On our way to lunch this morning, Fisher and I noticed that the old Florentine building was being gutted. I remember when I first moved here in 2003, that was one of the first landmarks that I identified. The dignified old building seemed like a throwback to the golden days. I had to know what they were going to build in its place and after a quick Google search, I found my answer.
Goodbye Florentine building, Hello parking deck!
Florence Mayor, Stephen Wukela, recently announced at a Rotary club meeting that the city is currently tearing down the old Florentine building as a part of the on-going downtown revitalization. Where once stood an apartment building, there will now be a "mixed-use development," including business commercial, residential, retail, and another parking deck. There are also plans to build a food hub nearby.
Even though it's kind of sad to see a landmark of old Florence being demolished, time marches on and new growth is exciting. As more development happens downtown, we welcome a second parking deck and of course it's always nice to have new restaurants. We'd love there to be more fast casual (hopefully locally owned) spots to eat in the area. The fancy, more expensive eateries currently downtown are certainly nice, but we work downtown and would love places to casually hit up for lunch. Fingers crossed!
For more info: https://www.scnow.com/news/local/article_1187e0e4-b7cc-11e9-95c4-0f7d0393906c.html