Searched several different keywords and did not see a previous thread. Anyways, im either going to be working for GE or Fluor in Greenville, SC most likely after I graduate. I remember Blue Jay works for GE in Greenville if im not mistaken. Has anyone else lived there? Or currently lives there? Mainly im looking for tips on apartments in the area or any other general information would be greatly appreciated.

4/7/2007 12:32:32 AM

were you happy with the GE package?

you'll enjoy it there in general i think - the downtown life is arguably better than raleigh - fiance lived down there the past 2 summers and i was down there a decent amount

the only major downside i saw there is the size of the airport

4/7/2007 12:41:08 AM

GE Supply in Greenville?

4/7/2007 12:46:23 AM

if i did GE it would be in the turbines side. they didnt really have positions in the thermal analysis are of their turbines dept like I would like so what i was looking at from them would end up being design and manufacturing of the turbines which isnt exactly what i was looking for from them at the start. The Fluor position is HVAC and utilities (boilers, condensers, etc.) for pharm. companies and was a very nice package. Both are great companies and I wouldnt mind working for either one and either way looks like ill be in greenville

4/7/2007 12:59:40 AM

i was gonna say something nasty, but then i realized I was thinking of Greenwood SC.... i interviewed at Cooper for a job designing industrial capacitor banks for power distribuition. Man that town was a shithole.

we drove back through Greenville and actually that place seemed like it might be cool. kind of a laid back artsy-educated culture sort of feel to it.

but then again, i was coming back from Strom Thurmond's hometown or some shit, and Gastonia probably would have looked artsy-cultured at that point. :yuck:

4/7/2007 2:19:43 AM

I live near Spartanburg.

4/7/2007 10:02:31 AM

AVON works in cheraw... the bomb

4/7/2007 1:00:32 PM

I lived in Greenwood last summer and it sucked ass... In fact, unless you live in Charleston, all of South Carolina sucks ass.

4/7/2007 1:40:00 PM

I grew up in Greenville, you're lucky it grew the fuck up.

4/7/2007 4:04:13 PM

My family is from Greenville and I always have a great time when I go out downtown there. Much better than Raleigh.

4/7/2007 4:06:33 PM

If you play golf at all, you have to go to The Cliffs just north of Greenville towards the NC line.

Amazing two golf courses with awesome views. Just FYI.

4/7/2007 5:20:46 PM

I guess the thing I like the most about Greenville is that it is only an hour or two from Asheville

and the gas is cheaper

other than that I hate SC

4/7/2007 6:52:07 PM

hey, i've co-oped for GE twice, last summer and fall. I'll be back down there this summer. Greenville is a lot of fun, downtown is great. If you want to do the big city thing Atlanta is about 2 hours away, Charlotte is an hour and a half.

Cost of living is wicked cheap, even cheaper than Raleigh. Greenville is pretty comparable to Raleigh

4/8/2007 1:50:13 PM

Currently live in Greenville and work for GE on the manufacturing floor. Greenville is small but pretty fun. Downtown has a very artsy/cultured feel; however both facilities are at least 15 minutes away from downtown. Lots of apartments around the GE area to choose from (some within a 5 minute walk) ~450-500/month for a nice 2BR. Don't know enough about the Fluor area. Let me know if you have specific questions.

[Edited on April 8, 2007 at 2:50 PM. Reason : ]

4/8/2007 2:50:22 PM

Yea, I work for GE in Greenville, to, but I work in the design engineering department instead of on the floor like HaLo.

What do you want to know? THere are plenty of appartments in town, and I can let you know the nice ones near GE if you take that job.

Greenville is an awesome place, and GE is a good company to work for. Did you get in on the Edison program?

4/8/2007 3:07:59 PM

fluor is right off haywood next to the mall. anyone know good apartments near there?

4/10/2007 10:43:39 PM

hey all, thanks for the replies. Ive been rather busy lately and forgot to check this thread. I appreciate the amount of comments, nice to know a little bit more about the area. Obviously I have visited it more than once, however living somewhere is a lot different than visiting heh.

Quote :

"I guess the thing I like the most about Greenville is that it is only an hour or two from Asheville"

from what i can see its about 1.5 hours from asheville, 2 hours from Charlotte (where my family and my gf's family live), 2 hours from Atlanta (where some of my friends and family live), and still only 4 hours from Raleigh where all my current friends and GF will be living. not really bad at all.

I actually ended up taking the Fluor offer as it was very good. My aunt and uncle both work for GE, with my Aunt having over 30,000 people under her in GE energy alone, so i felt bad turning them down but surprisingly enough they both seemed genuinely happy to see me at least work for a partner of theres if i wasnt going to work for them. Everything about GE was nice, even the person I emailed to turn down called me and told me he would be happy to consider me in the future. Unfortunately, they didnt have the type of position open that I really wanted to pursue at this time (was more design and manufacturing) and Fluor did. But it is nice to know that if for some reason i did not end up liking Fluor, GE would be right there in the same city to look at getting a new job at.

and yea im looking for apartments/townhouses near Fluor right now. Its near the mall like ^ said.

4/10/2007 11:12:06 PM

Congrats on the job! I've got a few buddies that work at Flour and really like it. And like you said, you could always switch to GE if you get tired of flour, (or Michelin, or Timken, or BMW, or bosch, or IBM, or ... you get the idea, theres a lot here)

I never got an appartment, I just bought a house off the bat, so I may not be the right person to talk to about that. What area are you looking to get? Anything along 385 will be a real easy commute to the Mall area, but be weary, that exit has crazy traffic during rush hour times. Some of my buddies got appartments that were nice, One was right off 385 on Butler Rd, another one was at Roper Mountain Rd. and Roper Mountain Extension. I know there are some up there off haywood, but they don't look real nice from the road.

If you are looking to buy, I can definatley point you in the right directions, depending on what you want. Its a good time to buy here in Greenville, the city keeps expanding. And all your estimates for time to different cities is right on the money, depending on where you live that is.

4/11/2007 9:16:53 AM

i grew up in greenville. i hated it when i lived there, but its grown a bunch in the past 5-8 years. my parents still live there, so i make it down a couple times a year. its really a cool town now. its not very southern....because of all the engineering firms there, a lot of people are from other places, rather then natives. when i was in high school, it had the most engineers per capita of any city in the US...i would assume its still up there.

as far as living, i would strongly recommend downtown (particularly the west end). they've completely renovated the area, and its a real neat place to live. it has tons of bars, restaurants, shops, parks, theatre, baseball (they have a replica of fenway park for the single A baseball team "the greenville drive"), and all types of other stuff. its still got a small town feel, but you can walk around to everything.

they are building a huge engineering car center in the area, so greenville is getting ready to explode (again)...so now is good time to get settled while some things are still affordable. i would look into buying something soon, cause prices are going to go up and the real estate market is one of the best in the country.

i dont know any specific appartment complexes off haywood (since i havent lived there in a while), but i know there are plenty (either there or off pelham, which intersects with haywood), however, i would warn you that that area can be a cluster fuck at times....i dont know if i would want to live right off haywood. also, stay away from a place around woodruff rd...the traffic around there is the worst in the area.

i would love to live there again at some point in my life.

[Edited on April 11, 2007 at 9:27 AM. Reason : df]

4/11/2007 9:23:21 AM

I went to HS there and graduated in 98, and haven't lived there since. My parents still live there. I agree w/ the guy above avoid Woodruff rd it is terrible. My parents live in a nice housing community off it but they take back roads everywhere so they never get on. Downtown is nicer now than when I lived there. I can't stand the pretty people there. They irritate the hell out of me. All the moms and daughters are just pricks. Nice to look at, but just bitches.

4/11/2007 9:54:33 AM

what HS did you go to?

4/11/2007 9:58:35 AM

Thanks for the help so far .

Right now I think I am looking to rent a decently nice apartment or townhouse and give myself time to think about buying. I am starting work in around 6 weeks, and in that time will barely have time to go down to look at apartments. etc. as it is. Also, I want to have time to get the girlfriend down to look around when I think about buying as well. She will still be finishing up school when I am down there, but is going to be an elementary school teacher, so I would imagine she could find a job fairly easily with that area growing.

I will definitely look into some of the downtown living areas. One of the 2 story townhouses I was looking at online was only 5 miles away from work, but 4 miles of it was straight down Woodruff per mapquest :/. Obviously there will be backroads etc. but perhaps that might not be the best area to commute from 5 days a week. Although I imagine no matter where I end up living I will end up dealing with the traffic in that area every day on my way to work.

4/11/2007 10:54:41 AM

Depending on where you live you may be able to hope on Roper Mountain road to avoid Woodruff rd...that is what my family does and we typically do not have any problems...

4/11/2007 11:00:02 AM

yea, woodruff road sucks for traffic with the new strip malls they've built. if you're working at GE then depending on where you live, you can use roper mtn rd or just hope onto garlington (one of the backroads).

4/11/2007 11:03:28 AM

I went to Mauldin...i got to see Garnett play before he left, or as some think forced out...

4/11/2007 12:11:07 PM

cool...i graduated from riverside in 99.

[Edited on April 11, 2007 at 12:14 PM. Reason : s]

4/11/2007 12:14:36 PM

jl mann 00 here. My mom is a doctor in Mauldin and one of her patients was garnetts g'ma

4/11/2007 1:13:45 PM

Hey, I'll be back down in Greenville for my second term at BMW this summer. There are quite a few of us that hang out, we all stay at Beacon Ridge Appts at the corner or haywood and pelham. Great location if you ask me, quiet but still close to everything.

Anyways, any of you that are gonna be down there this summer. Hit me up, we got a pool at the appt., plently of beer, and ill prob have a boat in the next week. So this summer is gonna be fun.

4/11/2007 5:17:52 PM

my friend accepted a position there this week too and is moving there within the next month. PM me for his contacts because i know he has already visited to lok for places

4/11/2007 7:44:43 PM

Huntington Downs is a really nice place. I lived there for one year before moving back to Raleigh. It is seriously like a 5 minute WALK from GE on Roper Mountain Road.

I know you chose Fluor but you can easily avoid Woodruff Rd. living on Roper Mountain, but still have everything that Woodruff and Haywood offer within a 5 minute drive. The cost of this place was like 600 (with the special they had that week) for a 2 BR 1300 sq ft townhome. The complex is really nice and it is within a 10 minute drive of downtown, which is BY FAR the best aspect of Greenville.

The address of the complex is 1409 Roper Mountain Road. Greenville, SC 29615.

There was a place on Haywood that was the other place I was choosing between, however I did not want to have to deal with the traffic on Haywood everyday after my 30 minute drive home, so it might be better for you with a shorter drive. The place is called The Plantations at Haywood. It was a very nice place with 2BRs going to 595/mo, about 1150 or 1200 sq ft.

Make sure to ask wherever you go what their discount is for the business you are going to work for. If you take the offer letter they usually offer to get rid of the application fee or security deposit.

If you want anymore information about things to do in Greenville or places that I checked out when looking for an apartment send me a message.

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 2:11 PM. Reason : name of place on Haywood]

4/12/2007 2:06:36 PM

thanks, ill check into that more. I looked up Huntington Downs and the place looks really nice and its not too far at all from Fluor if i just take roper most of the way.

4/12/2007 7:29:17 PM

Yeah I'm co-oping this sem. and my roommate/workmate is from Gville. We're working in Charlotte and Fluor is actually one of the partners of our company, R E Mason which is another more or less contracting firm for chemical companies, reppin Emerson. Neway from what he says Gville is straight and he liked it more than Charlotte. We came down and visited Fluor a couple months ago cause our company was doing a presentation of some of its products. The facility seemed pretty nice w/ a nice gym on site that people were goin to before work. Also I think theres a lot to do right near the actually job site w/ the mall etc. Good luck on the new job and holler if you hear from anyone at RE Mason (damn near everyone hear graduated from State).

4/13/2007 4:29:58 PM

thanks for all the replies awhile back. I moved down here 2 weeks ago and the area is really nice. The downtown is definitely interesting. At times i miss the slightly more 'city' feel raleigh had, but greenville is nice nonetheless.

6/19/2007 12:36:05 PM

oh and PS so far my job has been great

6/19/2007 1:07:05 PM

Where did you end up living?

6/19/2007 1:17:33 PM

thornblade park. on one hand im spending slightly more than what i would have other places, but on the other hand they misquoted me..but ended up offering it to me for the price they originally quoted without me even asking. basically a new employee told me the 1bedroom price for my building. (i think he got confused because of the fluor discount). so i got a 2br there for the price of a 1bedroom.

the complex is nice and having its own walking trail has been a nice way to force me to start running/working out again

we'll have to hook up for a state game at a bar or something sometime.

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 1:27 PM. Reason : ]

6/19/2007 1:24:48 PM

Thornblade Park? Not sure where that is, but I'm assuming its in Greer around thornblade country club? Def. have to meet up downtown during football season for a few games. There are a few other NC grads in my neighborhood, we may have to all get together and "tailgate"

6/19/2007 1:37:06 PM

yea its in greer. right off of the parkway/pelham intersection near day and zimmerman.

and definitely, thats one thing i was expecting to suck down here was not being able to go to games really plus not having people to watch them with period.

6/19/2007 1:40:32 PM

I grew up in Greenville!

6/20/2007 1:03:55 AM

oh shit...what hs did you go to?

6/20/2007 1:14:25 AM

bump

6/20/2012 10:15:08 PM

^^ i had to do a doubletake on that one, what w/ the dates being the same and all.

6/20/2012 10:22:39 PM

Looking for some updated info on living in Greenville, SC

I'm considering a career opportunity that would take me there. I'd probably want to live near or in downtown, I think.

6/21/2012 12:00:30 AM

it's pretty cool now. Pretty clean, good school districts, cheap housing.

Sorta like a mini charlotte but with less inner-city problems.

more like a suburb of charlotte with some big buildings as needed.

6/21/2012 7:57:12 AM

It seems fitting that I should respond since I made this thread in the first place

I've lived and worked here for 5 years now and owned a house here for 2. Feel free to ask any questions here or via PM or whatever.

6/21/2012 8:15:08 AM

I would take everything that was said for CtoA 5 years ago, and gradually increase it. Greenville has become a really nice city. I visit there every now and then for friends and weddings. Its pretty much the only city I would live in SC besides Charleston.

6/21/2012 8:32:09 AM

^ that pretty much sums it up...

cept you don' have to worry about the flooding and old infrastructure in charleston.

6/21/2012 8:43:49 AM

^^Same haha. I do not like SC except for Charleston and Greenville, but I love both of those.

I really enjoy the downtown in Greenville. I used to be down there multiple times a week, but I do not get down there as much as I used to and I really miss that. (A lot of my close friends from here are on field-assignments right now or have moved away in the past 1-2 years after losing their job or getting married etc. so I haven't "gone out" as much lately).

Anyway, the downtown really does not feel like it is the downtown for the size city that Greenville is. I've been in a lot of cities this size that you just don't feel like the "downtown" is that alive or it seems tired or run down. Not the case here - lots of people are out downtown whether it is the week or the weekend. A lot of these people are younger professionals too. There are lots of decent bars and good restaurants and a handful of good coffee shops and it just keeps growing and more additions keep coming. They keep it very clean, very pedestrian friendly, and there are plenty of outside gathering spots and entertainment areas as well which I like.

Outside of the couple of big roads where all the big-box stores are crammed, the traffic here is still pretty light and very bearable when compared to something like CLT and it's nice that you can easily get a house that is within 10 miles of downtown, work, and everything you'd want to do or need. We got a house 8 miles from work and 10 miles from downtown and I really wish we had been able to find a house on the other side of work so we were something like 4-5 miles from both. We had certain things on our list for our first house that I would definitely trade now to live a little closer to downtown because we like it so much.

Schools are good, houses are cheap.

If I had to make any complaints, I'd say the "suburb" areas (still a lot of them are only 10-15 miles to downtown) are not as visually appealing or as organized as they could be. I don't mean run down at all, I just mean it's kind of a patch job / everyone for themselves attitude that seemed to be happening as they were expanding in the 90s probably. So there are a few more strip malls and just uncoordinated commercial areas than I'd like but I'm a snob about city-planning and architecture and stuff

My other complaint would be that it is hard to find houses in between the older-but-expensive (relatively in terms of Greenville) homes closer to downtown and the cheaper cookie-cutter homes a little farther out. I know this is a common problem lots of places these days though. If I could do it over again I would definitely have waited longer for a home that checked all our boxes closer to downtown even if it meant having to do some reno work in it.

I think most of the big stuff has already been said. I'll definitely answer any questions though.



[Edited on June 21, 2012 at 9:05 AM. Reason : ]

6/21/2012 9:03:07 AM

It's probably the most progressive place in SC, and will continue growing due to the various companies locating there. It's kind of a shame its in SC

6/21/2012 5:54:23 PM

Greenville's awesome. Have fun.

6/21/2012 8:10:15 PM