Holland Park, a new 12-acre mixed-use development at 813 Laurens Road, will break ground in early 2019, bringing nationally recognized and Lowcountry favorite Home Team BBQ to Greenville along with a new brewery concept, Double Stamp Brewery; a half-acre of shaded, planned green space; and more than 18,000 square feet of additional office, retail, and restaurants.

Not only will it have direct access to the future Swamp Rabbit Trail extension, but the project will also include 175 parking spaces, which was a major deciding factor for Home Team.

“What’s really important to us is accessibility,” says Home Team’s chief operating partner and pitmaster Aaron Siegel. “How we win is attracting families. Having parking is important.”

The front 6 acres of Holland Park consists of a one-story, 5,500-square-foot restaurant for Home Team fronting Laurens Road; an approximately 18,000-square-foot, three-story building also fronting Laurens, with ground-level retail or restaurants, and two upper levels of office space; Double Stamp Brewery behind Home Team; two shipping container restaurants across from the brewery; and Oak Tree Park, a park with 12 existing, 100-year-old oak trees that will provide a full canopy from the sun in the summer.

The back portion of the land, which is bordered by the under-construction Swamp Rabbit Trail extension, will remain undeveloped while this first phase is completed, and until the developer, J. Darryl Holland, a local real estate attorney, finds the right use for the land. He says he’s considering everything from multifamily to an entertainment amphitheater. The former senior living building on the left side of the property will be demolished in phase two, and that is also up for development for the right tenant, Holland says.

Holland will be relocating his law practice, J. Darryl Holland Law Firm, to the new office building, leaving 9,000 square feet of office space available to rent.

An anchor tenant the caliber of Charleston-based Home Team, which has received accolades from both print and TV national media since 2006, was a major score for Holland and further legitimizes Greenville’s growing culinary scene.

Siegel says Greenville was on their radar for what will be Home Team’s sixth location mostly because of their experiences cooking during the annual euphoria food, wine, and music festival. He and his partners saw the town was growing, and after opening a location in Aspen, Colorado, 2,500 miles away from home base, Greenville’s proximity to Charleston was a plus.

“I see it kind of being like Charleston was 15 years ago,” Siegel says. “It’s kind of a sleeping giant. We want to be a part of what’s going on from a culinary standpoint.”

A development this size also confirms the Laurens Road corridor’s growth city officials have been predicting for the last few years, which in large part began with the 2014 announcement of Hollingsworth Park’s Verdae Development at the end of Laurens near Interstate 85. On the portion of Laurens closest to downtown, Willy Taco Feed & Seed opened in December 2016 in a former feed-and-seed building at the East Washington Street and Laurens Road intersection. Projects in between the two are in the works, such as Think Tank Brew Lab, which proposes a small-scale Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.-like experience off Airport Road.

These projects, including Holland Park, are a direct result of the proposed Swamp Rabbit Trail extension that is in the works. Greenville County, which is managing the trail expansion, has removed the old rails and ties from the abandoned rail line, and plans call for a $1.5 million flyover bridge near Willy Taco and across Laurens Road to tie into city-owned property just north of the Spinx gas station and into Cleveland Park.

City of Greenville Mayor Knox White has been a champion for growth in this particular area of the city and helped connect Home Team with Holland.

“Laurens Road is the next big development area of the city with lots of opportunities,” he says. “Like all the other corridors, it’s affected by the rollout of the downtown development, and Laurens Road is poised to be the next.”

He cites the anticipation of the Swamp Rabbit Trail extension as an incentive for developers.

“Laurens Road has always been a through corridor and rather dowdy,” he says. “It’s really waking up.”

The construction and access requirements for Holland Park will call for wider sidewalks and landscaping that will spur further streetscaping improvements and redevelopment, White says.

For Holland, the project has been about 18 months in the making, with the land acquisition requiring six different closings over nine months. The first parcel was acquired in August 2017, and the last of seven parcels total closed in May.

Holland’s sole financial partner in the venture is Bank of Travelers Rest, with senior vice president Bob White working as the loan officer. Otherwise, Holland is self-funded, which is why he hasn’t yet marketed the available spaces, choosing instead to personally seek out tenants whom he has confidence will create the atmosphere he wants and draw in the community.

“I wanted to personally target tenants that I thought would be exciting for the project and for Greenville,” he says. “I wanted to bring concepts or brands that Greenville had never seen before in this market.”

His first target was a brewery.

“In the very beginning Ryan Robertson with SVN BlackStream LLC told me he had a client that was wanting to introduce a new local brewery concept to Greenville called Double Stamp Brewery,” Holland says. “Double Stamp Brewery turned out to be a perfect fit. They signed on to be the first tenant and they brought an immediate energy to the project. I am very thankful to them for being the first to believe in Holland Park.”

The Double Stamp partners have chosen not to announce more details at this time.

“Right after Double Stamp Brewery signed, Mayor Knox White contacted me and told me that Home Team BBQ was interested in the Greenville market, and he thought that they would be a great anchor for Holland Park,” Holland says. “Mayor White told me that bringing Home Team BBQ to Holland Park would help ignite the revitalization of Laurens Road and create another great entrance to our city.”

Home Team BBQ was represented locally by Boyd Hipp with Highgarden Commercial Real Estate and in Charleston by Sean Litton with The Peninsula Co. Holland says he worked with Hipp and Litton for several months along with civil engineer John Connelly with Britt, Peters and Associates Inc. to make sure he could accommodate the large footprint that Home Team desired for their entrance into the Greenville market.

At the time, Home Team was also securing its newest location in Columbia, which will open in spring 2019, and the partners wanted to execute that lease before finalizing the Greenville location, Siegel says. With that lease signed, Home Team is working with their architect on the final design for the restaurant that will also include 1,000 square feet of patio and have a large enough kitchen to meet the day-to-day needs and also operate the significant catering arm of the concept.

Home Team’s Greenville menu will be consistent with previous locations, offering elevated yet approachable, multiregional barbecue paired with creative sides, salads, tacos, and more, in addition to chef-driven daily specials. The menu will also highlight a wide-ranging bar program featuring an expansive American whiskey selection, frozen cocktails, and local craft beer curated by director of operations Adam Rothstein.

Siegel says he and his partners will be active in the Greenville location’s operations to guarantee consistency and quality throughout all six locations.

“We think we’ve got the structure to handle this experience,” he says. “We’re not franchising. We’ll be as serious as a heart attack as to how things go up there.”

Holland says that having been in the permitting process with the city of Greenville for about six months and nearing completion, an early first-quarter groundbreaking could put the opening of both Home Team and Double Stamp Brewery in late 2019.

“We know that there are a lot of folks from Greenville who are excited,” Siegel says. “It feels good to know that folks are excited about your arrival. It makes us want to work hard to fill the expectations.”

For more information about Holland Park, contact J. Darryl Holland at [email protected]