25 Feb Upstate Headlines: West End QT gets approval of divided City Council
A collection of the top Upstate headlines for the week of February 22, 2016
West End QT gets approval of divided City CouncilPlans for a QT convenience store in the West End have cleared their largest hurdle after Greenville City Council voted to approve new zoning needed to make the project happen at the corner of Academy and North Markley streets. The council voted 4-2 Monday night after hearing from a series of speakers, both in support and opposed. The two dissenting votes — Mayor Pro Tem Jil Littlejohn and Councilman David Sudduth — were cast over concerns that a QuikTrip isn’t the best use of a prime piece of land that serves as a gateway into downtown Greenville.
Greenville-Spartanburg featured on ‘The X-Files’ finale
Greenville-Spartanburg had a cameo in Monday night’s The X-Files season finale. In one scene we see Mulder, That’s FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, driving past a South Carolina welcome sign, and another that reads Spartanburg 88 Miles, Greenville 121 Miles.
International Dairy Queen Inc. targets SC for growth
The company behind Dairy Queen Grill & Chill restaurants is looking to significantly grow its operations in South Carolina in the next few years. “South Carolina as a state, and the Carolinas, are significant growth markets for us,” said Jim Kerr, vice president of franchise development. “They are actually targeted by us, which is kind of unusual for international brands like Dairy Queen, because most of them have already built and moved on to other growth areas in the US or internationally.”
A taste of the Village’s new restaurant
If you want to know what the food at GB&D in the Village of West Greenville will be like, you need only look to the doughnuts that sell out each Sunday at The Village Grind. GB&D’s chef and co-owner, Alex George, has been supplying the quaint coffee shop (that also happens to be owned by his sister, Lindsey George) with doughnuts for months, and they are an apt representation of what will carry over to his new restaurant.
State exports break $30B in 2015
South Carolina’s export sales broke the $30 billion mark during 2015, a four percent increase from last year’s $29.7 billion, according to a news release citing data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The state ranked 15th in exports overall, but placed in the top five states for year-over-year growth in export sales. China accounted for $4.4 billion in export sales, the top export partner for the state in 2015, followed by Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Belgium and Korean Republic.
