Roofing company in Andrews, SC

ANDREWS — Frank McClary, the mayor of Andrews, was baptized in the Black River.

Now, he expects the tea-colored water to play a major role in his town’s economic future.

Andrews is at the center of the new Black River State Park, which will stretch from Kingstree in Williamsburg County through Andrews into Georgetown County. It will sprawl across roughly 1,800 acres and will be the state’s first linear park, meaning it will follow the river and be accessible from the water.

The hope is that the park will bring an influx of visitors to Andrews, paving the way for new shops, restaurants and other businesses.

”We’re expecting a boom," McClary said. "Soon we’ll have concerns of being overcrowded. That’s my hope, is that we will attract that many people here."

For the past several years, Andrews has been working to revitalize its Main Street and revive an economy that was crippled by the loss of its T-shirt factory, Oneita Knitting Mills. The factory employed about 1,000 people before it closed in 1996.

New businesses have started to open where the textile factory once stood, as well as in other parts of Andrews, McClary said.

Lindsey Ordonez-Ramirez and her husband, Luis, opened Pueblo Chico, a family-friendly Mexican restaurant, on Main Street in August.

She said she saw a need in her hometown for more food options. Previously, the closest Mexican restaurants were in Georgetown or Johnsonville.

"The town embraced us," she said.

Ordonez-Ramirez said her restaurant is one of multiple new businesses to open in the past couple of years. She pointed to a new sports bar, a new boutique and the industrial companies that have sprung up in the Georgetown County Business Center.

Among them is SPRY Manufacturing, which opened late last year. The company produces carts and dock equipment.

The town also recently gained a Little Caesars, a McDonald's, a Dollar Tree and an Anytime Fitness. A Tractor Supply Co. is also set to open this year, McClary said.

The arrival of these businesses, both chain stores and local operations, has helped reduce a revenue problem, McClary said. Andrews discovered it was losing over $4 million in restaurant revenue because residents were dining outside the town. It was also losing about $2.3 million in retail revenue.

Ordonez-Ramirez expects the new state park to attract even more development. She said she's already heard of people planning trips to Andrews and the state park.

Shallon McConnell, who manages the new vendor-style boutique Ivy’s on Main, said the town doesn’t usually see much activity in the summer months. It’s not typically a place where people vacation. But that could change with the opening of Black River State Park.

"It's more of a pass-through," she said. "But I think with bringing things like the state park ... that's going to draw in a totally new world for us."

She hopes that will mean more business for local restaurants and retail stores.

McConnell remains hopeful about the plans to revitalize Andrews’ economy and downtown.

Main Street already looks different than it did five years ago, she said, and many people want to see the town continue to be restored.

Part of that process involves updating the town's infrastructure.

The town received a consent order from the state Department of Environmental Services after its water and sewer systems began to fail, McClary said.

In recent years, the town has secured several grants to fund repairs to water and sewer pipes and to update its water management system.

Work has also been done to improve roadways and to repair or demolish abandoned buildings downtown.

Ordonez-Ramirez said updating building facades on Main Street and making other improvements could go a long way toward attracting visitors.

“It would be very beneficial if we could liven up Main Street downtown for tourism purposes,” she said.

In addition to restoring existing structures, a new streetscape plan for the town envisions a nature preserve, a shared-use path, a bike lane and a trail that will connect the town to the Black River.

A new environmental career center is also planned for the area, McClary said. It will allow students from Andrews High School to prepare for jobs in fields such as park management, forestry and agriculture. Previously, students from Andrews had to travel to Georgetown to take those classes.

Although Ordonez-Ramirez and McConnell are hopeful about how the plans could attract visitors and encourage businesses to open, they said some barriers remain.

There are plenty of Andrews locals with good business ideas, but they don’t have the resources to make them a reality, Ordonez-Ramirez said.

Plus, the closure of the International Paper mill and other factors have put a strain on many residents.

"That was a big concern with us jumping into retail," McConnell said. "We didn't know what to expect with there being such a community-wide struggle right now. But I think a lot of people are just determined to make whatever is necessary … happen to build themselves back up and build our area back up."

McConnell believes the town's plan could lead to a bright future for Andrews, even if some adjustments need to be made along the way.

Even with the improvements, the town still needed a way to draw visitors to the area and generate tourism money. McClary thinks the answer lies in the river.

"This is the key," he said. "This is our jewel."

The outdoor recreation economy contributes $8.6 million of value to the state’s economy and over 86,000 jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.

Michelle Sinkler, a special projects director with the Open Space Institute, said the opening of the Black River State park will increase that.

”It’s fair to say that it's a vital part of South Carolina’s economy now, but when you place what will be the Black River State Park network … you are going to really have an incredible, measurable impact to the outdoor economy,” she said.

In addition to capitalizing on the tourism and outdoor recreation opportunities the river could bring, Andrews has been working with the Open Space Institute and the Nature Conservancy to learn from the river’s contributions to flood plain resiliency.

Andrews has created plans for green infrastructure such as rain gardens, which are depressed areas containing native plants that collect and filter stormwater runoff.

Sinkler said although the town overlooked the river as an economic opportunity for many years, she's glad it's now chosen to embrace it.

"Andrews is never going to have a port, right? It's never going to have the Boeing plant in its backyard," she said. "But it has the Black River, and it can be a beacon of optimism and prosperity."