Bamberg County gets $1.5 million boost for downtown renaissance project
Bamberg County secured $1.5 million for a downtown market plan tied to a $50 million district package, with a kitchen, farmers market and Discovery Center rehab.
Bamberg County has locked in $1.5 million for a Downtown Renaissance project centered on a commercial kitchen, farmers market and community and discovery center.
On February 9, 2026, Bamberg County tied its share to a larger $50 million package Congressman Jim Clyburn secured for community projects across South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. Clyburn’s funding request called it a Bamberg County Downtown Community Market project and said the money would be used to rehabilitate the Bamberg County Discovery Center, with the stated goals of supporting sustainable agriculture, community engagement and downtown revitalization.
The county’s plan points to changes that could affect daily business activity on Main Street. A commercial kitchen could give food entrepreneurs, caterers and small producers a place to start up or expand. A farmers market could create a regular downtown outlet for local growers and vendors. A community and discovery center could add a public gathering space in a county where downtown foot traffic has long been tied to the health of the county seat.
Bamberg County’s strategic plan dashboard already lists the Discovery Center and Economic Development Office, the Farmers Market and Commercial Kitchen, and the Former Memorial Hospital projects as in progress.
The January 9, 2024 EF-2 tornado caused nearly $3 million in damage and severely altered downtown Bamberg. The storm hit a county seat built around the Bamberg Historic District, where the old Southern Railway corridor holds late-19th and early-20th-century buildings and where the courthouse remains one of the city’s defining landmarks.
Court operations have already been displaced by that courthouse work. Family and circuit court hearings moved to the Bamberg Civic Center beginning July 1, 2022, and staff operations later shifted into modular units in the parking lot of the Bamberg County Detention Center while renovations continue.
Bamberg County’s 2020 census population was 13,311. The BeBamberg campaign, led by SouthernCarolina Alliance, is part of the county’s community-pride and business-promotion efforts.
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