Honea Path Ends 2025 with Major Downtown Revitalization Effort
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
In just his first few months in office, Honea Path Mayor Jimmy Smith has set a slate of long-discussed projects into motion, marking 2025 as a year of visible transformation for the town’s downtown and beyond.
One of Mayor Smith’s signature accomplishments this year has been helping to shepherd a major private investment of approximately $3 million into Honea Path’s downtown core. A local family has purchased the former shirt plant property behind town and is proceeding with a three-phase plan designed to bring lodging, retail, a market, and an event venue to the heart of the community.
Phase one is already underway at the corner of North Main and Brock Avenue, where the new owners are transforming an older home into a bed-and-breakfast—a project that fills a longstanding gap in local accommodations. Once complete, work will shift to Newman Street, just off North Main, where the family plans to open a market featuring their farm-raised beef and ice cream. Finally, the project will turn to the full renovation of the former industrial building into a venue and retail space.
Honea Path spent much of 2025 in motion. Nowhere is this more visible than in the downtown district, where new leadership and fresh investment have converged to turn abstract ideas into concrete projects with construction crews and firm timetables. For Mayor Smith, elected in a special election just four months ago, the year has felt less like a new beginning and more like a long-anticipated push to get stalled priorities “across the finish line” for residents eager for change.
Smith entered office with few illusions about the work ahead. Having been involved in town affairs long before taking the oath, he says his familiarity meant he “pretty much knew what to expect” once he stepped behind the mayor’s desk. The real surprise, he suggests, has been the speed at which 2025 has passed. He and the town staff have moved quickly to tidy up lingering issues and align local government efforts with the wave of private investment already heading Honea Path’s way.
This influx of downtown investment dovetails neatly with Smith’s goal of revitalizing the town’s core. He points to the shirt plant project as emblematic of the year’s turning point: a private partner willing to bet on Honea Path’s future, met by a town government prepared to match that confidence with planning, support, and infrastructure.
Smith notes that the project meets a “much needed” demand while signaling to visitors and residents alike that Honea Path is ready to host people again, rather than sending them down the highway to stay elsewhere.
Once the bed-and-breakfast opens its doors to guests, the family’s attention will shift around the corner to Newman Street. There, plans call for a market showcasing farm-raised beef and serving ice cream to shoppers and families. For Smith, the market serves as both an economic and cultural marker of 2025, anchoring local agriculture in the middle of town and giving residents a new everyday gathering place that simply did not exist a year ago.
