Sun News - Strand’s two largest golf companies combining -- The merger of the two largest golf course ownership and management companies on the Grand Strand takes effect Thursday, when the combination of Myrtle Beach National Co., and Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management begins doing business as National Golf Management. The new company is one of the 15 largest course management companies in the nation with 23 combined courses, and dwarfs competitors in the Myrtle Beach market. “We are setting out to become an industry leading company,” said company president Bob Mauragas, who held the same position with Myrtle Beach National. “… I think we’re all very interested in being one of the top profitable golf management companies in the country.” Maraugus said the combined companies generated $33.7 million in total revenue in 2011 and the new company will have more than 700 employees during peak golf months, though many will be part-time. Six employees of the merging companies are losing their jobs, for a net loss of three employees, according to Mauragas.
A press conference to formally announce the new company is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Pine Lakes Country Club. The merger comes approximately seven months after the two companies signed a letter of intent to unite. “It’s difficult when you take two successful and prideful companies … and you’ve got to sit down and join arms and find out how do you merge those two?” Mauragas said. “Now the real work gets started, the work of creating one voice, one actionable service plan.” The merger accounts for 23 of the approximate 90 public courses spanning the coastline from Andrews to Southport, N.C.. It includes 10 courses owned by MBN and five owned by B&C, and another eight courses managed by the two companies. MBN owns and operates Aberdeen Country Club, Litchfield Country Club, Long Bay Club, Pawleys Plantation, River Club, Waterway Hills Golf Club, Willbrook Plantation, and three courses at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club. It also manages Blackmoor Golf Club, Tradition Club, Wild Wing Plantation and Wachesaw Plantation East. Three of MBN’s courses feature 27 holes.
B&C owns and operates Pine Lakes Country Club, Arcadian Shores Golf Club, the Grande Dunes Resort Course and two courses at Myrtlewood Golf Club, and manages Tidewater Plantation and Golf, River Hills Golf and Country Club, Farmstead Golf Links and Meadowlands Golf Club. The merger does not include the private Members Club at Grande Dunes, which will continue to be owned and operated by B&C. National Golf Management will be driven primarily by former MBN executives and new employees. Mauragas is the president, MBN’s Jim Woodring is executive vice president overseeing marketing, MBN’s Max Morgan is the vice president overseeing agronomy, and B&C’s Mike Turrise is the human resources director. Scott Justman is being hired as vice president of golf operations from Reynolds Plantation outside Greensboro, Ga., where he worked for Mauragas for seven years, and final interviews are being conducted for a corporate controller.
“I think that comes from the scalability of merging the two properties,” Mauragas said. “We own 10 properties, they own five. Myrtle Beach National’s core of competency and focus on its business has been golf for 40 years. Burroughs & Chapin has been a longstanding 100-year-plus company that has been focusing its energies on land holdings and opportunities in South Carolina. … Yes Burroughs & Chapin was involved in golf early in this town, but not nearly at the magnitude Myrtle Beach National was.” Among the six employees not retained in the merger are B&C director of golf operations Archie Lemon, B&C executive vice president of championship golf Bob Swezey, who will remain for a 30-day transition period, and Alicia Harper, B&C’s marketing director who handled golf and other properties. “Most of [the layoffs] come from some overlap in the senior teams,” Mauragas said. Mauragas is himself a new employee of sorts for the company, according to MBN chief executive officer Matthew Brittain, since he was hired to lead MBN into the merger. Mauragas has been in the golf industry nearly three decades and was hired in late May away from his position as vice president of golf operations at the six-course, mostly private Reynolds Plantation.
“We were in negotiations with B&C, and our purpose in jumping to Bob was with this merger in mind,” said Brittain, who will not hold an executive position with the new company but will be on its eight-person board of directors along with B&C CEO. Brittain has been the CEO for the past decade of the company that his family founded in 1971, but will turn his focus to the family’s resort and hotel holdings. According to a Golf Inc. magazine study of golf course management companies last year, the new company will be positioned at No. 15 nationally and No. 19 internationally. The other top-15 U.S. companies in the market are No. 9 Arnold Palmer Golf Management, which owns and operates five former Legends Group courses, and No. 1 Troon Golf, which operates four private and semi-private courses at St. James Plantation in Southport.
The merger includes courses up and down the Strand. MBN’s courses are generally located on the north and south ends, while B&C’s holdings are concentrated on the central and north areas, though only two courses in the merger reach North Carolina. “From a marketing standpoint it filled some of our holes and gave us a complete stable we can offer to the golfer,” Brittain said. Mauragas said the company will be looking to expand east of the Mississippi River. “It will be my goal to strategically look for – whether it be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or neighboring areas – opportunities where we can use our expertise to help facilities manage their bottom line,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a rapid growth, but it’s part of the business plan going forward.” “… It’s unfortunately a declining market of golf. People are struggling out there and we think we can bring a very succinct set of skills to help them.” Though there are no private clubs in its current portfolio, Mauragas said the company is open to operating them.Only golf courses are involved in the merger, but MBN and B&C are both involved in separate lodging and golf package businesses, so the new company will have the ability to wield power throughout a changing golf market.
The market has shifted in recent years toward consolidation and lower green fees. Courses have increasingly joined management companies as package rounds have been tougher to come by, and courses have dropped rates nearly across the board since Arnold Palmer Golf Management entered the market in the summer of 2008 and greatly reduced its layouts’ fees. Mauragas suggested National Golf Management won’t attempt to be a local bully. “Are we so arrogant as to think we can set price? We don’t have that attitude,” Mauragas said. “From Day 1 when [MBN and B&C Golf Management] started their business it has all been about Myrtle Beach getting better. We don’t think price wars or low-balling price is going to help Myrtle Beach in any way. I think we’re going to continue to find a way to stabilize pricing in a declining market.” Merging its golf management division continues B&C’s focus away from operating businesses. In the past few years the company closed the Pavilion amusement park and sold attractions including water parks and go-cart tracks, and earlier this month it sold the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes. “We’ll probably operate fewer businesses going forward as we try to sharpen our business focus,” B&C CEO said. “I think we’re going to be more heavily weighted toward income-producing real estate investments.”
National Golf Management Courses
Owned and operated (15)
Aberdeen Country Club
Arcadian Shores Golf Club
Grande Dunes Resort Course
Litchfield Country Club
Long Bay Club
Myrtle Beach National King’s North
Myrtle Beach National Southcreek
Myrtle Beach National West
Myrtlewood PineHills
Myrtlewood Palmetto
Pawleys Plantation
Pine Lakes Country Club
River Club
Waterway Hills Golf Club
Willbrook Plantation
Managed (8)
Blackmoor Golf Club
Farmstead Golf Links
Meadowlands Golf Club
River Hills Golf & Country Club
Tidewater Plantation and Golf
Tradition Club
Wachesaw Plantation East
Wild Wing Plantation
Thursday
New medical office to open this year in Murrells Inlet
Sun News - MURRELLS INLET -- Patients needing care from several different doctors, including specialists, will be able to see all of them under one roof when a new medical office building at Waccamaw Community Hospital opens this year. The 90,000-square-foot, three-story Waccamaw Medical Park West will house a variety of specialists, including pain management, physical therapy, endoscopy and, for the first time at Waccamaw, neurosurgeons – specialists that come through a growing partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A dermatologist who would work in Georgetown County also is in the works through that partnership. The expansion is one of several at Grand Strand hospitals as they aim to keep up with the growing demand for health care services experts predict as baby boomers get older.
Several tenants in the new, $16 million medical center are moving from the health care offices across U.S. 17. The goal is to make it easier for patients to see multiple doctors under one roof.
“This is being done for the purpose of providing a new model of care for patients,” spokeswoman Ronda Wilson said. For example, a patient may see a primary care physician, who wants the patient to have lab work, then a stop in physical therapy. Once all the doctors move into the new building by the end of 2012, a patient can do all that without leaving the building. “It’s available [now] just in different places,” Wilson said. “This will provide a little more patient convenience.” The first medical offices are expected to move into the new building in March, though officials didn’t know yet which practices would be first. The rest will move in phases. Waccamaw, which opened in 2002 and is part of Georgetown Hospital System, kept future growth in mind when designing the new medical office building. There are roughly 40,000 square feet that hasn’t been claimed yet, including a sprawling 15,000-square-foot space on the third floor. Based on Waccamaw’s previous growth, officials don’t anticipate that space will stay empty for long.
“We had a space like that [at Waccamaw Community Hospital] but not for very long,” Wilson said, looking at the available space on the third floor. The shell of the building is complete, with workers this week busy in what will become a parking area and inside the building painting and doing other cosmetic work. The building, which has two main doors, has a massive physical therapy room on the second floor with windows overlooking U.S. 17 and a pain management clinic. Imaging, neurosciences, gastroenterology and orthopedic will be on the first floor. And there’s room to grow. “At the rate you see us moving…we are just leaving ourselves plenty of options,” said Rod Softy, construction manager for Georgetown Hospital System.
The new center reflects a medical services boom across the area. Waccamaw also added 56 medical-surgical and inpatient rehabilitation beds, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach added a cardiac wing in the fall, and during the summer, Seacoast Medical Center in Little River added 64,000-square-feet and 50 patient beds. Brunswick Novant Medical Center opened a new 250,000-square-foot hospital with 74 beds during the summer. Officials are particularly excited about the arrival of neurosurgeons at Waccamaw who are specialized in operating on the brain, head, neck and spinal cord. “Right now we don’t have that. It’s not available,” Wilson said. The hospital system can provide that specialty through a growing partnership with MUSC. The medical office building model is one MUSC favors, with another one under construction in Mount Pleasant, said Jack Feussner, MUSC’s executive senior associate dean of clinical affairs.
“Georgetown hasn’t had a large medical office building where a lot of multiple specialties could be co-located,” Feussner said. “A patient will be able to go to one place and be able to see all the physicians they need to.” Georgetown also is working with MUSC to bring a dermatologist to the area, which Feussner said should happen in the next four months. The two have started a joint strategic planning process and have talked about using the hospitals in Georgetown for residency training for some of the MUSC grads, Feussner said. Wilson isn’t sure what will move into the space on the east side of U.S. 17 once many of those practices relocate the new building, but with the growing health care demand along the Grand Strand, she doesn’t expect it to stay empty. “My suspicion is people are lining up for the space,” Wilson said. “I would expect something to go in there pretty quickly.”
Several tenants in the new, $16 million medical center are moving from the health care offices across U.S. 17. The goal is to make it easier for patients to see multiple doctors under one roof.
“This is being done for the purpose of providing a new model of care for patients,” spokeswoman Ronda Wilson said. For example, a patient may see a primary care physician, who wants the patient to have lab work, then a stop in physical therapy. Once all the doctors move into the new building by the end of 2012, a patient can do all that without leaving the building. “It’s available [now] just in different places,” Wilson said. “This will provide a little more patient convenience.” The first medical offices are expected to move into the new building in March, though officials didn’t know yet which practices would be first. The rest will move in phases. Waccamaw, which opened in 2002 and is part of Georgetown Hospital System, kept future growth in mind when designing the new medical office building. There are roughly 40,000 square feet that hasn’t been claimed yet, including a sprawling 15,000-square-foot space on the third floor. Based on Waccamaw’s previous growth, officials don’t anticipate that space will stay empty for long.
“We had a space like that [at Waccamaw Community Hospital] but not for very long,” Wilson said, looking at the available space on the third floor. The shell of the building is complete, with workers this week busy in what will become a parking area and inside the building painting and doing other cosmetic work. The building, which has two main doors, has a massive physical therapy room on the second floor with windows overlooking U.S. 17 and a pain management clinic. Imaging, neurosciences, gastroenterology and orthopedic will be on the first floor. And there’s room to grow. “At the rate you see us moving…we are just leaving ourselves plenty of options,” said Rod Softy, construction manager for Georgetown Hospital System.
The new center reflects a medical services boom across the area. Waccamaw also added 56 medical-surgical and inpatient rehabilitation beds, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach added a cardiac wing in the fall, and during the summer, Seacoast Medical Center in Little River added 64,000-square-feet and 50 patient beds. Brunswick Novant Medical Center opened a new 250,000-square-foot hospital with 74 beds during the summer. Officials are particularly excited about the arrival of neurosurgeons at Waccamaw who are specialized in operating on the brain, head, neck and spinal cord. “Right now we don’t have that. It’s not available,” Wilson said. The hospital system can provide that specialty through a growing partnership with MUSC. The medical office building model is one MUSC favors, with another one under construction in Mount Pleasant, said Jack Feussner, MUSC’s executive senior associate dean of clinical affairs.
“Georgetown hasn’t had a large medical office building where a lot of multiple specialties could be co-located,” Feussner said. “A patient will be able to go to one place and be able to see all the physicians they need to.” Georgetown also is working with MUSC to bring a dermatologist to the area, which Feussner said should happen in the next four months. The two have started a joint strategic planning process and have talked about using the hospitals in Georgetown for residency training for some of the MUSC grads, Feussner said. Wilson isn’t sure what will move into the space on the east side of U.S. 17 once many of those practices relocate the new building, but with the growing health care demand along the Grand Strand, she doesn’t expect it to stay empty. “My suspicion is people are lining up for the space,” Wilson said. “I would expect something to go in there pretty quickly.”
B&C sells Marina Inn in Myrtle Beach
Sun News - The Marina Inn at Grande Dunes, which opened in 2006 along the Intracoastal Waterway, has new owners that plan to keep the hotel running as a AAA four-diamond property. The Vista Group Of Companies, which owns and operates hotels, resorts and other commercial properties, bought the 230-room hotel Thursday from Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. Vista plans to keep most of the hotel’s employees and will continue to operate it as an upscale property, said Amin S. Visram, Vista’s chief executive officer. The property sold for about $4.9 million, according to Horry County property records.
Vista is in an acquisition mode and had wanted to have a property along the Grand Strand, Visram said. This is Vista’s first property in South Carolina. “It’s a beautiful area, the Grand Strand community is a phenomenal community and we want to have a presence there,” he said. Marina Inn guests aren’t likely to notice many changes under the new ownership, Visram said. The Marina Inn is one of a handful of Myrtle Beach lodging providers to have four diamonds, which means a property must be upscale in all areas, have a variety of amenities and a high degree of hospitality and service, according to AAA.
“It’s a pretty new project,” Visram said. “It’s not something you would change. Certainly it has been built very well.” B&C, which developed the Marina Inn as well as the rest of Grande Dunes, sold the hotel so it could focus on other goals, Jim Apple, B&C’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. “The Marina Inn is an important part of the Grande Dunes resort community,” he said in the release. “However, it is the only hotel we operate, and it doesn’t fit within our strategic plan. With Vista’s acquisition, we can concentrate our resources on our core businesses.” Vista, which is headquartered in Binghamton, N.Y., and has offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, owns 11 hotels with a total of about 2,550 rooms, including the Marina Inn, with other properties in Florida, New York and Canada. It also operates three shopping malls and two retirement homes in Canada, as well as office and medical buildings in Canada and Florida, according to the company’s website.
Vista is in an acquisition mode and had wanted to have a property along the Grand Strand, Visram said. This is Vista’s first property in South Carolina. “It’s a beautiful area, the Grand Strand community is a phenomenal community and we want to have a presence there,” he said. Marina Inn guests aren’t likely to notice many changes under the new ownership, Visram said. The Marina Inn is one of a handful of Myrtle Beach lodging providers to have four diamonds, which means a property must be upscale in all areas, have a variety of amenities and a high degree of hospitality and service, according to AAA.
“It’s a pretty new project,” Visram said. “It’s not something you would change. Certainly it has been built very well.” B&C, which developed the Marina Inn as well as the rest of Grande Dunes, sold the hotel so it could focus on other goals, Jim Apple, B&C’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. “The Marina Inn is an important part of the Grande Dunes resort community,” he said in the release. “However, it is the only hotel we operate, and it doesn’t fit within our strategic plan. With Vista’s acquisition, we can concentrate our resources on our core businesses.” Vista, which is headquartered in Binghamton, N.Y., and has offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, owns 11 hotels with a total of about 2,550 rooms, including the Marina Inn, with other properties in Florida, New York and Canada. It also operates three shopping malls and two retirement homes in Canada, as well as office and medical buildings in Canada and Florida, according to the company’s website.
PKF Releases US Hotel Report
PKF.com - While many hoteliers are feeling angst and uncertainty caused by intimidating macroeconomic conditions, PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) is assertively forecasting the continued recovery of the U.S. lodging industry. How well you do in 2012, however, will vary depending upon the price of your room and where you are located. According to the recently released December 2011 edition of Hotel Horizons®, PKF-HR forecasts that rooms revenue (RevPAR) for U.S. hotels will rise 8.1 percent in 2011, and increase another 6.1 percent in 2012.
Analyzing the performance of U.S. hotels in 2010 and 2011, we have seen the progression of indicators that one would expect during an industry recovery. Occupancy levels increased in 2010, followed by real average daily rate (ADR) growth in 2011. The only surprise has been the pace and magnitude of the surge in hotel demand.
Click on the link below to read more....
http://www.pkfc.com/en/pkfhome/FreeStuff/Newsletter/December-2011-PKF-Forecast-Better-For-Some.aspx
Analyzing the performance of U.S. hotels in 2010 and 2011, we have seen the progression of indicators that one would expect during an industry recovery. Occupancy levels increased in 2010, followed by real average daily rate (ADR) growth in 2011. The only surprise has been the pace and magnitude of the surge in hotel demand.
Click on the link below to read more....
http://www.pkfc.com/en/pkfhome/FreeStuff/Newsletter/December-2011-PKF-Forecast-Better-For-Some.aspx
Supermarket Chain Winn-Dixie to be Sold to Bi-Lo
The supermarket chain Winn-Dixie is being sold for $560 million to Bi-Lo LLC. The combined company will have about 690 stores and 63,000 workers in eight states in the southern U.S. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will become a privately held subsidiary and its ticker will be removed from the Nasdaq. Each Winn-Dixie stockholder gets $9.50 per share in cash, a 75 percent premium to the Jacksonville, Fla. company’s Friday closing stock price. Bi-Lo, based in Greenville, S.C., runs 207 supermarkets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Winn-Dixie runs about 480 grocery stores, including approximately 380 in-store pharmacies, in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. It has about 46,000 employees. The companies said Monday that no store closings are expected and the name Winn-Dixie will remain.
Friday
Third zipline course proposed for downtown Myrtle Beach
Sun News - Two local businessmen want to see people soaring over Withers Swash as they ride a mechanized zipline-style chair attraction they are proposing to build on the South End of Myrtle Beach. At Wednesday’s Downtown Redevelopment Corp. meeting, Chris Trout, one of the owners and the general manager of the Sky Wheel, presented a plan to build a moveable zipline inside the grounds of Family Kingdom. He and Bill Prescott, who owns the Slingshot and other downtown attractions, have joined forces on this new venture, and want to make the 400-foot line traverse Withers Swash and the go-kart track on Fourth Avenue South. Instead of each rider being harnessed to a zip line, though, each would sit in a chair with safety belts, and get a speed-controlled round-trip ride up to 60 feet in the air. Unlike a zipline course, there would be no stairs to climb to get to the line.
Redevelopment agency Executive Director David Sebok said he thought it was a good idea to get feedback from the redevelopment board before the proposal moves on to the City Council for approval. The council will have to consider whether to grant Trout and Prescott the right to use the city’s air space and rights of way. The council usually asks what other stakeholders think of a project, Sebok said, and now Trout and Prescott will be able to answer that question. The board unanimously approved supporting the project, although there was some discussion about whether riders would be restricted from carrying items with them on the ride, as zipliners are. "I think one concern (for the City Council) is going to be the amount of trash that ends up in the swash,” said board member Chuck Martino, himself a former City Council member.
If this new plan is approved, it will be the third zipline-style adventure ride for Myrtle Beach. The other two, owned by Myrtle Beach Adrenaline Adventures, are being placed on the smaller lot of the former Pavilion site, and in a vacant lot on the South End of Ocean Boulevard between Damon’s restaurant and Springmaid Pier. Those two courses are in the construction and permitting process now, and their developers plan to be open for the peak summer season, as do Trout and Prescott. In other business Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to pay about $25,000 for decorative paving on the large lot of the former Pavilion site downtown, which this year will be used for Coastal Uncorked’s tasting arena. The food-and-wine festival, now in its third year, is abandoning its tasting trolleys for a stationary tasting area, and proposing leasing the former Pavilion site for the late-April event.
The plan calls for food and wine tasting tents and a temporary stage with about 500 chairs, plus the paved area that the redevelopment agency will pay for. The hope is that other groups will want to use the paved area once Coastal Uncorked is over, and Sebok said he has had inquiries from groups that are considering wine-tasting events and a Native American powwow. “I think it’s a good thing for downtown,” said board member Karon Mitchell, who owns the Chesterfield Inn, among other properties along the boulevard. Board member Taylor Damonte, director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University, said the board should support Coastal Uncorked. His center has performed economic impact studies of the festival, and conservatively, he said, it has a $3 million direct impact on the city. "If they want a $20,000 paving pad to make the site more usable,” he said, “it’s a no-brainer.”
The redevelopment staff is also considering asking the board to pay for electricity and water at the site, so that even more groups could use it. The paving will all be removed when the property is redeveloped, but landowner The Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc., has not said when that will happen. In the meantime, the company is leasing the property for a variety of uses, from festivals to the traveling display of the Vietnam Memorial Wall that has come to town for Veterans Day. The board also voted unanimously in favor of enhancing its storefront-improvement loan program. As it stands now, property owners can borrow up to $15,000 to make improvements to their building facades. But since the program started in 2001, only three property owners have used the loan program. Redevelopment Executive Assistant Koribrett McKeithan said that’s partly because the cost of improvements designs can be prohibitive. Board members agreed to give grants of up to $2,000 to pay for the designs, on top of the loans. The board has $48,000 set aside for loans, which are given out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Redevelopment agency Executive Director David Sebok said he thought it was a good idea to get feedback from the redevelopment board before the proposal moves on to the City Council for approval. The council will have to consider whether to grant Trout and Prescott the right to use the city’s air space and rights of way. The council usually asks what other stakeholders think of a project, Sebok said, and now Trout and Prescott will be able to answer that question. The board unanimously approved supporting the project, although there was some discussion about whether riders would be restricted from carrying items with them on the ride, as zipliners are. "I think one concern (for the City Council) is going to be the amount of trash that ends up in the swash,” said board member Chuck Martino, himself a former City Council member.
If this new plan is approved, it will be the third zipline-style adventure ride for Myrtle Beach. The other two, owned by Myrtle Beach Adrenaline Adventures, are being placed on the smaller lot of the former Pavilion site, and in a vacant lot on the South End of Ocean Boulevard between Damon’s restaurant and Springmaid Pier. Those two courses are in the construction and permitting process now, and their developers plan to be open for the peak summer season, as do Trout and Prescott. In other business Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to pay about $25,000 for decorative paving on the large lot of the former Pavilion site downtown, which this year will be used for Coastal Uncorked’s tasting arena. The food-and-wine festival, now in its third year, is abandoning its tasting trolleys for a stationary tasting area, and proposing leasing the former Pavilion site for the late-April event.
The plan calls for food and wine tasting tents and a temporary stage with about 500 chairs, plus the paved area that the redevelopment agency will pay for. The hope is that other groups will want to use the paved area once Coastal Uncorked is over, and Sebok said he has had inquiries from groups that are considering wine-tasting events and a Native American powwow. “I think it’s a good thing for downtown,” said board member Karon Mitchell, who owns the Chesterfield Inn, among other properties along the boulevard. Board member Taylor Damonte, director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University, said the board should support Coastal Uncorked. His center has performed economic impact studies of the festival, and conservatively, he said, it has a $3 million direct impact on the city. "If they want a $20,000 paving pad to make the site more usable,” he said, “it’s a no-brainer.”
The redevelopment staff is also considering asking the board to pay for electricity and water at the site, so that even more groups could use it. The paving will all be removed when the property is redeveloped, but landowner The Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc., has not said when that will happen. In the meantime, the company is leasing the property for a variety of uses, from festivals to the traveling display of the Vietnam Memorial Wall that has come to town for Veterans Day. The board also voted unanimously in favor of enhancing its storefront-improvement loan program. As it stands now, property owners can borrow up to $15,000 to make improvements to their building facades. But since the program started in 2001, only three property owners have used the loan program. Redevelopment Executive Assistant Koribrett McKeithan said that’s partly because the cost of improvements designs can be prohibitive. Board members agreed to give grants of up to $2,000 to pay for the designs, on top of the loans. The board has $48,000 set aside for loans, which are given out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Harrelson Boulevard exposes everyone to airport expansion
Sun News - Now that the Harrelson Boulevard extension is finished and open, drivers crossing from Kings Highway to the U.S. 17 Bypass via that highway can see a sight they probably couldn’t have before -- the terminal expansion project at Myrtle Beach International Airport. And that $118 million expansion continues to move ever closer toward its January 2013 opening date. Lauren Morris, marketing director for Horry County Airports, said the work remains on budget and moving along. Both Harrelson Boulevard and the aircraft rescue and firefighting facility are finished, with the 27,000 square-foot ARFF building coming in at a budget of $4.2 million. It is adjacent to the existing airport terminal. As for future work, Morris said two airport boarding bridges will be replaced this spring, ahead of the summer tourist season.
New life coming to former Waccamaw Pottery near Myrtle Beach
Sun News - An investment group has bought the property known as Waccamaw Pottery with plans to revive the former shopping hub by cleaning up the area and luring new stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and other tenants. The property off U.S. 501 at Fantasy Harbour, once slated for demolition before the recession to make way for new development, is getting new life under the new owners, 3W LLC, a firm registered in New Jersey that is made up of Chinese and American investors. The firm bought the 52.29 acres from General Electric Credit Equities for $7.5 million, closing the deal on Dec. 30, according to Horry County property records. “We will gradually bring this thing back to life,” property manager Martin Durham said, sitting in an office in one of the mall buildings. “We are hoping to, over time, open everything back up.”
The change in ownership is the first step in reviving an area that has taken a few hits in recent years, businesses in the area said, with the twice-failed theme park still sitting idle and the lack of attention to keep up the Waccamaw Pottery property, which has spawned more weeds and broken windows than tenants in recent years. Crews already have pulled weeds and boarded up broken windows in the past few weeks, and area businesses have noticed – welcoming the change to a property they say looked abandoned and scary. “Aesthetically, it is already looking better,” said Holley McMillen, sales manager at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center across the street from Waccamaw Pottery, also once known as the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. “It’s a relief. Any kind of good activity over there can only help this area. This area has really been hit hard lately.” The buyers found the property appealing because it is in a highly visible location off U.S. 501 – one of the main roads tourists take into Myrtle Beach – and the building is structurally sound, said Alain Wizman, director of commercial real estate for Keller Williams who represented 3W in the deal. Wizman had been working with the group for about a year, but said a trip to China in September with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes impressed the buyers and helped seal the deal.
The buyers plan to spend about $1 million rehabbing the property, but the transition won’t happen overnight, Wizman said. Keller Williams also is handling leasing of the roughly 600,000-square-feet of space. “They felt this held a tremendous amount of potential,” Wizman said. “They feel it was a property that could be turned around into a premium product.” The first new stores could be open by the summer, though it likely will take two years before the buildings known as mall 1 and mall 2 are reopen, Durham said, adding that at least half of the space needs to be filled before it’s viable to open that interior space. The goal is to fill the spaces along the exterior of the property first. Officials aim to get a mix of tenants, including clothing stores, restaurants, nightclubs and venues with an international flavor, Wizman said. The shopping complex also will get a new name, one that will incorporate “Waccamaw” to capture the history of the area, he said. Details of the project, including the name and what the renovations will look like, are still being developed. But the first step is cleaning up the property, which hasn’t been kept up in recent years. That includes landscaping to rid the place of overgrown weeds, fixing broken windows, pressure washing, painting and working on the roof, Durham said. On Thursday, landscaping crews were working in the parking areas. “This place has had no attention for four or five years,” Durham said. “It was just sort of idle. Everything was idle here.”
The property hasn’t been kept up since about 2008 when the previous owners – also investors in Hard Rock Park – abandoned plans to tear down the mall buildings to make way for a mixed-used development dubbed “Paradise City” and tied into the theme park next door. The theme park only lasted one summer as Hard Rock Park, and the investors abandoned their plans to redevelop the mall property once the park shut down in 2008. The mall was only renting month-to-month and needed some TLC. “I’m ecstatic,” said Jay Coley, a co-owner of Imaginations costumes and dancewear, one of three tenants at the shopping complex. “It’s exciting to know this won’t be desolate anymore. We won’t have to describe this as being an abandoned mall anymore.”
The change in ownership is the first step in reviving an area that has taken a few hits in recent years, businesses in the area said, with the twice-failed theme park still sitting idle and the lack of attention to keep up the Waccamaw Pottery property, which has spawned more weeds and broken windows than tenants in recent years. Crews already have pulled weeds and boarded up broken windows in the past few weeks, and area businesses have noticed – welcoming the change to a property they say looked abandoned and scary. “Aesthetically, it is already looking better,” said Holley McMillen, sales manager at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center across the street from Waccamaw Pottery, also once known as the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. “It’s a relief. Any kind of good activity over there can only help this area. This area has really been hit hard lately.” The buyers found the property appealing because it is in a highly visible location off U.S. 501 – one of the main roads tourists take into Myrtle Beach – and the building is structurally sound, said Alain Wizman, director of commercial real estate for Keller Williams who represented 3W in the deal. Wizman had been working with the group for about a year, but said a trip to China in September with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes impressed the buyers and helped seal the deal.
The buyers plan to spend about $1 million rehabbing the property, but the transition won’t happen overnight, Wizman said. Keller Williams also is handling leasing of the roughly 600,000-square-feet of space. “They felt this held a tremendous amount of potential,” Wizman said. “They feel it was a property that could be turned around into a premium product.” The first new stores could be open by the summer, though it likely will take two years before the buildings known as mall 1 and mall 2 are reopen, Durham said, adding that at least half of the space needs to be filled before it’s viable to open that interior space. The goal is to fill the spaces along the exterior of the property first. Officials aim to get a mix of tenants, including clothing stores, restaurants, nightclubs and venues with an international flavor, Wizman said. The shopping complex also will get a new name, one that will incorporate “Waccamaw” to capture the history of the area, he said. Details of the project, including the name and what the renovations will look like, are still being developed. But the first step is cleaning up the property, which hasn’t been kept up in recent years. That includes landscaping to rid the place of overgrown weeds, fixing broken windows, pressure washing, painting and working on the roof, Durham said. On Thursday, landscaping crews were working in the parking areas. “This place has had no attention for four or five years,” Durham said. “It was just sort of idle. Everything was idle here.”
The property hasn’t been kept up since about 2008 when the previous owners – also investors in Hard Rock Park – abandoned plans to tear down the mall buildings to make way for a mixed-used development dubbed “Paradise City” and tied into the theme park next door. The theme park only lasted one summer as Hard Rock Park, and the investors abandoned their plans to redevelop the mall property once the park shut down in 2008. The mall was only renting month-to-month and needed some TLC. “I’m ecstatic,” said Jay Coley, a co-owner of Imaginations costumes and dancewear, one of three tenants at the shopping complex. “It’s exciting to know this won’t be desolate anymore. We won’t have to describe this as being an abandoned mall anymore.”
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