Myrtle Beach Boardwalk could get an extension

Myrtle Beach’s boardwalk is likely to be extended by about two blocks on its north end.

A group of investors plans to develop three lots on 14th Avenue North at Ocean Boulevard, tearing down the now-shuttered Breakwater hotel buildings and building a new Mexican restaurant as the first of a three-phase development project that will extend back to the third row of properties just north of the Yachtsman resort.

The Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board got its first look at the restaurant plans at Thursday’s meeting, and heard architect Jim Hubbard of Pegram and Associates explain the basics of the plan:

Coastal Dining and Entertainment LLC, a group of local and out-of-area investors, want to move two of the three alleys that lie between the Breakwater buildings to the north end of the block nearest 15th Avenue North. They would create a 60-foot-wide city park on the north end of the block, and extend the boardwalk north from where it now ends at the 14th Avenue Pier past the Yachtsman and in front of their as-yet-unnamed restaurant.

However, who will pay for the boardwalk extension remains to be settled.

LLC member Chip Smith could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

“The city does not have the money to do it, and neither does the Downtown Redevelopment Corp.,” said city manager Tom Leath.

The city does get fees from such right-of-way transactions as alley-swaps, but Leath said they typically don’t generate a lot of money – either $40,000 or 1 percent of the project’s value per alley – and in this case it will likely go toward developing the new park.

No estimate was available Thursday for what it would cost to extend the boardwalk by an estimated two blocks.

The $6 million boardwalk is being paid for through the issuance of city bonds and was not bid for construction in segments, even though its three segments look quite different from each other.

Developers have a few hoops still to jump through before all their plans become reality.

Not only does the City Council have to receive and review the application for the alley-swap, the developers have to advertise the plans three times in the week before the issue comes up for first reading by the Council.

Plus, because a boardwalk extension – even though it would likely be a raised platform style that matches the boardwalk from Plyler Park to the 14th Avenue Pier – would require permits from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Ocean and Coastal Resource Management department,

The appearance board gave the conceptual drawings of the new, Spanish-hacienda-style restaurant building rave reviews, but board Chairman Larry Bragg said he’s just as excited about the plan to extend the boardwalk.

Conceptual reviews do not require any board action, and are more a way for the architect and/or property developer to get an idea if they are on the right track.

Hubbard has designed a building that will maximize its proximity to the ocean by featuring indoor seating for about 90, and a series of different indoor-outdoor transitional seating areas as well as outdoor seating in a Spanish-style courtyard, on a wooden patio and a covered porch. There will also be other covered outdoor seating, some of which could make use of fire pits to make it more enticing to off-season diners.

Its entrances will be on North Ocean Boulevard and at the new city park, but Hubbard said all four sides of the building are designed to be attractive to the public. For example, he said, the North Ocean Boulevard side will feature uniquely shaped walls and a cascading wall fountain.

“The Ocean Boulevard side looks a little bit residential,” Bragg said, “which is attractive because it’s not overwhelming to people walking by.”

The only questions some board members had were about the color scheme, which is planned to be off-white on the building with a sandy-clay-tile roof and blue windows.

Board member Jackie Vereen said she thought it seemed a bit too monochromatic, and Bragg said he might prefer a more vibrantly colored roof, but others members, like Jeff Edens, liked the colors just as Hubbard presented them.

“It’s beachy,” Edens said.

In the end, Bragg agreed the restaurant building could get pops of color, perhaps from window boxes of flowers, rather than having many different colors incorporated in the building itself, and Vereen and others said they love the building design.

Coastal Dining member Smith has declined to name the other principals in the LLC that plans to open the restaurant, and the group has not revealed its plans for the second- and third-row properties yet.

Leath, who said he has only met with LLC representatives once, said he thinks eventually something like a resort would be built where the restaurant is planned, probably incorporating the dining venue.

“I’m just looking at it from the outside, but to me, a restaurant isn’t the highest and best use for expensive property like that,” he said.

Horry County public records show that Bitter End LLC, the group that owns the three lots that make up the Breakwater and includes John Divine of the Divine Dining Group, is facing foreclosure on the property.