At The Market Common, Your New Year's Eve Ticket Is a December Receipt. Here's Which Receipts Count.

"Businesses located in SoHo or elsewhere in the Market Common District do not qualify." That line sits in the ticket rules for Southern Times Square, the New Year's Eve party at The Market Common. It decides who gets in on Dec. 31.

The center describes the night as a privately hosted event "presented and underwritten by The Market Common shopping and lifestyle center." That arrangement explains the rest of the rules. No one sells tickets, and they have no cash value. You get them by spending money at the center's own businesses during the week before the party. If you live a few blocks from Deville Street, you can treat a Dec. 26 dinner as your way in. Just pick the right restaurant.

The Line Is Drawn by the Directory

Most people use "Market Common" for the whole former base district. For New Year's Eve, the center uses a narrower definition. A receipt counts only if it comes from a business in The Market Common shopping center, and the center's online directory shows which businesses those are.

The directory sorts tenants into three groups. Here are the businesses it lists right now:

• Food & Drink: Ocean Blue Prime Steakhouse, listed as coming soon, Travinia Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar, Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, P.F. Chang's, King Street Grille, CK's Bistro, Dirty Don's Oyster Bar & Grill, CO Sushi, Nacho Hippo, Gios Pizzeria Napoletana, Zardin Healthy Eatery, East Coast Tea Bar, Uncommon Chocolatier, Mean Mugs Milkshake Bar, Cold Stone Creamery, Barnes and Noble Cafe and 810 Entertainment
• Shopping: Barnes & Noble, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, REEDS Jewelers, Chico's, J.Jill, Soma, White House Black Market, Bath & Body Works, Sunglass Hut, Centro Shoes, TRUE SOUTH, Rambler, Bijuju Boutique, Style Me Boutique, Boots N Bikinis, Monkey Lala Minerals, Manifest Design, Comics Toys & Collectibles, Seacoast Artists Gallery, Dolce Lusso Salon and Spa, EdVenture Children's Museum, The Yard Gym and Yoga in Common
• Experiences: GTC Cinema, Escape Vault, Pedego Electric Bikes, 810 Entertainment, EdVenture Children's Museum, The Yard Gym and Yoga in Common

Ocean Blue Prime Steakhouse is the newest name in the Food & Drink section. It sits at 4012 Deville Street in the former Crepe Creations space. WFXB reported that it is a sister restaurant to Travinia Italian Kitchen, directly across the street, and that its grand opening was set for Monday, Nov. 9. The menu includes prime steaks, fresh seafood and handcrafted cocktails. That puts two sister restaurants across Deville Street from each other, both on the qualifying list, and it matches how Market Common's newer restaurants have tended to arrive.

How a $25 Receipt Becomes a Ticket

The steps come straight from the center's ticket requirements:

1. Spend $25 or more in a single visit, on one receipt, at a directory business between Saturday, Dec. 26 and Thursday, Dec. 31.
2. Bring the original receipt to The Market Common Management Office at 4017 Deville Street, behind Travinia. Distribution runs Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednesday, Dec. 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday, Dec. 31 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The office phone is (843) 839-3500.
3. You get one ticket for each $25 increment on a valid receipt.
4. Everyone entering the event area needs a ticket, including children over 2.
5. Any purchase on a receipt you redeem becomes final sale.

Because tickets come in $25 steps, one bigger receipt works the same as several small ones. A household of four over age 2 needs four tickets. One $100 dinner on a single check covers all four. So do four separate $25 receipts. The calendar adds a wrinkle. The qualifying window opens on a Saturday, but the office doesn't hand out tickets until Tuesday. Hang on to receipts from the Dec. 26–27 weekend for a few days.

Online orders generally don't count. The one exception is an online purchase from a business located only in The Market Common shopping center. If you have guests arriving on New Year's Eve itself, the center offers two options. Someone already in town can buy on their behalf and collect their tickets, or the guests can buy a gift card at a Market Common business when they arrive and take that receipt to the office. The center says it will post a list of businesses that sell gift cards, along with their New Year's Eve closing hours.

The Nights Before It Center on the Same Storefronts

The center runs most of the season's complimentary events too. They cluster around the shopping center's own storefronts, and the pickup points and photo spots sit at tenant addresses. Other organizers run several dates on the calendar, and the center doesn't manage those.

The carriage rides are worth knowing in detail. After opening night, they run every Thursday and Sunday in December from 4 to 7 p.m., weather permitting and first come, first served, from the same stop outside Dolce Lusso. In December 2026, Thursdays and Sundays include Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. On Dec. 31, the last ride leaves two hours before the party gates open.

EdVenture's Sensory Santa night is built for children with sensory needs. It offers reduced lighting and noise, a limited crowd size and quiet spaces, and families register in advance through the event page. The Valor Park farmers market holds its last Saturday on Dec. 19, a week before the receipt window opens. It is a separate operation from the shopping center, so its stalls never factored into the ticket math.

The center's holiday page has the Nov. 21 start time and the rest of the schedule.

What the Receipts Pay For on Dec. 31

The party runs from 9 p.m. to midnight. Julio & The Saltines headline, and this year's drone show grows to 300 drones counting down to 2027. A ball drops at midnight. Food trucks will sell popcorn, hot dogs, mac and cheese, tipsy pops and stuffed beignets, and the venue sells beer, wine and sparkling wine inside. A children's corner offers complimentary face painting, snow cones and light-up toys.

The rules at the gate are short. Clear bags only, no pets, no weapons, no outside food and no chairs. The no-chairs and no-outside-food rules point you toward eating at the food trucks or at a Deville Street restaurant earlier in the evening. An earlier dinner works out neatly if it falls inside the Dec. 26–31 window, because that check can be the receipt you redeem at the management office before 9 p.m.

For a fuller picture of how the district's calendar runs the rest of the year, our fall season breakdown covers the September and October weekends, and our Market Common neighborhood page maps the streets around the shopping center.

Jan and Dan at Coastal Beach Homes know which side of Howard Avenue a holiday dinner reservation falls on, and we bring that street-by-street detail to every Market Common home search. If you're weighing a place within walking distance of the tree lighting and the ball drop, Start Your Coastal Home Search with us.