19 Oct Upstate Headlines: Grill Marks to open second location in Greenville
A collection of the top Upstate headlines for the week of October 17, 2016
Grill Marks to open second location in Greenville
Grill Marks is expanding once again, and Greenville will be the beneficiary. The gourmet burger concept from the Larkin’s Restaurants group will be located at Haywood Mall, on the Haywood Road side, said Bob Munnich, chief operating officer. The restaurant will be located in a 3,500-square-foot space that will offer about 130 seats inside and another 24 or so outside. This is larger than the Grill Marks location in downtown Greenville, but a bit smaller than the Columbia location, which opened last year, Munnich said.
Panthers camp had $13.1 million economic impact on Spartanburg
Record attendance at this summer’s Carolina Panthers training camp at Wofford College paid dividends for Spartanburg County. According to a report released Monday by Clemson University tourism expert Bob Brookover, the 2016 camp had a $13.1 million impact on the county, a nearly 64 increase compared with $8 million in 2015. The camp produced 263 jobs this year, compared with 174 during the previous year. It yielded $722,000 in revenue for local government and $2.3 million for state government, according to the report.
BMW unveils renovated Zentrum at Spartanburg plant
BMW on Thursday opened a new gateway to the “Ultimate Driving Machine’s” past, present and future. After a nine-month renovation, the automaker unveiled its redesigned Zentrum museum beside Spartanburg County-based BMW Manufacturing Co., the German automaker’s largest plant in the world. During a ceremony, officials uncovered the restored classic BMW 507 roadster once owned by rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley. It is the only place the car has been displayed since it was revealed to the public for the first time in August at the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, Calif.
WestGate Mall to close on Thanksgiving, Haywood to open
Owners of the big enclosed shopping malls in Greenville and Spartanburg are taking different stances this year when it comes to the question of doing business on Thanksgiving. Both Haywood Mall in Greenville and WestGate Mall in Spartanburg have kept Thanksgiving hours in recent years, following an industry trend to roll back the start of the holiday shopping season even earlier than Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional beginning.
Vietnamese eatery Lemongrass coming to downtown Spartanburg
Downtown Spartanburg will welcome its first Vietnamese restaurant later this month. Tony Nguyen and his wife, Thang Bui, will open Lemongrass Kitchen in a restaurant space at 121 Dunbar St., currently home to Café Around the Corner’s dining room. Leslie Lattanzio, owner of Café Around the Corner, said she will keep operations in the kitchen at 119 Dunbar St. and will expand her catering concept and weekly meal service. She will also go mobile with a food trailer.
