ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – A building that’s sat vacant for years and has been a question for some time is now moving forward with a new beginning. The former Rock Hill Herald building sits at one end of downtown and city leaders and developers are coming together on this Thursday, breaking ground on a new development.
After sitting vacant for nearly five years in the heart of downtown Rock Hill, city leaders and developers announce a new beginning on this Thursday. The Herald building site will turn into a new mixed-use development.
Rock Hill Mayor, John Gettys says, “Well today we’re celebrating basically the last domino to fall, the last big building in downtown that needs to be redeveloped.”
Mayor Gettys says, “So we’ve got a lot of people in Rock Hill that grew up at the Herald if you will, or at least reading the Herald like I did, we still do — but in a digital world you don’t need a facility like this and as you can see it’s come into disrepair and it’s something that we need to change and bring more hope to downtown.”
Looking to bring more workforce housing downtown for first responders, teachers, medical staff and others – plans for the nearly 8-acres of land include around 300 residential units and commercial space. First developers will work with DHEC to remediate and demolish the buildings.
Whitepoint Developer, Jay Levell, says, “Once we do that, the we’ll be able to go in for permitting and begin construction on the multifamily and retail.”
Based in Charlotte and working around the Carolina’s, Whitepoint developers say it’s the investment the city has made for itself that drew them in.
“To see all these adaptive use buildings with cool uses and tenants, that’s what really drew us is the fact that the city is so willing to invest in itself and be proactive and bring in economic development,” says Levell.
So far, the Herald building site has been fenced in so that developers can begin that remediation within the next 30 days. They say after demolition there will be a four to five month lag time before ground breaks.
Developers say their goal is to start opening by 2024.
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson is at that groundbreaking speaking with leaders about what that site will become.
