Sterling Community Master Plan - Greenville County

Sterling Neighborhood Master Plan July 2010
6.0 Business Development: Encouraging Investment and
Economic Opportunities
6.1 Issues and Assessment
6.1.1 Community Input and Team Observations
• Sterling was once a center for Greenville’s African American community with a florist, a
diner, cleaners, a barber, and other businesses clustered along Jenkins Street adjacent to
Sterling High School.
• While all of the old businesses of Sterling have long since been closed, enterprising residents
are emerging as creative business owners operating both out of their homes and even out of
what remains of the commercial space in Sterling.
• Outside of the “core” of the neighborhood, Sterling has a number of opportunities for
additional commercial investment concentrating along Arlington Avenue and Pendleton
Street which is a major commercial corridor connection into downtown and home to
numerous businesses.
• Anderson Road, once home to a limited number of businesses, has more limited
opportunities for future commercial growth.
• Sterling should have a place where a small number of businesses can locate near where
people live providing economic opportunity and day-to-day services.
• Sterling residents and their partners are currently working on a number of community
gardens that will have the potential to be economic generators for the neighborhood.
6.1.2 Commercial Districts
As mentioned above, Sterling has several opportunities for economic development within and on
the periphery of the community. There are three major focus areas for economic activity in the
designated Sterling area.
The first is along Pendleton Street. This has traditionally been a commercial corridor serving the
surrounding neighborhoods and the traffic that uses the corridor to enter downtown. Currently,
the corridor is a mixture of office, retail, and service uses. Pendleton Street represents the
greatest market driven corridor for future economic development. However, many in Sterling do
not perceive Pendleton Street to be part of Sterling. In fact, businesses along the corridor
identify more with West Greenville and/or the West End than with Sterling. However, it is these
businesses that are most likely to serve residents of the community.
The second focus area is along Arlington Avenue. This corridor was for many years a mixture of
residential houses and doctors’ offices. Today, many of the offices are gone and large empty
buildings line Arlington and the blocks between Arlington and Pendleton. These office spaces
represent an opportunity for redevelopment both as office and service space but also as mixed
use residential and office.
44
Continuing the community legacy and leadership