The controversial high-rise housing and retail project called "Woven" is now a done deal for Greenville's West End. It's backers say, it will transform the neighborhood, and so do its critics.
Two dozen people, most of them opposed to the project, spoke in City Council's public session, triggering impassioned debate among council members who finally voted four-to-three, three hours later to approve "Woven."
It's name is the developers' nod to the area off Pendleton Street near Academy, as the historic mill village business district. Two-story storefronts will be cleared away for the construction now slated to begin around the end of the year.
The original 254 apartment design has been whittled down to 214 with a percentage of them earmarked as affordable housing. Mayor Knox White championed project for its affordable homes in an area that is need of them.