Business View Magazine | March 2019

184 nect our existing trail system to our soccer complex in a 100-acre park. So, once you get to the soccer complex, you’ll have a three-mile, certified trail that people can access for run- ning events, or just simply to enjoy. It will be an extension of our 10-mile trail system that is working towards the downtown.” Another project on the drawing boards is a downtown transportation hub to be created in conjunction with the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority. “It will bring people from all over the city, and outside the city, to a location in the middle of our urban area, where they can move to a free shuttle that can take them to medical facilities, city, county, and state offices, and a new farmers market that is currently under construction,” Griffin states. “That farmers market is adjacent to a potential, unnamed public/private redevelopment effort that could be anywhere from $50-$70 million. The public portion is the assemblage of land, providing ingress, egress, and some parking; the private side of that would be a very sig- nificant commercial mixed-use development that could involve residential, a hotel, owner- occupied housing, and/or a restaurant/office complex.” According to City Planner, Jerry Dudley, much of Florence’s revitalization efforts are aimed at attracting new residents and holding on