Once a speed trap, this SC city wants to build a downtown and become a destination. Here’s the plan

Mauldin is Greenville County’s third largest city, after Greenville and Greer, and the only one without a downtown.

Mauldin was once known as speed trap city — it has eight listed on speedtrap.org — and is home to a Duke’s Mayonnaise plant and Ahold distribution center, grocery stores and fast food restaurants, strip malls and gas stations. It’s encircled by subdivisions that were built in the past couple of decades to take advantage of the proximity to Greenville.

It was settled in 1784 and received its first charter as the Town of Mauldin, named after Lt. Gov. W.L. Mauldin, in 1890.

Despite the city’s overall financial success, leaders have long yearned for an actual downtown.

They adopted a plan they call City Center Village in 2012, which has endured fits and starts through various councils. It covers 24 acres along railroad tracks in a formerly industrial area where the city’s Public Works Department was once located.

Now comes the Parker Group, a Greenville-based real estate and development company, and Longbranch Development of Spartanburg, with a plan to transform 6.5 acres into a mixed-use development of townhomes and an entertainment and dining district to be called Maverick Yards.

Parker Group paid the city $1.15 million for the land.

“This is an exciting development for the city that marks a key step in our transformation from a crossroad community to a destination.” Mauldin Mayor Terry Merritt said in a news release.

The Parker Group recently finished redeveloping property at the city’s main intersection of Highway 276 and Butler Road that once held a Rite Aid. It is a brick building designed for four restaurants — Sully’s Steamers and Bohemian Bull have already leased space there.

For the new project, the Parker Group intends to transform a 20,000 square-foot warehouse for pickleball courts, dining, a stage for live performances, fire pits and a beer garden, similar to Greenville’s The Commons, a food hall off the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

The trail begins in downtown Greenville and extends along a former railroad bed north to Travelers Rest, 22 miles away. Many spurs throughout Greenville County have connected to it in recent years.

Longbranch Development will build townhomes on 2.4 acres where the Public Works facility and an industrial building were.

The city intends to use the money from the sale on sidewalks, road improvements, a pedestrian/bike trail to connect to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, landscaping and parking in the City Center area..

“Everything is ready to move forward to start making City Center Village a reality,” said council member Taft Matney, chairman of the city’s economic planning and development committee. ”We want to continue providing new and exciting places to live, work and play in the city, and this is a big step toward that goal.