2018 was a year of change for Beaufort, and we can expect that to continue into the new year as well. 2019 is a year that we will see lots of new things in Beaufort SC, and a good deal of change is headed our way.
Let’s take a look at a few things:
Construction will start on the replacement of the Harbor Island Bridge. SCDOT crews will continue to get the area ready for major construction coming later in 2019. The plan is to replace the existing bridge along Sea Island Parkway with a new fixed span bridge similar to the McTeer Bridge in Port Royal.
2018 was a boom for Beaufort Town Center and several new businesses will be added to the Center in 2019. Among those coming in the new year are The Cracked Egg, Grounded Running, Rotten Little Bastard Distillery, another new authentic Mexican Restaurant and Hank’s She Crab Soup.
We win some and we lose some. 2019 will also be the year that the Plaza Stadium Movie Theater is closing. It’s being torn down to make way for a new Publix grocery store and there are other additions are planned for the Beaufort Shopping Plaza.
The Beaufort County Animal Services new campus and shelter will be opening in 2019 in Okatie. “We expect to be open this spring,” says director Tallulah McGee. The new 21,000 square foot campus is being built on a six-acre site at 10 Pritcher Point Road in Okatie. The facility will include an Adoption Center with kitten spaces, cat spaces and puppy spaces, a spay/neuter clinic, a community dog park, a walking trail, an exercise yard and even a dog bone-shaped pond. It will also have a facility to house and treat animals brought there or picked up by animal services and a new spay-neuter clinic.
In 2018 we saw the Boundary Street construction plan finally come to an end and we now have a beautiful entrance to the city along Highway 21. Expect some other smaller road projects in 2019.
Development will continue at the Whitehall Plantation spot on Lady’s Island at the foot of the Woods Memorial Bridge. After securing a 10 acre park with 8 of the acres devoted to a Nature Preserve area, development will start to move forward this year. Construction is expected to start in the spring, and there are plans to have a grand opening for the park in the beginning of 2020. Visit Friends of Whitehall Park to keep up on the news.
Construction will move forward on the new location of Bridges Preparatory School. The school purchased an 18 acre spot along Robert Smalls Parkway near Castle Rock Road to build a 90,000-square-foot facility to house all grades from kindergarten through 12th grade. The project should be completed by the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
For a few years we’ve been waiting for a renourishment project to move forward at Hunting Island. The state has plans to pump 1.2 million cubic yards of sand onto Hunting Island’s beaches to offset rapid erosion. The scope of the project grew after Hurricane Matthew further eroded the beach and decimated dunes in 2016. Maybe this is the year it will happen?
Longhorn Steakhouse is setting up shop across the highway from Lowe’s Home Improvement in a newer development that will also see a car dealership (ugh), some commercial spaces and offices including a new Aspen Dental office. We can expect the new 5,500 square-foot restaurant to open its doors later in 2019.
Of course there will be more than just this and we can expect that. After all, there’s lots of room for growth in Beaufort.
Read more about the Harbor River Bridge replacement.
Read more about Longhorn Steakhouse setting up in Beaufort.
