For most of this year, Kate Ferrara ran her business out of a pop-up camper parked on the corner of Center Street and West Erie Avenue. She and her business partner had opened Surfer Betty, a beauty supply shop, back in April, choosing that corner specifically because of the foot traffic and visibility. Within weeks, an excavator was staged in the parking lot behind her, a construction trailer sat parked directly out front, and the visibility she'd paid for disappeared behind orange safety fencing. Some days, she told the Post and Courier, the shop brought in less than $100.
That was the summer of 2026 on Folly Beach's only road onto and off the island. The pipes are back in the ground now, the pavers are down, and the barrels are mostly gone. But the businesses that lived through it didn't come out the other side looking the same, and neither did the restaurant scene that anchors the beach walk. The street is fixed. What sits on top of it has quietly changed.
Eighty Years Under the Asphalt
The stormwater pipes running beneath Center Street had never been replaced since they went in during the 1940s. City Administrator Aaron Pope called the overhaul the largest and costliest stormwater improvement the island has ever undertaken, a project running more than $7 million and funded mostly through the South Carolina Infrastructure Investment Program, administered by the SC Rural Infrastructure Authority. Work started on the side streets in the fall of 2025 and moved onto Center Street itself through the winter, stretching into what Mayor Chris Bizzell has described as roughly a 16-month undertaking.
The upside is real. New rain gardens and permeable pavers now line both sides of the street, designed to let stormwater soak into the ground instead of pooling at the intersection the way it has for decades during hurricane season and hard summer rains.
"We've got rain gardens that will collect the water, get it off the street. It's a kind of beautification to use the natural processes to get rid of some of the water," Bizzell said.
Thirty-nine new permeable parking spots replaced four parallel spaces lost to the green infrastructure work, along with new streetlights installed by Dominion Energy and freshly planted trees. On paper, Center Street should drain faster and flood less the next time a named storm rolls through.
The Bill Nobody Warned Businesses About
None of that mattered much to the people trying to run a shop through it. Greg Bunn, a James Island resident who works as a server on the island, called it one of the slowest seasons since the pandemic. Ferrara said the visibility she'd counted on when she picked that corner in April had practically disappeared, and she leaned on hand-painted signs and easels just to let people know Surfer Betty was still open behind the equipment.
DJ Rich has watched the project from both sides. He co-owns Planet Follywood, a Center Street business, and also sits on Folly Beach's city council. Other business owners have been blunter about the gap between sympathy and relief. One frustrated owner, identified in local reporting only by the surname Freeman, suggested the city temporarily lift its hospitality tax to help businesses recover and didn't hold back on how the support offered so far had landed.
"Folly leadership has just told us, plain and simple, sorry. They 'sympathize' with me. It's for the 'greater good.' We are 'in this together.' Well, it doesn't feel that way. You don't pay bills with that."
Another local business owner, Brooks, floated the idea of an impact assistance fund to offset losses tied directly to construction disruption, a conversation city leadership hasn't closed the door on for future projects.
What the Traffic Counter Actually Says
Here's the part that complicates the story of a lost season. Bizzell has pointed out that the traffic counter on the bridge onto Folly logged more cars coming and going this year than at the same point last year, construction and all. He also noted that short-term rental occupancy on the island ticked up slightly compared to last year, based on AirDNA data that tracks Airbnb and Vrbo performance.
Put those two facts next to Ferrara's and Freeman's, and a more specific picture comes into focus. The island didn't lose its visitors this summer. Overall traffic and overnight stays held up fine. What changed was where people could actually get to on foot once they crossed the bridge. A shop wedged behind fencing and staged equipment doesn't benefit from a healthy island-wide occupancy number. It benefits from someone being able to walk up to the door.
Two Restaurants, One Company, Same Stretch of Beach
While the street was torn up, the restaurant lineup along the same corridor changed hands in a way that's easy to miss if you're only looking at the menus. In March 2026, Koko's on the Pier opened in the space long occupied by Pier 101, up on the Folly Beach Fishing Pier itself, retooling the old fried seafood spot into a tiki bar with a Polynesian-leaning menu the operators call "Follynesian." The concept borrows its name from Kokomo's Lounge, a 1950s watering hole on the island once popular with servicemen on leave, and keeps a few holdovers from Pier 101 that longtime regulars will recognize, including po'boys, fried shrimp, and the she-crab soup.
Koko's is run by Avocet Hospitality, the same company behind Pinky's on the Beach, which opened in July 2025 just down the sand, and Roasted Coffee + Shop nearby. Halee Brinson, food and beverage director for the Tides Folly Beach family of properties, put the relationship plainly: Pinky's sits right on the beach, Koko's sits out over it on the pier, two different vibes, both oceanfront, both under the same ownership.
That's a meaningful shift for a stretch of Folly that used to be defined by independently run spots. Two of the most visible oceanfront dining concepts on the island, one at the pier and one on the sand a short walk away, now answer to the same hospitality group. The physical beach walk looks the same. Who's actually running the kitchens at either end of it doesn't.
The Party That Doubles as an Apology
The clearest public acknowledgment that this summer cost the island something comes on October 3, when the Mermaids & Mateys Festival returns to Center Street. Organizers are billing this year's admission as free specifically as a welcome back to the street following the construction, a direct nod to the season locals just lived through.
What to expect:
- Date and time: Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Location: Center Street, closed to vehicle traffic for the day
- Admission: Free this year, though registration is required and doesn't guarantee entry
- On site: More than 80 local art, craft, and fashion vendors, live music, and costume contests for adults, families, and groups
- For kids: An Under the Sea Kids Area presented by Good Clean Fun, with sand crafts, stilt walkers, inflatables, and games
- For a cause: A continuing partnership with the Alzheimer's Association of South Carolina's Paint Folly Purple campaign, encouraging attendees to wear purple in support
It's a costume festival on paper. In practice, it's the city inviting people back onto a street it spent more than a year digging up, and doing it without charging at the door.
What Actually Changed
The pipes under Center Street are new. The rain gardens are planted. The lighting works. If you judge the street by what you can see standing on it, the summer is already forgotten. But the businesses that survived it aren't the same mix that started the year, the restaurant concessions at either end of the beach walk now share an owner, and the shops that took the hardest hit were the newest, most visible arrivals rather than the long-settled names.
That's the kind of detail that doesn't show up in a drive-by impression of Folly Beach, and it's exactly the sort of thing worth knowing if you're paying attention to how this island actually functions day to day, not just how it photographs. If you're watching Folly Beach closely, whether you already call it home or you're weighing whether it fits your life, I'd love to talk through what's actually happening here block by block. Brittany Shropshier is always happy to connect.
