USDA Grant Funds Downtown Revitalization Planning for Fairfax, Port Royal

SouthernCarolina Alliance has won federal USDA grant support to advance downtown revitalization efforts in Fairfax, Allendale County, and Port Royal, Beaufort County. The grant will fund a partnership with Downtown Strategies, a division of Retail Strategies, to develop customized strategic action plans for each downtown district and to deliver business capacity-building services tied to those plans.

The initiative will produce practical five-year action plans and a prioritized list of near-term projects aimed at targeted improvements to commercial corridors. On-site Strategic Visioning Workshops are scheduled for early 2026 to gather local input and set those priorities. Alongside planning, the program includes direct support for small businesses through Retail Strategies' Small Business Support platform, offering on-demand online training intended to help business owners modernize operations and upgrade marketing.

For Fairfax, one of Allendale County’s principal towns, the USDA-funded planning work carries immediate local significance. The coordinated planning and training are designed to translate larger economic-development investments, such as the nearby sawmill project, into visible downtown improvements, tenant recruitment, and enhanced local services. By producing a prioritized set of projects and bolstering small-business capacity, the effort aims to turn planned or existing county investments into street-level economic activity that residents and customers can see and use.

The program builds on prior SouthernCarolina Alliance collaborations in the region and emphasizes practical steps rather than only high-level studies. Fiscal resources from the USDA grant will cover both the consultant-led strategic planning and the small-business supports that can increase the readiness of local firms to expand, upgrade storefronts, or adopt digital marketing and sales tools. Those capacity gains can make commercial properties more attractive to prospective tenants and improve customer-facing services for county residents.

From a market perspective, aligning corridor improvement priorities with operator-level training can shorten the time between public investment and private-sector activation. For local policymakers, the work offers a roadmap for allocating limited public funds toward projects likely to yield near-term returns in storefront occupancy and business revenue. The scheduled workshops in early 2026 will be a critical moment for residents, merchants, and officials to influence the five-year plan and set the sequence of improvements.

Next steps include the Strategic Visioning Workshops and subsequent development of the finalized action plans and training rollout. The combination of federally funded planning and on-demand business supports presents a practical path for Fairfax to leverage broader county investments into a more vibrant downtown.