A $130 million project to build one of South Carolina's tallest buildings has moved forward with approval from Greenville’s Design and Review Board for lighting and landscaping plans. The Gateway project is set to be a 29-story mixed-use development on a nearly 2-acre plot at the entrance to downtown Greenville, a site that has remained vacant since the Greenville Memorial Auditorium was demolished 28 years ago.

Located at 250 North Church Street, the project is moving into the permitting phase, which will lead to construction beginning later this year. Developed by Florida-based N.R. Investments, the Gateway project will feature 342 apartments, 12,000 square feet for retail and commercial businesses, public plazas, and a parking structure that can hold over 350 vehicles. More than 100 jobs are expected to be created.

The site, once home to the Greenville Memorial Auditorium (which closed in 1996 and was demolished the following year), has seen various proposed developments over the years, but none have succeeded. Greenville Mayor Knox White referred to it as the “Bermuda Triangle of downtown development.”

The developers, N.R. Investments, are known for their work across Florida, Ohio, and Peru. A notable project they completed in Miami involved transforming a distressed building in the Omni district into the Filling Station Lofts, which helped revitalize the area, now known as the Arts and Entertainment District. The success of this project has given Greenville leaders confidence that N.R. Investments can bring the Gateway project to fruition.