North Augusta's Errand Map Moved in 2026. Martintown Road and Edgewood Square Show Where It Went.

Aiken Regional's new ER at Martintown unlocked its doors at 8 a.m. on September 24. Its first patient walked in at 8:03. Jenny Meuse, Aiken Regional's director of emergency services and inpatient nursing, gave that timeline to The Post and Courier North Augusta.

That opening was the latest in a series of 2026 openings. Since June, the gym, a coffee drive-thru, a parts hub and now an emergency department have all landed on Martintown Road. Over the same months, Edgewood Square has filled its storefronts with national retailers opening their first North Augusta locations. Daily errands now run along two corridors. Georgia Avenue downtown still has the town's evening and weekend calendar.

East Martintown is where the gym and coffee are now

The biggest change came first. The Family YMCA of Greater Augusta moved its North Augusta branch from West Martintown, its home for 17 years, to 406 East Martintown Road. Members got in about two weeks early, and the public grand opening was a block party on June 6.

The new building has 32,000 square feet of gym floor, group fitness rooms, locker rooms with a sauna and childcare space. It also offers EGYM, a machine circuit that starts with a body scan and then tells you how much to lift and for how many reps. The Post and Courier reported that EGYM is available at only two YMCA locations, this one and the Wilson flagship on Wheeler Road in Augusta. Indoor pickleball and a dedicated Spin room are part of the expansion too.

The pool isn't open yet. It's Phase Two, planned for the former Badcock space next to the new building. The $2.6 million capital campaign closed the evening before the grand opening, and that cleared the way for pool work to begin. The Augusta Press covered the opening on June 8. Neither account of the June opening gives a construction or opening date for the pool.

Two more openings followed on the same stretch:

The 7 Brew sits at the end of the YMCA parking lot. A barista handed out free iced coffee at the YMCA block party, a month before the stand opened. If you're entering it in a map app, use 408 East Martintown, not the YMCA's 406.

West Martintown now has a 24/7 emergency room

Head west and the newest building on Martintown Road is the one that opened at 8 a.m. on September 24. Aiken Regional's ER at Martintown is at 407 W. Martintown Road. Meuse was direct about what it is: "ER at Martintown is an emergency department; it's not an urgent care. We can see any kind of patients here just like a main hospital can." It has 13 rooms, a physician on site and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first-week numbers show how much demand was already there. The ER saw 17 patients on its first day and 127 in its first week. Meuse said it was the busiest first day of any freestanding ER managed by Universal Health Services, Aiken Regional's parent company.

For comparison, Aiken Regional's ER at Sweetwater, at 160 Austin Graybill Road off I-20 Exit 5, saw nine patients when it opened in 2022. As of the September 2026 report, it averages about 90 patients a day, far more than projected. Those numbers were part of why Aiken Regional opened a second North Augusta location. Martintown has slightly more rooms than Sweetwater, and Meuse said she expects it to be just as busy.

North Augusta now has two full emergency departments, one near the interstate and one on Martintown Road.

Edgewood Square filled up one store at a time

While Martintown added services, Edgewood Square added shopping. The Post and Courier's Marshalls story traces the shopping center's comeback to early 2024, when Hobby Lobby announced its plans. Hobby Lobby opened by the end of that year. Here's where every 2026 arrival stood as of October 7:

• Open: Five Below, since March 13, 2026.
• Open: Marshalls, 171 Edgewood Drive, since September 17. The store is 24,000 square feet and open 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day. Before it opened, the nearest Marshalls was in Evans.
• Scheduled: Ulta Beauty, 143 Edgewood Drive. Ulta's grand openings page lists an October 23 to November 23 grand opening window.
• Expected: Burlington. Local reporting says "later this year" but gives no specific date.
• Under construction: Dutch Bros. Coffee, 208 Edgefield Road, on an outparcel just outside the center. The latest report has it on track to open in the fourth quarter.

The Post and Courier noted that all six recent arrivals are first-time investments in North Augusta. If Dutch Bros. opens on schedule, both corridors will have a coffee stop that opened in 2026: 7 Brew on East Martintown and Dutch Bros. at Edgewood Square.

Georgia Avenue kept the evenings and weekends

With the new gym, ER and retail out on the corridors, downtown keeps the calendar. This fall's lineup, from North Augusta Forward, Explore North Augusta and the Post and Courier's weekly events roundup:

1. Fall Into Art, October 7 to 30, Arts and Heritage Center, 100 Georgia Ave. The show runs alongside an exhibit of work by David Swanagin and Steve Bouye. The North Augusta Artists Guild hosts a free reception on October 15 from 5 to 8 p.m.
2. Guardians of the Jukebox, a free concert on October 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sharon Jones Amphitheater, 1009 Center St. The same evening, North Augusta Department of Public Safety holds Truck-or-Treat from 5 to 8 p.m. at 100 Riverview Park Drive.
3. Third Thursday, October 15, 5 to 8 p.m. It's part of a fall concert series held at downtown venues on the third Thursday of each month from September through November.
4. Halfshells + Hogs, October 17 at 5 p.m., in the Center Street Greeneway Tunnel. The event has food, live music and college football on screen, and tickets are $65.
5. Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee, October 23 and 24 on Georgia Avenue. The free festival is organized by Explore North Augusta, with Tauren Wells performing Friday and Chris Janson on Saturday.
6. Sip + Stroll / Holiday Open House, November 12, downtown.

Ulta's grand opening window starts on October 23, the same Friday the Jubilee begins. That weekend will show both halves of the town's map, with a new store opening at Edgewood Square and a festival on Georgia Avenue.

Georgia Avenue itself will change next. On September 30, the city announced that SCDOT had given final approval to Phase One of its Georgia Avenue traffic-calming project. The plans call for narrower lanes, pedestrian-safety upgrades and changes to parking. The first segment, Pine Grove to Spring Grove, is estimated at $1.19 million. According to the Post and Courier's October 7 report, a construction contract could be awarded by year-end, with work beginning in early 2027.

I keep an eye on how openings like these change daily life on each side of North Augusta, from the new ER on West Martintown to the empty storefronts still filling at Edgewood Square. If you'd like to talk through how these corridors affect a move within town, or a home you're thinking of listing near one of them, Candace Riddle would be glad to walk the map with you. Book a consultation whenever it suits you.