CAMDEN, S.C. — New life is coming to downtown Camden as businesses hang up their signs and prepare to open their doors.
“It's really important for us to get businesses downtown because that's the core of the commercial area. If downtown is strong, the rest of the city is strong,” said Shawn Putnam, director of planning & development for the city.
Putnam says they’ve been working to ensure more shops are opening by using the Bailey bill for several buildings.
“We’ve helped business owners package federal and state tax incentives together to make projects more realistic, so we’re doing a lot of work to make downtown an attractive place to open a business,” Putnam said.
Three businesses are currently in the works downtown, including a cigar lounge known as Silver Leaf Cigar Lounge, a new steak and seafood destination called B Colson’s, and a third business that has yet to be named.
The city remains hopeful more businesses will come. To do so, leaders have proposed zoning ordinance amendments that will face final reading at Tuesday's city council meeting.
The proposal states that businesses like automobile dealers, auto parts stores, pawn shops, home centers, and wholesale durable goods will no longer be permitted in the downtown district, while others like arcades, ballrooms, escape rooms, laser tag, and brewpubs would be allowed downtown.
“We hope that will attract locals to stay here but we also hope it will attract people from the surrounding area; we know that some of the restaurants and businesses downtown are attracting people from neighboring counties, so we want that to continue as well,” Putnam said.
Multiple businesses and shops are also in the works near the interstate that remains under construction.
City Council meets Tuesday, August 8th at 5:30 pm at City Hall.
The cigar lounge is anticipated to open on August 9th. No opening date has been announced for the other two businesses.