The Old Baby Bi-Lo Is Being Turned Toward North Main Street

At 505 N. Main St., the building still sits behind its parking lot. A two-story brick plaza with a center tower and gabled roofs sits across Main Street from McPherson Park, and for most of the last decade its storefronts have stayed dark. In March, the City of Greenville said eight units in the center had been vacant for more than five years, and together they make up more than 80% of the structure.

The plaza now has a new name, N. Main, and a target delivery date of June 2027. The new plan keeps the parking lot, which no other shopping center on Main Street has, and redesigns the building so it reads as part of the street instead of something set back behind the cars.

Nearly Thirteen Years From the Last Grocery Run

The nickname comes from a small BI-LO that ran on this corner for more than 20 years. Upstate Business Journal reported in November 2013 that the store would close on Nov. 30 that year.

Within a year, the center's manager was talking about reopening the grocery space as an independent store called "Neighborhood Market." The Greenville News described the property in October 2014 as a 40,000-square-foot complex of offices and shops, with new asphalt, fresh parking lines and landscaped fountains at the curb. Its tenants then included North Hills Medical Center, No. 1 China, Glow On Main Hair Salon, financial services firms and a banquet hall. The market never opened. Over the following years most of the remaining tenants left too, and according to Fox Carolina, city officials said 90% of the building had been vacant since 2021.

So the corner's long quiet was never just a missing grocery store. The whole building was empty.

The Ownership Change and the Approvals

The current plan follows a clear sequence:

1. April 2025. Greenville-based Oxford Capital Partners, led by Harrison Horowitz, bought the roughly 3-acre site in a joint venture with Chicago-based Northpond Partners.
2. August 2025. The plans went public, along with a drop-in project preview meeting for residents at the Prisma Health Welcome Center at Unity Park.
3. Oct. 16, 2025. The city's Design Review Board approved the exterior renovation with conditions.
4. March 2026. City Council certified the site under the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act. That law provides state income tax credits equal to 25% of qualified rehabilitation expenses.
5. Sept. 4, 2026. The first new tenant was announced.
6. June 2027. This is the target delivery date in the current leasing materials.

The investment figure has risen with each public step. The Greenville Journal's council notes put the renovation at $17.75 million, Fox Carolina reported $18 million, and the leasing materials now say about $20 million.

The schedule has moved too. In August 2025, Horowitz hoped to start in early 2026 and finish by mid-to-late fall. By March, city officials expected work to begin in late spring or early summer and wrap up by summer 2027. In early September, Oxford described the renovation as one it would "soon start."

Pulling the Storefronts Out to the Columns

The design work is where the corner changes most. The plan extends the existing storefronts out to the building's brick columns, which the developer says creates a stronger street presence. The center tower and gabled roofs come off. The brick facade gets an upgrade, along with new lighting, new signage and a rebuilt outdoor staircase.

The Design Review Board asked for more. In its conditions, the board told the developer to restudy the eastern facade and the part of the site near the corner of North Main and Academy streets. It suggested wider sidewalks, new landscaping and added pedestrian lighting, and it asked for a different material in place of the proposed drainable EIFS system. Upstate Business Journal's recap of the Oct. 16 meeting describes the goal as improving "pedestrian access and site activation" across the property.

Parking stays, and it is the selling point. The lots off North Main and Academy are being upgraded, and the site's count rises to 178 spaces. Horowitz framed the strategy in Upstate Business Journal's August 2025 report:

"As the only traditional shopping center downtown with surface-level parking and a limited amount of space to lease, we are actively curating a collection of the best names in men's and women's apparel, home décor, fitness, and dining to include local Greenville favorites."

Extending the storefronts adds some floor area. The building measured about 40,000 square feet in 2014, and the current leasing materials list 42,162 square feet of retail and restaurant space. An August 2025 floor plan showed 12 commercial spaces ranging from about 366 to 15,870 square feet, and Horowitz called the final count a moving target.

Who Has Signed On

The first tenant is HYLO Fitness, a Charleston-based boutique studio offering HIIT along with heated Pilates, barre and yoga-inspired classes. Co-founders Angus Long and Matt Herring started the brand in 2017. It has four studios in South Carolina and Tennessee, and its N. Main space will be 6,740 square feet. The founders told Upstate Business Journal they had been looking for the right Greenville location since 2020. In announcing the deal, Horowitz called HYLO "the first of several tenant announcements to come."

The second anchor is a restaurant space of up to 7,720 square feet with patio seating. Together, the studio and the restaurant take up about a third of the building. For the rest, the developer is recruiting grocery, fashion, restaurant, coffee, home and wellness tenants. Grocery is back on that list nearly thirteen years after the BI-LO closed, though for now it is a category the developer is recruiting for, not a store with a name.

City Councilmember John DeWorken, speaking to Upstate Business Journal when the plans were unveiled, put it this way: "Because we were patient, we now have a developer who will activate a space that will be welcoming to the neighborhoods that surround it."

The Other Side of the Street

The leasing materials name the plaza's best feature, and it isn't anything on the property. They describe N. Main as "directly across Main Street from McPherson Park, a daily draw for residents and visitors." The wider sidewalks and pedestrian lighting the Design Review Board asked for along North Main are what would connect the restaurant patio to that park.

The park at 120 E. Park Ave. is getting its own work this fall. Studio Greenville is partnering with the City of Greenville on a mini golf and landscape project there. The church is raising money toward a $40,000 goal and running volunteer mornings, and the next one is Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon. Details and sign-up are on Studio Greenville's events page.

In 2018 the city took proposals to replace the course with a new 18-hole design that had rock features, pipe shots and a practice green, as WYFF reported at the time. A 2025 family guide described it as free, with players bringing their own clubs and balls.

So the two sides of this stretch of North Main are being worked on in the same year. The plaza is moving its storefronts closer to the street, and the park across from it is getting new plantings and work on its putting course.

If you've wondered how a project like N. Main could change the blocks around McPherson Park, or what it might mean for a North Main home you own or have your eye on, I'm always glad to talk it through. Tom Marchant will keep an eye on N. Main as tenants are announced, and I'd welcome the conversation. Let's Connect.