GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) – Downtown Greeneville has been under construction for over two years, but the project has been completed.
Main Street and Depot Street have been closed to allow the city to perform maintenance and give the area a new look.
“You’re going to see visually, the streets, the sidewalks, the landscaping, the lamp posts, there’s a very visual element to this,” said Greeneville City Manager Todd Smith. “We’ve designed the street to be not just your typical street where cars pass through; we designed Depot Street to be a pedestrian area with the look and feel of a very historic but walkable downtown.”
Smith told News Channel 11 that the idea for the project started in 2012 with the goal of bringing more activity to downtown.
“A lot of that’s business activity, it’s residential activity, it’s special events,” Smith said. “We’ve already seen a number of special events already happening on Depot Street.”
Downtown Greeneville has not performed major renovations on this level in the past. Smith said the hope for the project was to make sure the roads remain well maintained to accommodate more people moving to Greene County.
The re-development of Main and Depot Street also strives to encourage more businesses to set up shop in downtown.
“We’re already starting to see some private sector investment downtown,” Smith said. “We’ve got at least $15 million of improvements in downtown, a number of potential retail spaces, a number of residential space already under construction at this point.”
East Depot and Main Street are open as of Wednesday, but West Depot Street is still closed due to a separate project.
