For some 30 years, a sprawling mall in Greenville drew shoppers to its marquee department stores, bookstores, a jewelry store, a pet store, a shoe store, a beloved cafeteria and other go-to spots. In the 1990s, the shopping center began to die.
But the future had an entirely new direction in store for McAlister Square.
Opened in 1968 as the largest and first entirely enclosed, air-conditioned mall in South Carolina, the campus today houses the University Center of Greenville, one of the most robust and diverse higher-education hubs in South Carolina.
“Thanks to the foresight of Greenville Technical College and Greenville Tech Foundation leadership in 1999, McAlister Square was purchased and upfitted to provide leased space for the University Center,” said Ann Wright, the foundation’s vice president for advancement.
Tom Barton, Greenville Tech’s founding president in 1962, provided the transformative spark.
When Haywood Mall was built in 1980, some of McAlister Square’s biggest tenants began to move out of the 285,000-square-foot complex on South Pleasantburg Drive. Then in 1987, Greenville Tech’s University Center moved into a building across from McAlister Square. In no time, the school outgrew the space.
Richard Few was involved in what happened next.
“McAlister back then had kind of lost its luster simply because everything had moved to Haywood Mall,” said Few, who in the 1990s was an attorney at Leatherwood Walker Todd & Mann, the prestigious downtown law firm that served as the foundation’s legal counsel.
He mentioned that Belk and Uptons, the two major-label, big-box anchor tenants, were gone or “on the way out the door.” The smaller retailers soon followed suit.
“Now we’ve got a mostly empty mall, what could we do? And what they found out was that the shopping center was being put up for sale,” Few said, referring to Barton and others invested in Greenville Tech’s growth.
When he recalled Barton’s idea to buy the property for Greenville Tech, Few said he thought at the time: “That’s pretty doggone out there. This will be interesting to see if that can be accomplished.”
Enter Greenville Tech Foundation, founded 50 years ago this year as a nonprofit to provide financial support to the technical college and its students.
To bring Barton’s vision to fruition — and generate the financing to make it happen, namely through bonds and banks — the foundation assembled an army of Realtors, county and community leaders and, as Few put it, “a parade of lawyers.”
In 1999, the foundation made a $1 million down payment to purchase the site, closing the $18 million deal in August of that year.
Nowadays at the former mall, you’re apt to see backpacks and academic regalia rather than the latest fashions or bestselling books.
Today’s University Center of Greenville tenants include around a half-dozen higher-education institutions, such as Clemson University, University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, Converse University and, of course, Greenville Tech, among others. Offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, these schools collectively serve more than 2,000 students.
Additional occupants include several community service nonprofits, state agencies, a breakfast restaurant, a pediatric dental practice and, as of last June, Greenville County’s new $4 million EMS center.
Nearly 30 years since the building’s rebirth, Few, now a partner at Parker Poe, continues providing legal services to the foundation.
“I enjoy working with organizations and businesses that have visions for the future and take innovative approaches to make those visions become reality,” he said. “I think it’s our obligation, even as a businessperson, to help revitalize the community, keep it moving, growing.”
Timeline
McAlister Square is named for Charles Stuart McAlister, a native of Ireland, who arrived in Greenville in the 1870s and opened an apparel and home-furnishings store. McAlister purchased 180 acres, a portion of which eventually was used for the mall that became University Center of Greenville.
1965: Caine Co. announces plans for the two-phase construction of a 13-acre parcel at U.S. 291/South Pleasantburg Drive, stretching from the current Publix to Camelot Cinemas to Laurens Road.
1968: Two department stores, Ivey’s and Meyers-Arnold (later Uptons), are the anchor tenants in South Carolina’s largest shopping mall that opens on Feb. 15.
1974: Belk Simpson rounds out the mall as its third anchor store.
1982: McAlister Square reopens in February after a $5 million renovation to recover from a fire the year before. The blaze was deemed the worst in Greenville’s history.
1989: Boston’s Krupp Realty Corp. buys the mall for $20.8 million from McAlister Limited Partnership.
1998: McAlister Square is sold again to Stolz Management Group and Belk Simpson, another anchor store, closes, shortly followed by Uptons the next year.
1999: Greenville Tech Foundation puts down $1 million for the $18 million purchase of McAlister Square. Greenville Tech relocates its University Center from a building directly across South Pleasantburg Drive to the one-time shopping center.
June 2023: Several state colleges and universities — public and private — serve some 2,000 Upstate students at the University Center of Greenville.
Source: GVLtoday
Some of the nearly 30 tenants at the University Center of Greenville include:
Satellite classrooms and offices for higher education
South Carolina State University
Clemson University
Converse University
Lander University
Bob Jones University
Anderson University
Greenville Technical College
Other tenants
Greenville Symphony Guild
The Urban League of the Upstate
Make-a-Wish South Carolina
Greenville Literacy Association
SC Works Training & Resource Center
Thrive Upstate, the state’s largest and oldest services provider for people with disabilities
New Ocean Health, a health and wellness company
Public Education Partners, a local education fund
Impact America, serves recent college graduates
Eggs Up Grill
Source: University Center of Greenville site map
