$60M sports facility proposed for Greer as part of $100M investment plan

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The city of Greer announced the fourth of four potential projects totaling a $100-million investment over the next four years.

The goal of the “ForGreer” initiative is to serve the city’s current residents and prepare for future growth.

Projects include facility and land acquisitions to build a new fire station in the Groce Meadow Road area, a public safety police and fire training facility on Hood Road, and a new 500-plus spot parking garage on Depot Street. The fourth project is a $60 million 150,000-square-foot sports and events center on a 25-acre campus.

The city wanted to take an approach that will offer the ability to serve several programs at one time, Greer Mayor Rick Danner said at a press conference in Victor Gym on Tuesday. “This is a multifaceted project that will involve our entire community.”

Danner at the press conference urged citizens to vote in support of the projects to bring am “unmatched” quality of life to the town.

“While the city has made a great job of significant improvements, this building (Victor Gym) is still inadequate for recreation,” Danner said. “Our citizens deserve better, and we, as a city, can do better. This is a big moment for the city of Greer and its residents. We are planning for the future as we address the needs of today. All of these projects are needs as well as meeting recreational needs of the citizens of Greer in the near future and for generations to come.”

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Greer City Administrator Andy Merriman said the city is looking to develop the four projects that focus on public safety, infrastructure and recreation to prove to the state that Greer truly can embrace its past and future.

“So, why do we need these facilities?” Merriman posed at the press conference.

“As a city of 50,000 people experiencing rapid growth to 75,000 people over the next few years, we must develop infrastructure that protects that growth,” he said. “These projects will not be easy and are something that any normal community would not try to develop in four years, but this is not a normal community. This is Greer, and we are going to do it. We ask that you trust in the process and trust in the city to deliver these projects for Greer.”

The new sports and events center aims to have eight basketball courts, 16 pickleball courts, more meeting rooms, and several other expansive features not named at this time as its still in the early development phase, Danner said.

One of the main goals of this new sports facility is to attract sports tourism growth, the mayor said.

“These proposed facilities will address the immediate and growing needs of our current community,” Merriman said. “We’re tracking this rate of growth. We know it’s coming. We don’t want to be found waiting on something we know is coming and that we have been shortsighted in providing the bare necessities in services.”

The Greer City Council will vote on funding the proposed projects at the regularly scheduled council meeting later today at 6:30 p.m. This vote will be the first of two to move the project forward.

“We are absolutely the heart of the Upstate,” Danner said. “We have an incredible opportunity to be a middle market. We can be a leader in the new economy that is coming. It takes bold, committed and trusted leadership to create a sense of place.”