A nearly $12 million parking garage is now permitted at 15 Howe Street in downtown Greenville, marking a major infrastructure milestone at the former Greenville County Square site. The City of Greenville issued the commercial building permit on July 24, clearing the way for a five-level, 400-space structured parking facility at one of the city's most closely watched redevelopment projects.
What the Permits Show
Permit 2600001699, now carrying an "Issued" status, authorizes new commercial construction of a parking garage valued at $11,903,077. The property owner is listed as University Ridge Public Facili — an apparent abbreviation for University Ridge Public Facility or a related public entity tied to the broader University Ridge project. The Harper Corporation is named as the general contractor on the permit.
According to permit comments, the garage will sit on the old Greenville County Square site in downtown Greenville and will contain five parking levels totaling 400 spaces. The structure is intended to serve the surrounding mixed-use development, though the permit comments are truncated and do not specify which buildings or tenants will be directly supported. The permit is classified as commercial new construction, and no associated planning applications appear in the current data.
Why It Matters
The former Greenville County Square site has been at the center of downtown redevelopment discussions for years, and the issuance of a permit of this scale signals that the University Ridge project is moving from planning into vertical construction. Structured parking is typically one of the earliest and most capital-intensive pieces of a large mixed-use development, and a $11.9 million investment in a 400-space garage suggests that developers and public partners expect substantial demand from future office, residential, or retail tenants on the site. For the surrounding neighborhoods near Howe Street, the garage could also ease street-level parking pressure as the area densifies. The involvement of The Harper Corporation, a well-known general contractor in the region, adds another data point suggesting the project is on a firm timeline. This permit is the largest single commercial new construction filing tied to the University Ridge site to date in the current data set.