will be more people on the streets, shopping, eating and walking,” said city of Greenville Mayor Knox White following the May 2011 announcement. “I think we’ll have as strong of a retail component as any downtown in America.”
CertusBank plans to establish its corporate headquarters in the development and employ 350 people at this location. Anthropologie will open a women’s retail store in it. Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd P.A. law firm will move 100 people into the development. More tenants are expected in the future.
Greenville New Markets Opportunity’s new markets tax credit financing, combined with additional new markets tax credit and debt financing by TD Bank, was critical in pulling the financing package together, said Hughes Development Corp. President Bob Hughes.
Previous coverage
■Project One breaks ground Friday
■CertusBank, Anthropologie coming downtown
“Without the new market tax credits provided by GNMO, the One project could not have happened,” Hughes said. “New market tax credits allowed us to afford a site that owners had been assembling for years — many of them the high-priced years. They also allowed us to partner with the city, requiring less city investment for a project intended to revitalize this entire end of town.”
An Implan analysis predicts Project One will provide 544 direct, indirect and induced temporary jobs during the construction period, and 672 permanent jobs created and retained during operation. Also, more than $6.9 million in federal, state and local tax revenues will be generated annually.
Project One will happen in two phases. Phase one will include 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of retail and 135,000 square feet of office space. Construction began in July.
Phase two will involve up to 11 stories and an additional 200,000-square-feet space for more offices or potentially a hotel, Hughes said. The development has potential space for other retailers in the future.
It is set to partially open in the fourth quarter of 2012, with retail opening in early 2013. It will be the first LEED silver building in downtown Greenville.
New Markets Opportunity LLC is a community development entity under provisions of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, whose mission it is to serve and provide investment capital for real estate development projects in low-income communities in Greenville.
Hughes Development Corp. is a locally-owned real estate development company headquartered in Greenville that develops commercial projects in the Upstate. Call Helen Sanders at 864-233-2580, ext. 15 for more information.
