On September 23, city leaders and Verdae Development gathered on what used to be the Sam's Club parking lot on Laurens Road and skipped the gold shovels. They took sledgehammers to slabs of concrete instead, which was more honest about what is out there. The site is 92 acres between Haywood Road and Verdae Boulevard, and the plan is to turn it into the Bolden Street District.
The line of the day came from Dan Klausner, Verdae's chief executive, talking about the site's direct access to the Swamp Rabbit Trail: "This is oceanfront property." Greenville is a long drive from any ocean. He still has a point, and it is the one worth carrying away from the ceremony.
Start with what is planned. Verdae, part of Hollingsworth Funds, describes three neighborhoods with shops, restaurants, entertainment venues, grocery options, and medical and professional offices, tied together by dedicated walking and cycling paths, pocket parks, and a direct connection to the trail. The first neighborhood, Bolden Square, covers roughly 30 acres around Verdae Commons Drive, according to the Upstate Business Journal. The Post and Courier puts the expected total cost at $1 billion.
Then the calendar, which matters more than the renderings. Demolition runs through the end of 2026. Infrastructure work begins in early 2027, with the first pad sites expected to be ready around the end of that year. Full build-out is a ten-to-fifteen-year project. A groundbreaking is a start date, not an opening date, and the pictures on the construction fence describe a place that will arrive slowly.
The public side is already in place. The city created a tax increment financing district in December 2024 covering 223 acres along Laurens Road, and District 4 Councilman Wil Brasington tied the project to GVL2040, the city's comprehensive plan, pointing to its emphasis on mixed-use development, connectivity, and walkable neighborhoods.
Now the oceanfront line. In a city without a coastline, the Swamp Rabbit Trail does the job a shoreline does somewhere else. It is the amenity nobody can manufacture more of, and the one people choose to live beside. Travelers Rest built its modern main street around the same trail. What Bolden Street is betting is that a corridor laid out for car lots and big-box parking can be turned around to face the trail instead of the road.
For a buyer, the right posture is patience with your eyes open. Land around a project like this tends to price the rendering long before the first storefront opens, and ten to fifteen years is a long time to carry a rendering. Watch the milestones that are hard to fake: demolition finished, roads and utilities in, the first building going vertical. Those are the moments a corridor stops being a promise and starts being an address.
Renderings courtesy of Verdae Development.
If you are weighing Greenville's east side or any address along the trail, the advisory conversation is complimentary, and we will bring the actual construction calendar to it.
All Field Notes