Office tower approved for downtown Greenville’s Court Street: Design Review Board notes

Here’s a recap of the city of Greenville’s Design Review Board meeting held Feb. 19.

Approved with conditions: East Court Street office building

The board conditionally approved designs for a new eight-story office building in the North of Broad District in downtown Greenville. Hughes Commercial Properties, a Greenville-based commercial real estate development firm, plans to construct the building at 101 E. Court St. 

Gensler, a global architecture firm, designed the new Class A office building. Design plans show possible retail or restaurant tenant space on the ground floor of the building. Office tenants would occupy the remaining seven floors. 

The new building would sit on a 0.4-acre parcel currently used as a parking lot next to the office building at 300 E. McBee Ave. Hughes Commercial Properties owns the existing office building and completed a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2025. The building’s tenants include Prisma Health, Lima One Capital, STIR restaurant, Ameris Bank and Sola Salons. 

As conditions for approval, the applicant will need to provide mock-ups of the building’s exterior materials for review by city staff and two members of the board. City staff also noted that any exterior changes to the building made by individual tenants will require an individual certificate of appropriateness. The building’s signage will also need a sign permit and a certificate of appropriateness. 

Deferred: South Memminger Street residential addition

An application for a one-story addition to the single-family residence located at the corner of Pendleton Street and South Memminger Street was deferred for at least 90 days. The board’s consensus was that the proposed addition failed to reflect, replicate or reference the characteristics of the existing home.

Design plans showed the addition wrapping around three sides of the single-family home, creating a courtyard between the buildings. The new structure would include a living room, kitchen, dining room, library, outdoor room, garage and greenhouse. 

According to the application, the wrap-around addition would reorient the home to face South Memminger Street. The existing front and back porches of the single-family home were proposed to be removed along with the building’s chimney, walkways and rear parking lot. 

The site, located at 6 S. Memminger St., was previously addressed as 701 Pendleton St. The property was subdivided into two properties in 2024. A proposed residential development is planned at 8 S. Memminger St. next to the existing single-family home. The property owners, Caroline and Scott Dover, intend to subdivide 6 S. Memminger St. further to create a corner lot for a future mixed-use development on Pendleton Street. 

Approved with conditions: Watson Avenue homes

Design plans for two new residential buildings on Watson Avenue received conditional approval from the board. The board previously approved demolition applications for the existing homes on the two properties in August 2025. 

Greenville-based Creative Founder Design Studio serves as the architect for the project, which includes a 2.5-story duplex at 9 Watson Ave. and a two-story single-family home at 11 Watson Ave. Each home will feature 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a two-car garage. The duplex’s garages will be detached from the main structure. 

The board requested that both residential structures be moved back to meet the front setback range requirements outlined in the Greenville Development Code as a condition for approval. The developer will also need to submit final building materials, including exterior light fixtures and decorative driveway paving, for review by city staff and two members of the board.