GREENVILLE — A developer has proposed a community of 17 mixed-income residences in Southernside. It could eventually connect with Unity Park by a boardwalk over some wetlands.
Dubbed Trotter Place and Unity Estates, the proposed community would offer two subdivisions of 11 market-rate homes and another of 6 affordable homes in the changing Greenville neighborhood.
Developer Ronnie Cespedes said they’re still working out how to help finance the affordable units on Oscar Street.
“The more affordable we can get, the better,” Cespedes said at the city’s project preview meeting in August.
The city’s Planning Commission will consider a rezoning request for the project, while the Design Review Board will consider approving the design of the community.
Affordability could be achieved by working with local partners, such as the city, Habitat for Humanity, the Greenville Housing Fund or the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority. They are also offering mortgage rates of 3.99 to 4.99 percent, Cespedes said.
They plan to target households making 80 percent of the median family income, or about $85,050 for a family of four or $59,550 for a single person, according to federal guidelines for 2026.
Cespedes said the goal is to “welcome all incomes, all walks of life, no matter where you’re from.”
It’s the latest proposed affordable housing in the area around Unity Park, where no new such housing has been delivered despite promises from local leaders.
One complex, Southernside East, is nearing completion, and another sibling project has begun construction.
Originally planned for sale at market rates, Cespedes said that after learning about the history of Unity Park, they decided to sell some of them at attainable prices.
During segregation, the city took from the only park for Black children to make it a segregated baseball park. Black residents protested, and the city promised to build a park for the neighborhood.
For decades after, the government actively disinvested in the Southernside community, with their backyards used as junkyards and hundreds of homes demolished for a highway project that was never completed. Heavy industry was common in the area.
Now the Southernside community has become an attractive real estate investment opportunity, with the area seeing its Black population plummet as wealthier White families move in.
