Carbon Fiber Manufacturer Coming, Greenville Hospital System Hiring, Hiollingsworth Park Growing, SC SAT Scores

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 Carbon Fiber Manufacturer Carbures Coming

An established carbon fiber manufacturer with European ties will open a new plant in Greenville to accommodate the specialty fiber market for Lockheed, Boeing, BMW, Proterra and others. Carbures, LLC will be located on Perimeter Road near the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center ( SCTAC, formerly known as Donaldson Center), which houses Lockheed. The Spanish company has a long history of serving major customers such as Airbus and saw great opportunity in expanding into the American market. The Upstate provided just the right mix of top tier work force, business climate, and access to businesses using carbon fiber structures in the defense, aerospace and automotive industries. They expect to add 50 jobs over the next five years.

Greenville Hospital System Hiring

The largest employer in Greenville County, the Greenville Hospital System, is hiring 120 full time positions. Most of those will be physicians or support staff for general surgery, ear-nose-and-throat, urology, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, and pain management positions. The University of South Carolina and GHS are still working on an agreement to expand the USC medical school onto the Greenville campus, which will potentially bring more physicians to the area. GHS also announced that an additional MD360 office for urgent and primary care will be located in Greer. Two other newer facilities are located at Scuffletown Rd. in Five Forks and Verdae Blvd in Greenville. For more information on Greenville SC click here.

Hollingsworth Park Adds Commercial Space

The construction of Legacy Square, the commercial district within Hollingsworth Park, has begun with three buildings in the works. Hollingsworth Park is an upscale residential neighborhood off Verdae Boulevard that took off with a roar a few years ago, but stalled with the economic slowdown. The development has big plans though, and the commercial buildings are the next step toward placing merchants and vendors near the residents. The current construction project is for phase one and will be located at one corner of Rocky Slope Rd and Legacy Park Rd, which is central to the community. Phase one will consist of about 30,000 square feet of commercial space, with the first three buildings being built by Holliday Dental, N & H Enterprises, and Verdae Development. At least two of the buildings will have restaurant space on the first floor. The Verdae building will also feature a rooftop space overlooking Legacy Park that will be available for events.  For more information on Greenville area communities Click Here.

SAT Scores Statewide

School reports for SAT scores came in with favorable results for the Upstate. Riverside High School, a perennial favorite, was the number four high school in the state, topped only by the two governors schools and an academic magnate school. Greenville County came 15th out of the 86 South Carolina school districts. Our county neighbors just to the west fared well too…Pickens was the 3rd ranked district and Anderson 1 was 5th.

Greenville Weather
Nice clear weather is forecast for this week with sunny days and nice fall weather. Highs should be in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Check your blankets though…look for a cold front to come in over the weekend with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s.

Greenville SC #1 Micro City, SC Employment Improving, New Park for City of Greenville

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 #1 Micro City

Greenville continues to make the news in a variety of ways. FDI Magazine recently published a list of top cities in the Americas based on economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, business friendliness, and in promotion strategy of the city. These cities are the big boys: New York, Chicago, Montreal, Santiago; but in the micro city category, with a population of less than 100,000, Greenville is number one. Other top five finishers were Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Greenville, NC; and Bismark-Mandan, ND. Click Here for the full article.

Greenville is also in the top ten cities that have resisted declining values from the housing bubble, according to CNBC.com and a Zillow based study. The based their findings on how these cities compare to U.S. averages since the peak values of June 2006. Nationally, the average price drop is 29.5%; the number of homes that have negative equity (value less than the mortgage, or “underwater”) is 28.4%; and the number of foreclosure re-sales are 22.9%. At number 10 on the list, Greenville is -2.1% below the national value decline, 6.7% below the underwater mortgages, and 1% below foreclosure re-sales. Counting down the list are Knoxville, TN; Durham, NC; Rochester, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Yakima, WA; Little Rock, AR; Tulsa, OK; Oklahoma City, OK; Fayettville, NC. See the See the CNBC Site for the whole comparison. for the whole comparison.

Employment Looks Rosier

Job creation in the Upstate has played a pivotal role in keeping Greenville among these elite cities. This seems especially poignant when the recent ISM manufacturing report for July indicates that national manufacturing growth declined in that month and is a 2-year low since the recession ended in 2009.

GE is hiring 120 new workers to keep up with their global demand for gas turbine engines. A new Kohl’s at the new Easley store is hiring 130 and kicks off a new mall to the west of Greenville. BMW is hiring 100 new professionals and will add an undisclosed number of production employees in response to a new production goal of 270,000 vehicles this year. Last year BMW finished a plant expansion with a goal of 240,000 vehicles, but that number has since increased with global demand. They are also building a $5M family health center to provide medical services to their associates. Prettl Electronics is launching a new operation to produce inverters for the solar panel industry and expects to hire 80 at their current location in Greenville. For more information on Greenville SC click here.

New Park for Greenville City

Greenville just got a new public park, compliments of the Verdae Development Inc. Legacy Park is 20-acre in size and is located in the center of the Hollingsworth Park Development, off Laurens and Verdae Roads. It was built in 2008 as part of the development of a sizable tract formerly owned by the textile magnate John. D. Hollingsworth. The park was designed by Tom Keith of Arbor engineering as smaller version of New York’s Central Park and includes extensive walking trails, sidewalks, bikeways, greenways, two fenced in playgrounds and a pavilion with granite counters and outdoor grills.

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Greenville Weather
It’s been hot the past week with highs in the 90s, but with humidity at a moderate 50%. We can expect more of that this week but with higher chance of thunderstorms, especially over the weekend.

Electric Car Charging Stations in Greenville, Walmart FLW Tours, Blue Way Along Saluda River, Woodruff Rd Zoning

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 Charging Stations for Electric Cars

Photo By Can Atacan

For drivers of the new wave of electric vehicles, Greenville City has led the way in South Carolina by installing 16 charging stations around town. They are part of more than 80 locations statewide installed by Plug In Carolina, a nonprofit sponsored by major utility companies. Preparation of the infrastructure for a surge in electric cars over the next three years is probably the biggest challenge facing public adoption of these cars, and this is the start to the process.

The charging stations in Greenville are mostly located in parking garages around the city and will be free for the first three years as the demand ramps up. The parking fee more than covers the charging costs, and promotes garage usage. On average it will cost less than $1 to charge an electric hybrid car and $2-4 to charge an all electric one. Charging at a public station is faster too, taking about 4 hours for a Chevy Volt which is a hybrid model. Theses types of cars also will be able to find the charging stations by their navigation systems. Get ready for the future America: these electric stations are 100% domestic – all the equipment and power comes from a US source.

Fishy Business

Three years after the Bassmaster Classic brought in a lot of anglers and attention to Greenville and Lake Hartwell, another big fishing event is on the calendar. The Walmart FLW Tours, which rivals the Bassmaster tournament, will take place March 23-27 on Lake Hartwell. There will also be trade show and daily weigh-in at the Carolina First Center in Greenville. The even is expected to draw 300 anglers, 500 support staff, 5,000 fans, and should generate $2.5-4.0 million in economic impact.

Blue Way along Saluda River

There's discussion among county managers for a blue trail along the Saluda River that will start at the Saluda Dam and eventually run 63 miles all the way to Greenwood. A push for an initial 27 mile section from the dam to Ware Shoals is being led by Anderson County Parks and Recreation, who have already purchased land for two access points to the river and are working with land owners for portage access agreements. ReWa, the Greenville County water utility suggested that the water treatment sites along the river could act as potential put-in and take-out points. Since budgets restraints are common right now, the project may take some time to complete, but what a pearl the Upstate will have when it's finished!
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Woodruff Road Zoning

The latest controversy over how to use residential property at Woodruff and Godfrey Roads ended Tuesday after Greenville County Council voted to allow an office development plan, albeit a smaller version than the one requested. Council approved a 3,500 square foot development rather than the 18,000 square feet in the original plans, which falls in line with the East Woodruff Road Area Plan approved in 2008. The area under consideration has long been considered a residential area but is along a busy four lane Woodruff Road, with prominent commercial pockets within a half-mile at both Five Forks and Highway 14.

Greenville Weather
Last Saturday was one of those WOW days in the winter as the temperature hit 70 and the sun was brilliant. It looks like we'll see the southern edge of the tremendous winter storm that is raking the north, but expect only rain and colder temperatures above freezing. Clearing up for the weekend with highs in the mid 50s though!

Roper Mountain Planetarium Upgrade, Roger Milliken, I-385 Construction Begins

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Happy New Year Ya'll!
The holidays are over and everyone is back to the usual hustle and bustle of life. We had a couple of unique events over the past two weeks that are notable. First, Greenville had the first white Christmas in many years as we got about two inches in the afternoon of the December 25th. The last time there was any snow on the ground for Christmas was in 1963 when there was little left over from 1.4 inch storm two days earlier. Going back to the 1940's, records show only traces of snow and a couple of ice storms, so this year was a rarity indeed. The kids had a lot of fun in the yards, but the roads were clear.

Roger Milliken Passes

Also notable was the passing of Roger Milliken at the age of 95. He was an international textile magnate and visionary who played a major role in the economics of the Upstate of South Carolina. After moving the family business to Spartanburg in 1954, he became a major employer in the area building one of the top privately held companies in the U.S., regularly winning national awards for excellence in the workplace. The Milliken campus houses one of the largest textile research facilities in the world; they hold over 2,300 patents in the U.S. alone. As jobs began disappearing to overseas competitors, he lobbied long and hard in an effort to keep textile jobs in the United State and started the "Crafted With Pride in the USA" campaign. Never an idle man, he was instrumental in pushing for the creation of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) in 1962 and was the chairman from it's inception until his death. He helped to shape the Republican Party in South Carolina and was a philanthropist too, especially to Wofford and Converse Colleges in Spartanburg. Roger Milliken was rare business icon that blessed not only South Carolina, but the entire nation.

Roper Mountain Planetarium Upgrade

The Roper Mountain Science Center's planetarium is back in the fast lane with a high-tech projection system that will debut this week. The first show is "Astronaut" and portrays the life of an astronaut in training on the 50-foot dome. The $300,000 state of the art digital projection and sound system guarantees that the show will boggle the mind with sensations. The new system was funded entirely by private funds as grantors stepped up to make the transition happen... not an easy task in today's economic climate. Roper Mountain has the eighth-largest telescope in the U.S., the largest planetarium dome in South Carolina, and functions as a training center for the state’s science teachers. For more information on Greenville area communities Click Here.

Interstate Construction Begins

The I-385 widening project between Simpsonville and Mauldin is under way and is expected to take about 30 months to complete. The 5.5 mile section north of West Georgia Road will be widened from four to six lanes, with most of the work being done at night. That should really help out the daily commuter traffic from Simpsonville and the southern portion of Greenville County. A two mile section of the highway between Woodruff and Roper Mountain roads will also be repaved. Plans for a complete reconstruction of the I-85 / I-385 interchange are still being considered and should be finalized in the next year or so, but that project won't get started until 2013.

Greenville Weather
This week the weather looks like clear and a bit colder with highs in the mid 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Might even be a chance of snow late in the weekend.

Sunday Alcohol Sales, Artisphere in Greenville, Community College Enrollment Records, high Speed Rail Funds, Aircraft Services Merger

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Sunday Alcohol Sales
Voters in Greer and Simpsonville have spoken clearly by passing a referendum to permit Sunday alcohol sales in their cities. The new law will apply only to bars and restaurants that already have a permit to sell alcohol during the rest of the week. However, it does not apply to grocery and convenience stores within those cities. The change will certainly help Greer and Simpsonville in a tough economic climate, but they will still be at a competitive disadvantage to Greenville who allows grocery sales within the city limits. In Simpsonville the vote passed with 59% in favor and in Greer about 57%. For more information on Greenville area communities Click Here.

Artisphere in Demand

Artisphere, Greenville's annual street art fair, is gaining national popularity as indicated by the increased applications for the 2011 show. This year 784 applications are in and that's up from 682 last year. Not only are they seeing more interest, but the applicants are higher in quality and more diverse, coming from as far away as Hawaii and Israel. Despite a tough economy and the number of artists increasing from 100 to 120 this year, the average sales for an artist has held steady at about $4200. Ninety-one of the artists from this year have applied for next year. The event gained attention by reaching a Top Ten ranking in Greg Lawler's Sourcebook for arts shows nationwide. You can search for real estate in greenville sc now!

Community College Enrollment set Records

Local colleges are setting enrollment records and expanding to handle the increased load. New comer Brown Mackie opened in the fall of 2009 with 25,000 square feet of space in downtown Greenville's Liberty II building, but is doubling that space one year later. The growth is not limited to new schools; Anderson College has been around for 99 years and is investing $3 million to create two new residence halls, expand another residence hall, and add a restaurant. Tri-County Technical College and Spartanburg Community College have also set records for enrollment and are considering expansion plan.

High Speed Rail Funds

Georgia has received $4.1 million in federal funds to be used to plan a high-speed rail system from Atlanta to Charlotte, which is part of a longer route extending to Washington D.C. The funds are to be shared with North and South Carolina, and Greenville is right in the middle. Competition for these funds is stiff around the country; the Federal Railroad Administration received 132 applications from 32 states, but only 54 projects in 23 states were approved.

Aircraft Services Merger
At the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU), Jet Centers has bought its competitor TAC Air and created the largest Fixed Base Operator (FBO) for general aviation in the state. FBOs provide aircraft with fuel, maintenance, and repairs, plus assist visitors. At GMU they now have 17 hangars with a total of 226,000 square feet to handle the state's busiest general aviation airport. Jet Centers also has a service center in Camden and at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (formerly Donaldson Industrial Park).

Awesome Fall Weather
It was unseasonably cold the last couple of days, but this week we should see fantastic fall weather with highs around 70 and lows in the 40s. Many of the trees are still sporting nice colorful foliage so it's a great time to be out side enjoying the clear skies.

BMW Jobs, Downtown Greenville Improvements, New Humane Society & Medicare Tax on Home Sales?

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More Pedestrian Areas Downtown
Brown Street is a little known back alleyway just off Greenville's pedestrian-friendly Main Street. But that will be changing this fall as it receives a makeover designed to increase foot traffic and spur on retail and restaurant growth. The signature look will include a piano theme sidewalk that has been widened to 12 feet for on-street dining. That fits in well with the iconic Brown Street Jazz Club and creates an ambiance similar to Printers Alley in Nashville. Look for the project to be completed by the summer of 2011. Brown Street runs from the Corner Pocket at E. Coffee St to Dixie's Tavern at E. North Street. View homes for sale in Downtown Greenville SC.

BMW Hires Another 600

More good economic news comes from local manufacturer BMW as they announced that 600 more contract jobs will be added. That is in addition to the 1,000 jobs created in August and September, and some of those contract workers will be converted to full-time employees. BMW has a strong worldwide demand for exports, especially for the X5 sports activity vehicle and the X6 sports activity coupe. Plus, the new X3 is being released in Europe which will be followed by its American release at the end of 2011. The Upstate should also see a ripple effect with increased jobs at second and third tier suppliers of the automaker. You can search for real estate in greenville sc now!

Medicare Tax…a Sales Tax on Home Sales?

There has been a lot of discussion and misunderstanding of the 3.8% Medicare tax on the sale of real property, which will take effect January 1, 2013. This is neither a "sales tax" nor "transfer tax", but a tax that applies to the GAIN on your house – not the total sales price. If the home is your primary residence and you have lived there for three out of five years, the current capital gain exemption ($250,000 single filer and $500,000 couple) still applies. Any gain over these thresholds, combined with meeting the "high income filer" status below is subject to the 3.8% tax.

The tax applies only to "high income filers" with Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) over certain threshold amounts: $200,000 (single filer) or $250,000 (married couple). The tax is calculated on the lesser of either net investment income or income over the above AGI limits. Investment income includes capital gains, rents, dividends, interest, and business income earned by shareholders or partners not active in the business. Net investment income is investment income minus any allowable expense deductions.

For the sale of a second home or investment property, the 3.8% tax applies only to the portion of the gain that brings AGI above the $200k/$250k limits. For rental income, only the portion of net rental income that exceeds the $200k/$250k AGI limits will be subject to the 3.8% tax. 

New Humane Society

The Greenville Humane Society will get a new home near Haywood and Laurens Roads and is designed to be more service-oriented facility. The three-phase project will include two surgical suites for spay and neutering services, an adoption center, and a finally a pavilion for birthday parties and training classes. Greenville County owns the current facility at Furman Hall Road near Cherrydale Mall, which will continue to serve as a shelter for strays so that the new facility is not overrun with animals. The new site has not been finalized yet, but the Humane Society hopes to be in the new facility by the spring of 2011.

Awesome Fall Weather
It's been great fall weather that will extend into the upcoming week. Highs will be in the low 80s with lows in the mid 50s. There's a chance of rain Wednesday and Thursday but the weekend looks nice.

Greenville Fall Events, Pro Cycling Championships, Blue Ribbon Award to Charter School, GSP Parking Cost Down

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Fall Outdoor Events
September is here, the weather has begun to cool down, and outdoor events are beginning prick up speed. Greenville has plenty of activities for every kind of appetite over the next two months. Euphoria is a food festival with a bit more spice: it brings together top chefs, winemakers, and musicians on September 24-25. The expanded Saturday Market on Main Street in Greenville shows off the fall harvest and is a popular morning activity. Fall for Greenville is another big, family-friendly street fair with a focus on food by local vendors, running October 8-10. The West End Art Festival is September 18-19 (this weekend), and will feature local visual artists at the Pendleton Street Art District. For more artwork, you can catch the Trillium Arts Festival on October 2 at Gateway Park. The Moonlight Classic Movie Series at the Peace Center Amphitheater continues on Wednesday nights and with the days a little shorter, starts at 8:00.

Big Time Cycling

Cycling fans, start your engines. The fifth annual Pro Cycling Championships is back in Greenville this weekend and promises to bring in some exciting racers as well as a few road closures for motorists. Local racer George Hincapie will be back for this prestigious race, defending his title from last year. There will also be a cadre of talented professional cyclists who have been competing in events all year and are finishing up the season with the Big One of American races. Saturday the time trial action will be focused on a 6.9 mile course at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research campus, where riders compete against the clock. On Sunday, the longer road race features teams making several loops from downtown Greenville and over the challenging Paris Mountain. There will probably be about 50,000 spectators scattered around the course, with the heaviest crowds downtown and on the climb up the backside of the mountain. Get out and shake those cowbells Greenville!

Charter School Gets Kudos

Greenville Tech Charter High School has won the National Blue Ribbon Award, which puts them into an elite category of public schools around the country. Students are allowed to work on college credit course while earning their high school diploma, and wow, they really hit those college books hard. More than half of the students in this year's class had at least 24 hours or college credits hours! But students must excel too, posting at least an 80% score to pass a class. Challenging yes, but everyone in the 420-student body graduated this year except for one who still got a GED and is now at Greenville Technical College. Tech joins four other SC schools achieving the award, and is the first charter school in the state to do so. Congratulations are also in order to nearby Powdersville Elementary, one of the other four recipients; they are located just outside Greenville in Anderson County. 

GSP Parking Fares Down

If you plan to leave your car at Greenville Spartanburg Airport for few days, you will be in luck after October 1. Rates on long term parking will then be only $4, down from the current $7. That puts GSP into a competing price range with Charlotte for uncovered parking, which is a little farther from the terminal. However, one difference is that you can still walk to the GSP terminal in just a few minutes while Charlotte is a bus ride. Of course, if you want closer parking at GSP under cover, the rates are going up a few dollars. Look for more announcements from GSP as they ramp up renovations in preparation of Southwest Airline’s arrival sometime in 2011.

Awesome Fall Weather
Fall weather is here at last and you gotta love it with the relative humidity down into the 30-70% range. You can expect mostly clear weather for the next week with highs about 90 but temperatures dropping into the 60s at night. Get out there and enjoy the great outdoors!

New Website for Greenville SC Homes

Wow. What a crazy week. We have opened up our new website for http://www.greenvilleschomesales.com/ earlier then we had intended because a lightening strike took out our old site before we were quite ready with the new site...everything is here from the old site, but the search features are not working yet. It should be ready any day now and we thank you for your patience. In the meantime i will be adding extra special information about Greenville, SC so you can start to get aquainted with Greenville if you are not already. Even if you have lived in Greenville your whole life there are so many neat new things going on that you might learn something.

Thanks for your patience, please check back later to search. :)

Southwest Airlines and Expansions Come to GSP, New Reirement Community, New Recreation Park, I-385 North Open

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Southwest Airlines and Expansions to Come to GSP
The Greenville Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) has gotten a lot of press lately after the announcement that Southwest Airlines would offer flights here. But for some time, they have quietly been laying plans for a major expansion and upgrade that will bring GSP into the 21st century. The plan includes a total revamping of the terminal core to improve traffic and security, centralize ticketing, connect the two concourses, plus add five new gates and a full service restaurant. There is also a commitment to a more eco-friendly campus that includes harvested rainwater, skylights and solar panels to reduce the power consumption by 70%. Under the leadership of Dave Edwards, who was recently hired away from Asheville Regional Airport where he made similar quantum leaps of progress, GSP is ready to start phase one without incurring any additional debt. Edwards believes that GSP will obtain $30 million in grants from the FAA, EPA, TSA with the remainder coming from airport reserves. Work on phase one will probably start in 2011 and completed in 2012.

New Retirement Community Plans

Near GSP at Highway 14 and I-85, the often touted and debated development project to attract a Bass Pro Shop is officially dead, but the City of Greer has other ideas. In place of the 200-acre mega Bass Pro project, they have begun marketing a new conceptual plan dubbed Infinity Place that would create 75 acres of medical, office, hotel, residential, and retail space. A 15-acre portion has been proposed for a phase called Hospital Walk, and will include an upscale retirement community that will have walkways to the nearby Village at Pelham Hospital.

New Recreation Park

The destiny of the abandoned Municipal Baseball Stadium on Mauldin Road has finally concluded with the announcement that the city of Greenville will create a huge recreational baseball complex. The city will rent the land to the Greenville County Recreational District, who will renovate the old stadium as well as add four additional baseball fields that will become the home of the local Little League program. The project is part of a visionary recreational area that will include the adjacent 400-acre Lake Conestee, a connection to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and other urban park possibilities on 200 acres owned by Renewable Water Resources (ReWa, the regional sewer authority). There is also a 150-acre parcel owned by the city that could be made into a golf course or green space. So by the summer of 2011, you can expect to see the fields complete and more parking available, and a lot of happy Little Leaguers running around. Check out Greenville SC real estate by schools!

I-385 North Open

Travelers heading northbound on I-385 will be pleased to note that the freeway is has reopened after a construction detour rerouted traffic for several months. There is still a lot of work being done to upgrade the highway, but beach goers and truckers can both breathe a sigh of relief.

Current Weather
After the heat wave of July which was one of the hottest on record, we are off to a cloudy and cooler August. Expect mostly cloudy skies this week with a chance of thundershowers. Look for highs in the low 90s.

New Electric Car Manufacturer, Hockey in Greenville, Trader Joes Coming to Wodruff Rd, New Water Parks

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New Electric Car Manufacturer
The automotive cluster of manufacturers is growing in the Upstate. CT&T Korea Ltd. has announced that they will build a "mega" site in Spartanburg that will be an assembly plant for small electric cars and will also supply components to a series of upcoming sites around the U.S. They expect to hire 370 for this facility. Their zero-emissions electric vehicle can run up to 35 mph for a distance of 80 miles before needing a recharge, which meets the demand from police, military, and Americans that use a car mainly for short trips. CT&T acknowledged that the presence of Clemson University's International Center for Automotive research in Greenville had a big influence over their decision to locate in the Upstate. The company is also planning a 50-worker research center in Greenville, probably at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center, and formerly known as the Donaldson Center. In related news this year, electric hybrid bus maker Proterra Inc. is also building a plant on the ICAR campus and expects to hire 1300 over the next seven years.

Road Warriors Hockey

Professional Hockey is back in town and will be known as the Greenville Road Warriors. The name of the team and logo was recently announced after a "Name Your Team Sweepstakes" brought in more than 2,000 original names and Mark McLamb came up with the winner, alluding to Greenville's automotive industry, bicycling community and the history of car racing in the area. With 400 season tickets sold, The Road Warriors are looking for more fans to start the ECHL season on October 21 at the Bi-Lo Center.

New Grocer - Trader Joes

Trader Joes grocery is coming to Woodruff Road next to the new Academy Sports after months of speculation. The popular west coast chain has almost a cult following and is known for its discount pricing, organic products, and variety of inexpensive wines that are great taste for the value. The nearest Trader Joes are in Charlotte where they have three stores; this location will be the first in South Carolina. The location on Woodruff Road builds on the commercial corridor that is already popular with shoppers. Nearby is the new Rooms To Go furniture store which is part of the Magnolia Center that is revitalizing the old Greenville Mall.

New Water Parks

Summer is here and kids in Greenville County will appreciate the two new water parks built by the Greenville County Recreation District. Otter Creek is north of Greer out highway 290 and 7th. Inning Splash is south of I-85 on Piedmont Highway at Lakeside Park. These two projects are the results of a 2% hospitality tax on prepared food and beverages in the country that have filled the GCRD's coffers. That has worked out well for contractors and the district alike: more competitive bids coming in on these jobs and more work for the contractors. There have been $29 million worth of projects completed since 2008 and County Council has approved more than $9 million in additional work. You gotta love The CGRD for providing more places to play!

Hot Weather
The heat is upon us this week with highs in the mid to upper 90s. No thunderstorms are predicted, so be sure to put on the sunscreen. It should cool off over the weekend with highs back in the high 80s.

Fourth Of July in Greenville, Woodside Mills Redevelopment, Matrix Technology Park, Roper Mountain Planetarium

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Woodside Mills Redevelopment
Redevelopment of Greenville's west side is stirring with a North Carolina developer's announcement to refit the famous Woodside Mills which is just outside the city limits. Built in 1902, Woodside mills was once the largest cotton mill in the world, but finally abandoned operations in 2006 as textile jobs exited to overseas locations. But it looks like there may be new life coming for this historic mill that includes 500,000 square feet of factory on 14 acres and 343 surviving mill houses. Developer Josh Parker wants to convert the factory space into market rate apartments, office, and retail space. This could really kick off economic development in an area that is very near to the popular downtown Greenville scene. The City of Greenville has agreed to annex this property, which will qualify the project for the HUD 220 program that aims to help regenerate urban areas hit hard by economic and industrial changes. Adjacent to Woodside Mills, the newly opened and very popular Swamp Rabbit pedestrian/biking trail is seeing a lot of use; these types of trails usually bring developmental interest to the area through which they run. In other news around the west side, Parker High School will see renovation in the fall of 2010, and The Westside Family Grocery opened this year in a former Winn Dixie site that had been empty for years.

Fireworks Downtown will be Huge

July 4th will be upon us in a couple of weeks and the City of Greenville is a planning their usual gala of fireworks downtown. Not only are the fireworks the largest in South Carolina, but you’ll find several musical events and a Kid Zone starting at 5:00. The Greenville Symphony Orchestra will perform at the Peace Center amphitheater but seating is limited, so you might want to get there early for first-come first-serve seating. This has been a popular event in the past and with 75,000 expected to attend, YellowBook.com ranked it in Southeast's top ten fireworks displays.

Matrix Technology Park Set to Attract Businesses

The Matrix Technology Park has been certified by the South Carolina Department of Commerce as a S.C Certified Cite, which identifies it as "shovel ready" for industries seeking immediate development. This is an important step for the 1,100-acre master planned industrial park which has struggled over the years due to economic downturns. Businesses looking for an industrial, warehouse/distribution, R&D, or headquarter campus site will find the The Matrix very competitive. AT&T, Duke Energy, and Piedmont Natural Gas partnered with The Matrix to offset the costs associated with the certification process.

Roper Mountain Planetarium

If you've been to the Roper Mountain Science Center’s Planetarium for presentation of Starry Nights, you would have noticed that the show seemed a bit antiquated on their 23-year old projector system. That should change later this year when exciting new full-dome projectors are installed, enabling the center to utilize high definition digital technology that will resemble an IMAX theater with a dome and surround sound. Plus, data can be downloaded daily as new features to the star field are updated from the 9,000 satellites orbiting Earth. The facility is owned by the Greenville County School System and is used to train teachers state-wide as well as produce public programs. However, no public funds will be used for the projector upgrade and all monies for the project will be from the Center’s charitable arm.

Current Weather
Wow, it's a heat wave out there this week. Look out for highs in the mid 90s and a high heat index. We'll probably see some localized thunderstorms through Saturday that might cool things off a bit.