Growth: Redevelopment company buys troubled Pawleys Island Plaza

 Coastal Observer  -- The largest shopping center in the Pawleys Island business district is under new ownership. A redevelopment is proposed, but details have not been announced.  Sunbelt Ventures of Charleston acquired Pawleys Island Plaza last week.  The center was scheduled to be sold on the courthouse steps next week, but the previous owners, Mickey and Beverly Stikas, transferred the property in a deed in lieu of foreclosure last week.  Sunbelt Ventures bought the mortgage to the plaza in March. The price was not disclosed, but the foreclosure action sought $5.3 million in principal, interest and fees.  “We just took title to it, so it’s happened really quickly,” said Dusty Wiederhold, a managing partner in Sunbelt Ventures.  “We worked out a settlement with Mr. and Mrs. Stikas.”  Wiederhold said he wasn’t prepared to discuss plans for the center this week, but added “it’s all going to happen pretty quickly.”  Sunbelt Ventures has a permit from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to do voluntary cleanup on the 10.7-acre site on Highway 17 south of Waverly Road. It’s for an environmental assessment for redevelopment.  The Stikases got approval from Georgetown County in 2008 to renovate the shopping center, which was built in 1986 for an A&P grocery store.   The chain converted the store to its Farmer Jack brand, then sold the brand in 1995 to Food Lion, which closed the Pawleys Island store but held on to the lease.  Without an anchor store, the complex suffered.  Sunbelt Ventures specializes in redevelopment. One of its projects was Inlet Square Mall.  Its other projects list national retailers such as Lowe’s, Publix, K-Mart and Sam’s Club.  “This is what we have been doing for 35 years,” Weiderhold said.

Paweys Island Plaza was originally approved as a “planned development” with 83,950 square feet of space. Just over 77,000 square feet were built. Mickey Stikas got county approval in 2008 to increase the amount of space to 100,600 square feet.  But that space isn’t all under one roof, said Boyd Johnson, the county planning director.  He has had “informal discussions” with Wiederhold and others interested in the property.
 Part of the additional space approved in 2008 was for a restaurant that was proposed for the front of the property and would have extended over a stormwater retention pond.  “There’s no way you could do a big-box there without going back to the Planning Commission and County Council,” Johnson said.  “Let’s say there was a big-box that needed 102,000 square feet. We wouldn’t just write the permit.”  The county limits retail stores in the Highway 17 corridor to 40,000 square feet, but that can be altered in a planned development.  An effort to build a 137,000-square-foot Lowe’s in a planned development on Highway 17 at the South Causeway in 2005 was defeated after vigorous community opposition under the banner “Don’t Box the Neck.”  Pawleys Island Mayor Bill Otis said he has concerns that another big-box store may be proposed for Pawleys Island Plaza.  Although outside the town limits, the area is a gateway for the town, just like the South Causeway.

“The Waccamaw Neck and County Council have already addressed the issue of big-box stores with the proposed Lowe’s,” Otis said.  “With another big-box, I believe the outcry would be as significant.”
 Traffic is one area that will be a concern if there is a proposal to change the plan that’s already approved for the property, Johnson said.  “How would a thriving shopping center affect the traffic?” he asked.   “You’ve got a shopping center that’s not thriving.”  Pawleys Island Plaza was built before the county adopted the size limit and before design standards were approved for commercial projects within the Highway 17 corridor.  “If somebody like a big-box chain comes in there, we would take the same approach that we took with Lowe’s,” Johnson said, requiring extensive landscape buffers and a compatible design.  “This is an opportunity to get something that’s aesthetically pleasing.”

New housing complexes aim to fill need for Myrtle Beach area college students

SUN NEWS - Coastal Carolina University students have more housing options as they start moving in this month for the school year, with several privately built apartment complexes popping up to meet demand as the college continues to grow.  At least two new student housing communities are set to open this month in the Conway area, adding more than 250 apartment units for students wanting to live near campus. Officials say the additional units are needed to keep up with the university’s long-term growth. “We saw an opportunity because Coastal Carolina University has grown in the last three years,” said Jourdan Manley, general manager for Monarch 544, one of the new complexes. “With [CCU’s] rapid growth and interest in retention, there’s a heavy need in the area for student housing. We saw that this year in leasing. We’re here to fill that need and provide to the community and college a different experience.”

About 8,832 students were enrolled at CCU for the fall as of Wednesday, with officials projecting that number to grow to 9,300. Last fall, 9,084 students were enrolled, up from 8,706 students in fall 2010, and 8,360 students in fall 2009. Classes start Aug. 20.  Because Coastal requires all freshmen and sophomore students to live on campus, the increased enrollment has left little space for upperclassmen to live in campus housing, according to university officials. There are 3,625 beds on campus with more than 9,000 students expected to enroll this fall, said Debbie Conner, CCU’s vice president for student affairs. The university plans to build four new residence halls on campus, but it will be 2015 before all of them are ready.  “We do not guarantee housing for upperclassmen, so housing apartments close to campus would be very popular,” Conner said. “There’s obviously a need there. The developer saw a need there and was able to build.”
Monarch 544, a 128-unit, 440-bed apartment complex off S.C. 544, and The Cove at Coastal Carolina, a 126-unit, 396-bedroom project also off S.C. 544, are set to open this month just in time for the start of classes. The Cove had its first students move in Friday, with the rest of the students moving in Aug.17. Monarch’s students will move in Aug.18.

Predominantly juniors and seniors will stay at The Cove, which is almost 90 percent full, and the Monarch, which expects to be full with a waiting list, according to officials with the student housing complexes. The demand, they said, is there with the growth of CCU’s student body.  Between fall 2001 and fall 2011, Coastal Carolina University’s enrollment grew 83 percent, according to CCU research officials.
Russell Broderick, vice president for Gilbane Development Co., The Cove’s developer, said the market needs more student housing developments with the university’s high enrollment and number of transfer students.  While Monarch and The Cove are opening in time for this school year, another student-focused housing project isn’t on track to be open this month as originally planned.  Construction started earlier this year on Coastal Estates, a gated 672-room development on U.S. 501, but Conway Planning Director Michael Leinwand said the department noticed a few months ago that construction had stopped. “There’s little activity out there,” Leinwand said.  It’s unclear why work has stopped. McKenzie Jordan, president of Chancel HRT, which is the general contractor on the project, did not return phone calls or respond to an email last week asking for details.  Even with construction stalled on that project, other student housing complexes that have been in the community for some time say there’s enough students to fill their units and the new ones.  “The demand definitely is still there,” said Kirsten Ulm, leasing and marketing manager for University Village at the Coast, a 437-unit apartment complex that has been near CCU for 10 years. As of Thursday, the complex was 89.9 percent full, with a more than 50 percent renewal rate this year, Ulm said.
She said there are not any concerns with the new developments coming in because University Village – which offers a yearly lease from Aug.17 to July 31 and a semester lease from Aug.17 to Dec.31 – charges lower rents for each bedroom than the new student housing complexes. The price for University Village’s three-bedroom, three-bath apartments is $410 to $425 a month.

Monarch, where leases run from Aug.18 to July 31, has four-bedrooms for $595 to $605 a month, with its two-bedrooms sold out. The Cove – which offers 12-month leases – has four-bedrooms, four-baths for $590 a month and two-bedrooms, two-baths for $675 a month, according to its website.  The growth of off-campus student housing is a positive sign for Conway, Mayor Alys Lawson said.  “The goal of the city council is to promote Conway as a college town,” she said. “We feel to have CCU and [Horry-Georgetown Technical College] in Conway is a bonus for our community. We’ve been working with both institutions to bridge the gap between the city and the campuses.  “I’m excited about the new housing developments. There’s a need for those housing developments. With them being adjacent to the university…it makes it a more livable community for the students.”