Old Main Street site of The Herald will now give way to Rock Hill’s new development
The crumbling white building in downtown Rock Hill — once a bustling newsroom for The Herald — will now become a mixed-use development, officials announced Thursday.
Developers envision plans for the site, 132 W. Main St., to include residential and retail space, restaurants, an amphitheater, and a playground, a press release said. There also will be a parking deck at the site.
Construction should be complete sometime in 2024, developers said.
The building was purchased by White Point, a private real estate development firm based in Charlotte. It’s the same company that built Optimist Hall, a popular food site in Charlotte’s NoDa section. White Point also has done work in Raleigh and Charleston, officials said.
While the building once served as a site for printing newspapers and a hub for writers and reporters, it has been vacant for years and is in disrepair. It will be demolished by the end of the year.
“It’s the last big building that we see downtown that needs to be developed, needs to be refashioned,” Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys said.
At Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Gettys called the building “the last domino to fall,” as Rock Hill officials work toward modernizing the downtown area.
“I can remember many years coming to this site to get copies of old papers,” Gettys said. “I can remember coming to the site for interviews. I can remember coming to this site and seeing people who really loved Rock Hill and wanted to tell that story. For generations, people in Rock Hill were employed here. In today’s world, we’re all worried about our stories, but seeing The Herald building go down doesn’t mean we lose the ability to tell our story.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
