GREENVILLE, S.C. — Windsor Aughtry Company expects to break ground this quarter on the M. Heller, a seven-story, 149-room boutique hotel planned for one of the last undeveloped parcels on Greenville’s Main Street, the Greenville-based developer said.
The hotel will rise at the corner of South Main Street and East McBee Avenue on a 0.46-acre site that currently holds a bank parking lot and drive-through ATM. The Greenville Design Review Board approved the project’s design with conditions in November, clearing the way for construction to start in the third quarter of 2026. Windsor Aughtry entered a joint venture with the Kiriakides family, longtime owners of the property, to develop the site.
“The whole project is going to be a tribute to Greenville,” said David Aughtry, an associate with Windsor Aughtry Company.
The 100,350-square-foot hotel will join the Tapestry Collection by Hilton and take its name from former Greenville Mayor Max Heller, credited as the driving force behind downtown Greenville’s revitalization beginning in the 1970s. Plans call for 149 guest rooms, a fitness center and meeting space on the top floor, and a ground-floor restaurant with outdoor seating and its own entrance at the building’s corner. The main hotel lobby will be accessed from East McBee Avenue.
Renderings show a brick-and-stone exterior with floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground level. Bo Aughtry, chairman and CEO of Windsor Aughtry Company, said the design draws on the architecture of The Westin Poinsett and the former Greenville County Courthouse nearby.
“We want to honor that architecture in this block with what we feel like is a very timely design that will look as good 20 years or 30 years or 40 years from now as do those historic buildings,” Aughtry said.
As a condition of approval, the Design Review Board asked the development team to further study adding a second public entrance facing Main Street and to refine sidewalk paving, outdoor lighting, entry awnings and screening for a service alley before final permitting. The project also includes demolition of the existing bank drive-thru structure and streetscape upgrades along East McBee Avenue, including a car drop-off lane. Parking will be handled off-site through valet service.
The project adds to a wave of downtown Greenville hotel activity that has pushed the city past 2,000 hotel rooms, according to Visit Greenville. Other boutique hotels have been proposed nearby in the West End along Pendleton and Rhett streets, though timelines for those projects have shifted in recent years.
For commercial real estate professionals, the M. Heller represents one of the few remaining ground-up development opportunities directly on Main Street, where available parcels have grown scarce as the corridor has filled in with retail, office and residential projects over the past decade. A construction start this quarter would also signal continued investor confidence in downtown Greenville’s hospitality sector even as some other announced hotels in the market have seen delays.
Upstate Commercial Real Estate News 
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