Beaufort aims to revitalize Downtown district

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WTOC) - The City of Beaufort is looking to ‘energize’ its downtown district through the return of Main Street Beaufort, the city’s revitalization association.

The goal of the re-energized downtown Beaufort is to make the district around Bay street bigger and better than before while maintaining its historic southern charm.

Main Street Beaufort is looking to bring even more people to downtown.

“We’d love to see more in the businesses, more in the stores, we’d love to see more events down here at our beautiful waterfront park. So in order to make that happen, that’s exactly our goal,” said Ashley Brandon, Downtown Manager, City of Beaufort.

Main Street Beaufort plans to do this through providing marketing for businesses, creating a soon-to-come website and pushing for downtown business to stay open later. While downtown already sees visitors from all around, the later nights could pull more people in, according to local economists.

“People are expecting to be able to go shopping and to dine, and when you have a vibrant downtown, it’s an automatic natural draw for an area. It’s something we can highlight and celebrate as we invite people to come visit our portion of the Lowcountry. It’s also a great experience for visitors,” said Robb Wells, President and CEO of Visit Beaufort, Port Royal/Sea Islands.

WTOC checked in with the owner of Bottles off Bay, who acquired the business in September, and he said he’s open to staying open.

“Certainly, the folks coming in town now are great for the businesses here if that can be extended, by all means it’ll work out here.”

WTOC will be checking in with Downtown Beaufort throughout the re-energizing process and you can find those stories on air and on the Lowcountry page of our website.