On Wednesday, June 19th, I attended the ibbon-cutting for the Cotton Mill Apartments. I was honored to be asked to share a few words on behalf of the City of Simpsonville. Here’s (basically) what I said:

Wow! What a difference a few years makes! When Council was first presented with this project idea in September of 2017, the undeveloped portion of the Cotton Mill was a contaminated blight on our community. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much the City could do about it alone. It would take millions of dollars to remediate the site, and developers didn’t really want anything to do with that. Until Graycliff Capital came along with an “outside the box” idea. Good partnerships are based, in part, on a shared vision for the future, the ability to see, together, what is and what could be and the willingness to work together to make that happen. And that’s the kind of partnership we found with Graycliff. We shared a vision for a revitalized, rejuvenated neighborhood right here in the heart of downtown Simpsonville. Today we see that vision realized. I don’t think you can look around the Cotton Mill site now and NOT see what an asset, what a value add, this development is to our city. But what I really love about this project is the blend of history and modernity. Graycliff and Creative Builders managed to pay homage to the neighborhood’s working class roots while creating the kind of 21st century luxury living people today want. You may know that the words that adorn the City of Simpsonville seal are “A Past to Remember, A Future to Build.” This project is the embodiment of those words. Here we see the preserved offices and the iconic smoke stack and remember our past as we work together to build a better, brighter future. “A Past to Remember, a Future to Build.” The City of Simpsonville is proud of this project and grateful to the partners who helped bring our shared vision to fruition. And we’re excited about the future we’re building together.

In 2015, I promised to work towards “One Simpsonville” working together: local government, local business owners, local non-profits, and residents.  This is just one example of how that promise I made was kept. 

Some photos from the event: