Spartanburg City News

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What will a new hotel mean for Downtown Spartanburg? Feb 25, 2015

Show notes

If you've been wrapped up in the winter weather madness gripping Spartanburg this week, you might've missed one of the most important downtown development stories to come along in recent memory as City Council voted unanimously on Monday to approve an incentive agreement for a new upscale hotel development at the corner of West Main Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue. Local businessman George Dean Johnson Jr. and his Spartanburg-based hotel development company, OTO Development, plan to build a hotel that will include at least 100 rooms and represent at least an $20 million investment on the western edge of downtown. The announcment comes at a time when demand for lodging downtown is increasingly exceeding suppply, owing to Spartanburg’s seven downtown corporate headquarters, its seven institutions of higher learning, and the successful efforts of the Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau to increasingly recruit conventions, conferences and sports tournaments. All that action means visitors to Spartanburg have increasingly been forced to find rooms elsewhere with only the 250-room Spartanburg Marriott located downtown. OTO officials predict their hotel will bring at least 30,000 annual guests to the heart of downtown, and the annual economic impact of the hotel is expected to reach into the millions. To put it mildly, the potential impact this project could have on our city's downtown is immense, and today on the podcast, we're talking about some of the possibilities.

How is the rising tide of visitors impacting needs downtown? Jan 28, 2015

Show notes

If you’re a regular follower of downtown Spartanburg news (and you should because there's no shortage of great news) you probably read the article in this past Sunday’s Herald-Journal about the possibility of a second downtown hotel. While we can’t talk about the specifics of any potential development, the article led with a very interesting question: “Is downtown Spartanburg ready for a second hotel?” Around here, we're pretty bullish on downtown Spartanburg so you can probably guess what our answer would be. But that's not just the knee-jerk reaction of a few optimistic bureaucrats around City Hall. When it comes to hotel demand in Spartanburg, the numbers don’t lie. Countywide, hotel occupancy is up 5 percent, and the average daily rate for a hotel room is up 7 percent. Overall revenue per room is up 12 percent. While those numbers are great, they also pose further questions. What’s driving the increased demand for hotel rooms in Spartanburg? How would a new downtown hotel take advantage of that demand? Today on the podcast, we’ve brought on a guest who’s probably better qualified than anyone around to answer to those questions, Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Chris Jennings.How is the rising tide of visitors impacting needs downtown?

Getting to know Hub-Bub's 2015 Artists-in-Reasidence Jan 21, 2015

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It's been one of Spartanburg's most successful arts programs, and this year Hub-Bub's Artists-in-Residence program welcomes the eighth group to its six month residency. This year's artists include two visual artists, Robin Schwartzman and Jennifer Bonner, as well as a playwright, Anna Abhau Elliott, and a filmmaker, Desiree Moore. If the lasting positive impact on Spartanburg left by past A.i.Rs is any indication, we'd do well to expect great things from the group of four who'll be hanging their hats in the Grain District for the next six months. First though, it's time to get to know Downtown's Spartanburg's newest batch of transient creatives, so recently we sat down with the new A.i.Rs and Hub-Bub's Artists-in-Residence Program Director Eric Kocher to do just that. Listen below and enjoy.

Hampton Heights home tour brings 'Spirit of Christmas Past' to Spartanburg Dec 03, 2014

Show notes

It's one of Spartanburg's most beautiful neighborhoods, a place where Victorian two-story homes mingle with Arts and Crafts bungalows under a canopy of mature trees. Head south for a couple of blocks from Morgan Square for a walk down the wide sidewalks of Spartanburg's first local historic district and it becomes immediately apparent why the people who live in Hampton Heights are so passionate about their neighborhood. This weekend, the rest of us get a chance to share a little of that passion as Hampton Heights hosts its "Spirit of Christmas Past" home tour on Saturday, December 6, 5—9 p.m. and Sunday, December 7, 2—5 p.m. Five Hampton Heights homes will be open for tours and the neighborhood will also have horse and buggy rides and beautiful Christmas music to set the mood. Tickets for the tour are $15 before December 6 and can be purchased at The Urban Planter, Partners for Active Living, and Hub City Bookshop. Tickets on the day of the event are $20 and can be purchased at Spartanburg Preparatory School.

City Manager Ed Memmott on the Downtown Airport runway extension and a new creek for the Northside Nov 19, 2014

Show notes

If you’re a veteran listener of the City Podcast, by now you’ve become familiar with our preferred format: about 15 minutes focused on one topic. So we’re breaking the mold a bit. From an ongoing $2.5 million citywide parks improvement effort to a major capital project at the Downtown Memorial Airport, there is a lot happening in Spartanburg right now. Indeed, now perhaps more than ever, the City of Spartanburg is Always Doing. Yesterday, on part one of our podcast with City Manager Ed Memmott, we talked about the City's parks improvement plan and a major downtown streetscaping project that will soon get underway Today, we're picking up where that conversation left off, talking about an extension of the runway at the Downtown Memorial Airport, the daylighting of the new Butterfly Branch as part of the Northside Initiative, and one key downtown corner that soon will look a lot different than it does today.

Discussing streetscaping and parks improvements with City Manager Ed Memmott Nov 18, 2014

Show notes

If you’re a veteran listener of the City Podcast, by now you’ve become familiar with our preferred format: about 15 minutes focused on one topic. So we’re breaking the mold a bit. From an ongoing $2.5 million citywide parks improvement effort to a major capital project at the Downtown Memorial Airport, there is a lot happening in Spartanburg right now. Indeed, now perhaps more than ever, the City of Spartanburg is Always Doing.Given that, we thought you’d like to hear directly from City Manager Ed Memmott about those topics. Memmott has been with the City of Spartanburg for nearly 20 years, including the past five as the City’s top administrator. In this, the first of a two-part conversation with Memmott, we focus on city parks and a major downtown streetscaping project that will soon get underway.

Wofford men's basketball team to host nationally televised game, November 18 Nov 12, 2014

Show notes

After a great season last year that took them to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in five years, expectations for this year's Wofford men's basketball team are understandably high. With 11 players returning, including all five starters, Wofford is this year's preseason pick to win the SoCon title and earn another trip to the Big Dance. But before they get that far, there's a game on Tuesday, November 18 (against MAAC preseason conference favorite, Iona) that promises some intrigue of a different sort. First, it's going to be nationally televised on ESPN2 as part of their College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, and tickets are just $5. Second, the game is scheduled for 7 a.m. An early morning, mid-week, nationally televised game between two teams with sky-high expectations? Sounds like the perfect excuse to call in late to work (not that we condone that sort of thing), put on some gold and black, and head over to Benjamin Johnson Arena to cheer on Spartanburg's own Wofford Terriers.

Harvest Park opening this week on the Northside Nov 05, 2014

Show notes

It's been one of the most anticipated new local developments in recent memory, and this week Harvest Park, home of Hub City Farmers' Market and the Butterfly Foundation's Monarch Cafe, opens at 458 Howard St. on the Northside. The opening celebration gets started on November 6 at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting and tours of the new facility. Then on Nov. 8 at 8 a.m. it's time for a grand opening celebration as Hub City Farmers' Market hosts their first market in the new location. Festivities include cooking demonstrations at the Monarch Cafe and Fresh Food Store, artisan crafts, music, kids activities, and much more. As the first completed project of the the Northside Initiative, Harvest Park will provide Northside residents with access to fresh, locally grown foods, something crucial in an area of the city classified as a food desert, with a convenience store currently serving as the only place in the neighborhood for food. Harvest Park isn't just for grabbing some veggies to take back home to the kitchen though. With the Monarch Cafe, the facility becomes a true Spartanburg farm-to-fork hot spot. Graduates of the Butterfly Foundation's culinary job training program will serve up fresh, local foods at the for customers Monday–Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Breakfast offerings will include grits and eggs, quiche, oatmeal, and muffins, and at lunch time the menu includes salmon, fried or baked chicken, barbecue ribs, and paninis, all offered with a selection of delicious side dishes.

Parkinson's Disease Symposium coming to Spartanburg Nov. 13–16 Oct 29, 2014

Show notes

Around one million Americans today live with Parkinson's Disease, a debilitating chronic movement disorder that eventually robs those who suffer with it of most motor function. The cause of the disease is still unknown and there is no known cure, but Lisa Cox of Spartanburg is going above and beyond to raise awareness of Parkinson's while fostering collaboration among researchers and the community of people who live with the disease. She, along with three other Parkinson's patients living in states around the Southeast, has organized the first ever Parkinson's Disease Southern Symposium, a four-day series of events covering everything from the role the arts play in medicine to a Q & A session with internationally renowned neurologist, Dr. Michael S. Okun. The symposium also features events highlighting the lives and accomplishments of those living with Parkinson's including the screening of The Astronaut's Secret, a documentary about Rich Clifford, a NASA astronaut who was one of the first to conduct a space walk while docked to an orbiting space station, something he accomplished despite suffering with Parkinson's.

Main Street Challenge winners to hold anniversary celebration, Oct. 25 Oct 16, 2014

Show notes

Time flies when you're a successful Downtown Spartanburg business. Though it doesn't seem that long ago when our inaugural Main Street Challenge winners were holding giant checks while wearing big smiles, two of our fantastic winning businesses, Haute Mama and The Local Hiker, are gearing up to celebrate one year of business in the heart of our city. Along with recently opened fellow winner Motte & Sons Bootlegging, the MSC class of 2013 has decided to celebrate the anniversary with a great event scheduled for Saturday, Oct 25, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on Liberty Street in Downtown Spartanburg. The street will be closed for live music, food from Paul's Wood-Fired Burgers, and vendors including Those Pickle Ladies and 2014 Main Street Challenge winners, Health in Hand Juice and Smoothie Bar and Paisley Paw. Growler Haus, an honorary 2013 Main Street Challenge winner, will also be on hand spreading the gospel of craft beer and Downtown Spartanburg.

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