What was once an old A&P grocery store is being revitalized as the new headquarters for the Trehel Corporation and the marketing agency Cargo.

The building on 914 Pendleton St. at the corner of Academy Street began its life as a neighborhood grocery store in the 1930s. The structure stills bears the marks of those days. Inside, you’ll see the unique barrel-vaulted ceiling arch overhead, the same roof under which shoppers purchased their groceries generations ago.

Trehel Senior Executive Vice President Jack Weber said the goal from the start was to preserve that history in the structure.

“This was always an adaptive reuse project, and we felt we needed to honor the old building as much as possible,” Weber said. “We don’t want to tear it down. Instead we want to incorporate it in the design itself.”

The project is being designed by McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture. Architect Earle Hungerford said the design of the building “refers to the traditions of the past, while still incorporating contemporary ideas as well.”

“It’s designed to be visibly noticed from the busy intersection and to provide a sort of symbolic gateway to the downtown,” Hungerford said.

The project will add two floors to the structure, with 12,000 square feet per floor, for a total of 36,000. Trehel will occupy the second floor, with Cargo taking the top floor. No tenant or tenants have yet been announced to occupy the first floor.

Scott Brand, partner at Cargo, said the agency had been looking for a place to call their own in downtown Greenville for a few years, and the building’s location at the intersection between downtown and the Village of West Greenville fit perfectly with their goals for the new location.

“That’s one of the things that attracted us to it,” Brand said. “That sense of the location’s connectivity, as well as just the style of the building itself — utilizing something that is existing and growing on top of that.”

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2020, with no anticipated delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Construction is going smoothly,” Weber said. “Some material delivery delays are starting to crop up, but we’ll do our best to work around it.”

The post Trehel Corporation and Cargo bring new life to old building appeared first on UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL.