Major Developments Are Reshaping Spartanburg, SC
With several key developments in the works or already finished, downtown Spartanburg, SC, is getting a welcome facelift. OneSpartanburg Inc., an organization that works to build a more vibrant community, asked residents what the city needed in a 2017 survey and the answer was clear, says Katherine O’Neill, the organization’s chief economic development officer.
“The No. 1 thing, and the margin was so high, was to work on downtown,” she says.
That answer was quickly turned into action. The extraordinary, ongoing renovation of downtown is mostly being done by a hometown, family-owned firm called The Johnson Group, and O’Neill says the group is developing in five years what would take 20-plus years in most cities.
“They’re investing in their hometown, and we are so grateful,” she says. “It’s almost unprecedented to have this much quality development done by a single nationally renowned developer.”
O’Neill says there’s still much work ahead, but people are already starting to take notice.
“We’re seeing a large in-migration,” she says, “and some of those people are boomerangs, or those who grew up here, left and are now coming back because this is where they want to raise their families. The downtown redevelopment has instituted a sense of pride in the community that we haven’t seen in a long time,” she says.
Energy Is Growing
One early career professional who is excited about the developments taking shape in Spartanburg, SC, is Tyson Jeffers, who is the general manager of the Hub City Spartanburgers, the city’s minor league baseball team.
“People here recognize that the future relies on new ideas and new people looking to be a part of this growth and keep it going,” says Jeffers, who moved to Spartanburg in 2023.
The Spartanburgers, the High A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, played the 2025 season in their brand-new home, Fifth Third Park. The club made it to its league championship series before falling short, but Jeffers says every home game felt like opening night.
“From an attendance standpoint, we crushed it,” he says. “So much energy every night. It was very special for the community.”
Jeffers says Fifth Third Park isn’t just about baseball; it’s key to downtown Spartanburg’s renaissance.
“We talk about it as a community facility,” he says. “Beyond our games, we’ve had a full schedule – concerts, high school baseball, health fairs, expos, the Fourth of July fireworks show. The park seats 3,500 for games, but capacity for other events is 5,000, and we offer things you’d see at a major league park, like state-of-the-art technology, free Wi-Fi, light shows, a video board – things that make a memorable family experience.”
Structures Take Shape
O’Neill says Fifth Third Park will soon have plenty of company downtown that people who’ve been away for a while won’t recognize. In addition to a new hotel coming to West Main Street, she says two other residential developments are going up on West Broad Street in Spartanburg, SC – one by The Johnson Group and another by Barrett Realty Investments. While they are a couple of years from completion, she says they will be the first modern, high-end urban multifamily structures built in the downtown core.
“With the city and county working together to incentivize high-end projects downtown, we’re seeing multifamily projects come out of the ground,” she says.
Morgan Square is considered downtown Spartanburg’s front yard, and it, too, is set for a makeover.
“It’s so necessary for the development of a downtown to have viable urban parks as an integral part of the downtown neighborhood,” she says.
Linking Communities
Outdoor spaces are the forte of PAL: Play. Advocate. Live Well., a nonprofit focused on making Spartanburg healthier.
PAL Executive Director Laura Ringo says the organization’s hallmark is building trail networks. It’s working on the Daniel Morgan Trail System, which will be the 55-mile “physical link tying people to all these downtown projects,” she says.
Ringo says that when the Daniel Morgan buildout approached a Norfolk Southern railroad trestle, officials with the nonprofit and railroad started talking. The result was that PAL and two other nonprofits bought a 31-mile rail corridor between Inman, about 25 minutes from Spartanburg, and Saluda, NC.
Engineering is under way, she says, and in a couple of years, ground will be broken on the Saluda Grade Trail System, once the steepest rail line in the continental United States, with a 5.5% grade.
“Our intent is to remove the rails and make it a corridor focused on pedestrians and nonvehicular travel,” she says.
A resident for two decades, Ringo says Spartanburg, SC’s, developments have and will continue to be thoughtful as they progress.
“You don’t want to go into downtown and feel like you could be anywhere,” she says. “We’re going to have something that feels very Spartanburg.”
This article is sponsored by OneSpartanburg Inc.