This year brought many changes to the Greenville area with the City's emphasis on revitalization downtown and subsequent projects in the outer edges of the city. In 2003, the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave Greenville its Great American Main Street award, leading some real estate developers to call it "a model for urban redevelopment." Acclaim went to the emphasis put on parking and streetscapes which, while not glamorous, still drive the attractiveness. This year the Hayden Medal for outstanding achievement in bridge engineering was awarded to the West End's Liberty Bridge by the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Outside the downtown area, we can expect to see progress on the Salvation Army's Joan Kroc endowed west side community center, redevelopment of the commercial corridor along Pleasantburg Drive, and renovation of the Palmetto Expo Center. Four large projects along I-85 are taking shape as well: The International Center for Automotive Research and next to it the Millennium Campus, the Verdae project and the Global Trade Center.

In residential real estate investments, a lot of national attention has been generated over the real estate bubble bursting or slipping back into just an expansion. This may be true of some sizzling metropolitan areas, but Greenville has been blessed with consistent and stable growth, the overall result being a more predictable appreciation rate of homes. This trend is expected to continue as our area grows in the upcoming years.