Fountain Inn's Main Street Is Finally Done. What's on It This Fall?

"Main Street's character is paramount to our identity and it is wonderful to have our full Main Street shine equally." Mayor GP McLeer said that as the city announced the South Main Street Streetscape project was largely complete.

"Equally" is the key word in that quote. For more than a year, downtown Fountain Inn was really two streets. North Main was finished. South Main was a construction zone. The street that reopened has different storefronts than the one that went into construction. Over the past year, three businesses built for browsing and lingering opened, and two long-running restaurants closed. The fall and holiday events coming up are the first full season on the finished street.

Why the Work Ran Long

The $5 million project began in March 2025. It carried the streetscape upgrades down South Main from Jones Street to Highway 418, the second phase of an effort to make the whole downtown match.

It was supposed to finish in November 2025. It finished nearly a year late. Two winter storms stalled the paving. Then, during the final walkthrough, the new pavement was already showing signs of wear. The city was not found financially responsible, but sections of the road had to be milled and repaved. That work took place in August 2026. It was the last major piece of the project, apart from repainting the road lines. An earlier city projects report said Byrd Paving would cover the cost of the milling and repaving.

North Main had its own work on a separate project. Fox Carolina reported in September that the city's sewer rehabilitation program planned to mill and repave Main Street from Fairview Street to Jones Street from September 14 to 18, with one lane open. That repaving was the final part of a sewer program that had rehabilitated more than 60,000 feet of mains as of July. The Tribune-Times later wrote that North Main "recently received a utility repave." No published report has yet confirmed that the September dates were met exactly.

During construction, several Main Street businesses reported trouble drawing customers. The city ran its 2025 "Come INN Strong" campaign to steer shoppers back downtown. That's the background for the storefront changes below.

What Opened

Between June and August, three businesses opened in a short stretch of Main Street. None of them is a quick-errand stop. Each is a place you go into and stay a while.

1. M. Judson Booksellers, 109 N. Main St. The independent bookstore held its downtown Fountain Inn grand opening on Saturday, June 13, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Main Street Fountain Inn called it "a new chapter for downtown Fountain Inn."
2. Benny's Sip & Scoop, 113 S. Main St. This is the former Steam Coffee & Cream under new owners. It still serves handcrafted coffee and has added Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream. By early August, a local business profile was writing about it as an operating gathering spot that had added Greenville-based Proso protein soda to its cooler.
3. Limitless Bricks, 115-A S. Main St. A LEGO specialty shop selling new sets, custom minifigures and light kits. It was open by mid-August. Main Street Fountain Inn's July announcement used the singular, "Limitless Brick," so you may see both spellings.

Benny's and Limitless Bricks sit next to each other at 113 and 115-A, both on the South Main side, where the streetscape crews spent most of the past year. They're new storefronts on the newly finished blocks.

What Closed

Two restaurants left Main Street this year.

Cucina 100 served its last meal on February 28 and announced the closing on March 2. It had been in Fountain Inn since 2015. Tacos & Blablabla closed its Main Street location after five years, Fox Carolina reported on June 30.

As of early October, no new tenant, business name or opening date has been announced for either space. Those are the two biggest open questions on the street. Both were sit-down dinner spots, and the businesses that opened since are mostly daytime and retail. Main Street now has more places to spend a Saturday afternoon and two fewer restaurants for a weeknight dinner.

The First Fall Season on the Finished Street

The city's 2026 calendar was revised early in the year after the Italian American Heritage Festival was pushed to next year. The fall run kicked off yesterday. The 43rd Aunt Het Fall Festival filled downtown on Saturday, October 3, with more than 100 vendors, live music and games.

Here's the rest of the season, from the city's published schedule.

Jeepers Creepers is the one that uses the most of Main Street. It's a trunk-or-treat style event where families walk along Main Street past decorated Jeeps filled with candy. You don't need a Jeep to take part, because anyone can vote for a favorite ride. Organizers promote it as "200+ Decorated Jeeps," and Jeep owners can register to take part now through Main Street Fountain Inn. A line of more than 200 vehicles needs room, and this year the line can run down South Main without crossing a work zone.

A week later, Trick-or-Treat on Main is set for North Main Street, close to City Hall at 200 N. Main St.

Before you head out, Main Street Fountain Inn warns that traffic may slow and roads may close for several hours before an event's start time. No street-by-street closure list has been published for either Halloween event. If you park downtown on a Saturday afternoon on October 24 or 31, expect that your usual spot may be blocked off by early evening.

The December run is close together. The tree lighting and the Christmas parade fall on back-to-back weeknights. Carriage rides then run for two weeks, and the Holiday Merry Market and the Rudolph Run at Night share Saturday, December 5. That's a lot of evening foot traffic past M. Judson, Benny's and Limitless Bricks in their first holiday season downtown.

Still on the Way

Downtown's next big change is coming in on a trail.

Earlier this year, the Upstate Greenways and Trails Alliance and the City of Fountain Inn broke ground on a 2.25-mile extension of the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail. It will connect downtown with Fountain Inn High School and Bryson Elementary School. The $4 million project is funded by a mix of federal, state and local sources. Backers include SCDOT, the city, DRB Homes, State Representatives Mark Willis and David Vaughan, and State Senator Rob Ross Turner. DRB Homes is paying for a quarter-mile that runs through its Mulberry Estates neighborhood, where the groundbreaking was held.

The route will pass through neighborhoods and wooded sections, and even past an active cow pasture. It's built for both bikes and walkers, with an opening projected for late spring or early summer 2027. Mayor McLeer pointed to the city's 10-year comprehensive plan, which lists completing the trail connection as a top request from residents. He described what it would do this way:

"Giving kids a safe route to school, giving folks another recreational activity and connecting people to downtown."

You can follow construction updates on the Upstate Greenways and Trails Alliance website.

Two other city projects are still waiting. A planned downtown parking lot of about 61 spaces, on the former Public Works and Natural Gas property, was expected to start this past summer. The Municipal Complex was on hold, with schematic design done but plans not yet approved. Neither has a newer public update. You can check for project news at fountaininn.org.

Our team keeps an eye on Main Street Fountain Inn, from who fills the former Cucina 100 and Tacos & Blablabla spaces to when the trail reaches downtown. If you're weighing what these changes mean for your own home and timing, the team at Kiersten Bell + Co is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.