Downtown Greenville Events, Downtown Travelers Rest Upgrades, US Airways Highlights Greenville, More Jobs in SC Upstate

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Downtown Greenville Events
The Downtown Alive free musical events that have been a popular attraction for several years are kicking off this week. This year, we have new sponsor names and a common location. Piedmont Natural Gas Downtown Alive and the BB&T Main Street Fridays will both be in the Hyatt Regency plaza deck around the fountains, and still have the laid-back enjoyable atmosphere that we have grown to love. Downtown Alive will be on Thursdays from 5:30-8:30, run from March to the end of August, and feature various blues, rock and funks bands. Main Street Fridays will be 5:30-9:30, feature a wide a variety of music that will differ from last years Main Street Jazz format, and run March to September 24. The Friday event will still feature a children's play area as well as a new interactive tailgating game area known as The Player Zone. The City of Greenville will also take over management of both events. For more information, go to the City's special event site.

Nice Upgrades in Downtown Travelers Rest
If you have not been through downtown Travelers Rest lately, you'll be surprised at the street-side changes that have taken place over the past couple of months. The city has put in new paver sidewalks, fountain, gazebo, and classy streetlights along Highway 276 where the Swamp Rabbit Trail comes into town. This part of the trail is the most complete and it has been a real hit with pedestrians and bicyclists. Some are local to Travelers Rest, but many come from the greater Greenville area to enjoy a quaint town with mountain views to the north and pleasant riding back toward Furman University. For a map and more information on the trail, check out the Greenville County Recreation District site.

US Airways Highlights Greenville

US Airways showcases Greenville this month in their in-flight magazine and defines what is really great about our fair city. You know something is up when the frontispiece starts out, "This is not your average downtown". Included is a nice review of the art scene, restaurants, the renovated Westin Poinsett Hotel, Fluor field, and a lot more. If you're not flying anytime soon and would like to see the online version, click here.

More Jobs for the Upstate Area
Job seekers got some good news with announcements from a variety of local employers. Both Michelin and BMW have already starting hiring and expect to continue into 2010. Astra/CFX is setting up a Greer facility to supply tire and wheel assemblies for BMW's X3 sports utility vehicles; they expect to add about 50 contract jobs with 100 more in the future. Bosch Rexroth plans to expand their hydraulics manufacturing business, located in Fountain Inn, and add about 50 jobs. Kemet Corporation signed a $31 million contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to research and produce capacitors to enhance batteries for electric drive vehicles. This should add 110 jobs in S.C. and fits in with electric bus manufacturer Proterra who will begin production in Greenville next year.

Current Weather
The weather seems a bit unsettled, as spring often is, and we expect a chance of showers early in the week. Look for clearing Thursday. Highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s.

Boeing Chooses Charleston, Greenville Profiled in US Airways In-Flight Magazine, Bikeville, New Suspension Bridge

Boeing Chooses Charleston for Assembly Plant Location
In the wake of Boeing choosing North Charleston as the location of its new assembly plant for the 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, Greenville got some good news that three local companies will be involved in the process. Global Performance, a spin-off group of executives from Fluor Corporation that is owned by Mustang of Houston, will act as the owner's representative and oversee the design and construction of the project. The actual design and construction work goes to a joint venture of BE&K Building Group of Charlotte, Turner Construction of New York, and BRPH of Melbourne Florida, all of whom worked on other aircraft projects at the same campus where the Dreamliner plant will be located. BE&K's regional office in Greenville will act as the headquarters for the joint venture team. According to Global Performance, about 1000 workers will be on the plant construction job at its height with 2,000 to 3,000 employed over the lifetime of the project. The facility will be 600 feet wide, 1,000 feet long and will have a 460 foot clear span. It is expected to be completed in early 2012.

CMC South Carolina Steel, headquartered nearby in Taylors, has also been selected to design and fabricate the steel for the new plant and will supply product from its five South Carolina plants.

Greenville Profiled in US Airways In-Flight Magazine

Greenville has been chosen to be profiled in the March 2010 issue of US Airways in-flight magazine, and will appear on the magazine's website for one year. The article will describe many of the unique cultural, business and lifestyle features for which Greenville has become famous. US Airways is one of the top carriers into the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and touts about 52 million annual passengers worldwide. For past city profiles by US Air, click here.

Bikeville of Greenville

After three years of hard work and upgrades to city streets, Greenville has been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a "Bicycle Friendly Community". The effort began in 2006 with the advent of "Bikeville" and included a daunting list of the League's action items centered on engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation & planning. Over the past years, the city has put in eight miles of bike lanes with five more planned for the upcoming year. There is a user-friendly bike lane map and move information at the Bikeville site.

New Suspension Bridge at Conestee Nature Park
If you haven't been out to the Conestee Nature Park lately, you'll now notice a 216-foot suspension bridge that connects the eastern portion of the park with the extensive foot trails in western section. The bridge provides a key link to a planned 10-mile trail system in the park, which will also be the terminus to the 20-mile Swamp Rabbit Trail. The 400-acre park features some nice, peaceful walking with a lot of wildlife and bird viewing for naturalists. The park is located six miles south of downtown Greenville on the Reedy River, south of I-85, and behind the old Greenville Braves baseball stadium.

Current Weather
We are thankful for great weather last weekend that finished up the Thanksgiving holidays, but it looks like rain will be likely early this week with highs around 60. Expect clearing and cooler by Thursday with highs in the 50s.

Please visit our websites at Greenville SC Real Estate and our second site at Greenville SC Homes
For information specializing in Greer check out our Greer SC Real Estate website.