The future of the old Hoescht Celanese fiber plant in Greenville, S.C., isn’t looking so bright now that plans to purchase the 75-acre site have fallen through. The plant had been the proposed site of Woodruff Point, a $600 million mixed-use development that was slated as the new urban core of the town. McChesney Investment Advisors, an Atlanta-based developer, was under contract to buy the million-square-foot factory last fall but could not reach an agreement with the owners, according to Scott S. Drake, McChesney’s director of communications.

Still, the firm remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached.

“It’s still on the table,” says Drake. “We’ve studied the land, we know it backwards and forwards. We’re just regrouping and repitching.” 

It’s been a labor of love for McChesney, which worked to get the project off the ground for two years. After collaborating with city and state officials to address zoning and environmental issues, McChesney teamed up with another Atlanta-based architectural and planning firm, GreenbergFarrow, to lay groundwork for the venture.

GreenbergFarrow’s vision included 500,000 square feet of retail space, 600,000 square feet of office space, 100 townhomes, 1,125 condominiums, 1,125 apartments, a 420-room boutique hotel, and a 2-acre public park.

Both Drake and Shay Eskew, McChesney’s director of development, say a number of factors contributed to the stalled development, including the depressed real estate market.

“We’re waiting for retail to get its footing back,” says Eskew. “And when that happens, we have to make sure that a retail agreement is in place.”

But according to Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey, all signs point to Woodruff Point being dead in the water.

“At this point the project is not going forward,” Bourey says. “We hear there were environmental concerns that had not been fully addressed, and there’s speculation that they didn’t get full financing. And then there’s the matter of figuring out who’s responsible for the contamination.”

This is only the latest in a series of setbacks for the old fiber plant. Shortly after investors purchased the plant in February 1998, plans for a $10 million ice skating and entertainment complex fell through. Two years later a bank sued to foreclose on the property when investors defaulted on a $14 million loan, and the plant and the surrounding 35 acres were sold several months later to avoid foreclosure.

A baseball stadium was proposed, but eventually landed in the city’s downtown district. In April 2003, a group of investors headed by former supermarket executive John Wilken bought 170 acres and another proposal—which included a Whole Foods Market and a Circuit City—was submitted a year later. Another round of deals calling for three hotels and three restaurants was announced the following year, but again, nothing developed.

Things began looking up in March 2007, when McChesney and GreenbergFarrow unveiled their plans before the Greenville City Council, which unanimously greenlighted the project. But when it came time to close on the land in November, negotiations between the two parties hit a snag.

“It wasn’t a money issue, it was more of a disagreement over contract details,” says Drake, who declined to comment further.