GREENWOOD, S.C. — The empty JCPenney anchor at Greenwood Mall could move a step closer to a second life Monday, Nov. 16, when Greenwood City Council considers a resolution certifying the building as an abandoned building site under South Carolina’s Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act.
The resolution covers the former department store at 420 SC-72 NW, which sits on part of a larger Greenwood County tax map parcel. JCPenney left the mall in July 2019, ending a run at that spot that began when the mall opened in 1979. The retailer’s Greenwood history went back to 1925.
State law sets a high bar for the label. To count as abandoned, at least 66% of a building must have been empty or out of use for five straight years before an owner or developer files a notice of intent to rehabilitate it. A project that qualifies can earn a tax credit equal to 25% of the rehabilitation money actually spent, as long as the final cost lands between 80% and 125% of the estimate in that notice. The program runs through Dec. 31, 2035.
The certification is not a redevelopment plan. The agenda does not name a buyer, tenant or developer for the space.
The JCPenney item is one of several money matters before council. Members are also set to take a first vote on the ordinance that levies city taxes and adopts the budgets, and to consider changing firefighters’ shift schedule and putting a pay and classification study into effect, both effective Jan. 1, 2027.
The meeting opens with oaths of office for Mayor Brandon A. Smith and three ward councilors and the selection of a mayor pro tempore. It starts at 5:30 p.m. in Room 207 of the Municipal Building, 520 Monument St.
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