Sea Eagle Market, as seen on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, at its current location on Boundary Street as the business prepares to move to a new location marking a new chapter for the business. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
By Delayna Earley / The Island News
After nearly a decade at its current Boundary Street location, Sea Eagle Market is preparing to make another move, this time to the former Duke’s BBQ location on Salem Road.
The longtime Beaufort seafood business will relocate from 2149 Boundary Street to 1509 Salem Road, Unit A, where it will continue operating its retail seafood market, catering business and event services.
According to owner Craig Reaves, the decision comes as the business approaches the end of its 10-year lease on Boundary Street, presenting an opportunity to downsize and move into a space better suited to its current operations.
“We’ve run our 10-year lease,” Reaves said. “It’s kind of ironic, but it’s kind of like every 10 years or so, you know, it’s kind of good to have a change and a new vibe and serve our community in a different way.”
The move will mark another chapter for the business, which Reaves and his family purchased in October 2007.
At that time, Sea Eagle was located at 2242 Boundary Street, across the road from its current location, near Huddle House and Wendy’s.
As the Boundary Street redevelopment project began taking shape, the business sold its property to the city and county for the creation of open space and relocated across the street in 2016.
That move brought Sea Eagle into a roughly 5,000-square-foot building that initially housed both a restaurant and seafood market.
Over time, however, the business shifted away from the restaurant model, leaving more space than was needed for its current operations.
The new location, at approximately 3,000 square feet, will provide a smaller footprint while still accommodating the market and catering operations.
“We had more than enough room where we were at, you know, too much space,” Reaves said. “So it is a downsize, but it gives us everything we need.”
One of the biggest factors in selecting the former Duke’s BBQ building was its existing commercial kitchen, which will allow Sea Eagle to continue its catering and event operations without having to build a new kitchen from scratch.
Reaves said finding a suitable commercial property in Beaufort was already challenging, particularly with the busy fall and winter seafood season approaching.
“We needed a ready-to-go kitchen,” Reaves said, explaining that the existing kitchen at Duke’s made the property particularly attractive.
The location also offers ample parking and convenient access to both Highway 170 and Boundary Street.
While the building will undergo some interior renovations to accommodate the seafood market, Reaves said the business is still determining what exterior changes might be possible because the property is not a single-occupant building.
“We’re definitely renovating the inside so far as setting it up for the market,” he said. “We’re just kind of making it fresh and new.”
Although the move is expected to happen in the coming weeks, Reaves said there is not yet a firm opening date for the new location.
Ideally, he would like to have the business relocated by Nov. 1, ahead of the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons, but he emphasized that the date is only a goal.
Inspections, renovations and the logistics of transferring equipment from one building to another will all play a role in determining when the move can take place.
Reaves said he hopes to keep the interruption to customers to a minimum, although the business will likely need to close for several days during the transition.
“We would like to make this move as seamless a transition as possible,” he said.
Some equipment will have to be physically removed from the Boundary Street location and installed at the new building, meaning the business cannot complete the entire move while remaining open.
Reaves said he expects the closure to be brief but does not want to announce a specific date until the business is confident it can meet that timeline.
In preparation for the move, Sea Eagle has already begun notifying customers that a change is coming.
For the past several weeks, the business has been distributing cards announcing the upcoming relocation and collecting contact information from customers who would like to receive updates by email or text message.
Reaves said maintaining communication with customers throughout the process is a priority.
Despite the change in location, he emphasized that the business’s seafood harvesting and supply operations will remain unchanged.
Sea Eagle’s working waterfront operation at 34 Hallmark Road on St. Helena Island will continue operating as usual, providing the fresh seafood that has become a staple of the business.
“None of our strategic things that keep our fresh seafood coming in is changing,” Reaves said. “It’s just basically the retail location is moving.”
For Reaves, the relocation is about more than finding a smaller building. It is an opportunity to continue serving the community while adapting to the changing needs of the business.
He said the support of local customers has been essential to Sea Eagle’s success over the years, and he hopes that support will follow the business to Salem Road.
“We couldn’t do what we do without our community,” Reaves said. “We love being active in the community, and it’s just real important that we try to keep the seafood industry going strong in Beaufort County.”
Reaves said he is looking forward to unveiling the new location and welcoming customers once the transition is complete.
The Island News will provide updates as Sea Eagle announces its closing date on Boundary Street and opening date on Salem Road.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.