Myrtle Beach Notebook | Demolition of Breakwater Inn has begun

If you’re headed for North Ocean Boulevard this week, don’t try to go north near 14th Avenue North. Myrtle Beach Police officers have closed the northbound lane in the 14th-15th block because construction crews are tearing down the old Breakwater Inn.

That’s where Coastal Dining and Entertainment plans a large, new Mexican restaurant on the oceanfront.

Traffic is being directed around the construction site, and construction managers with the project say they don’t have a timeline for how long the demolition of the three Breakwater buildings will take.

“We’re going to be here awhile,” said Jim Dougherty, senior supervisor and vice president of operations for Consensus Construction and Consulting, based in Georgetown. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

Dougherty couldn’t talk in detail about the project, though, because the investors with Coastal Dining have asked him not to speak to the media about it.

“The investors aren’t ready to release any information about the project,” he said.

But city spokesman Mark Kruea said the city gave permission for the street closure based Monday’s demolition start, and continuing through Jan. 20.

The Myrtle Beach City Council on Tuesday will discuss the restaurant group’s proposal to swap three alleys in the 1400 block of Ocean Boulevard so the restaurant can be built. The swap would leave a 60-foot-wide swath along 15th Avenue North, which would become a new municipal park.

Jim Hubbard, an architect with Pegram Associates, said his firm is working on the construction documents for the restaurant, which are the plans the contractor uses to guide the building.

“We’re full speed ahead,” Hubbard said, indicating he wants to have the documents completed as soon as possible.

The goal, officials have said, is to get the Spanish hacienda-style restaurant open by Cinco de Mayo.

One question that has yet to be discussed -- publicly, anyway -- is who will pay for the extension of the boardwalk the Coastal Dining investors want.

That conversation could come up at Tuesday’s council workshop (9 a.m., first-floor conference room, City Hall, 937 Broadway), and again at the afternoon meeting (2 p.m., Council Chambers, Ted C. Collins Law Enforcement Center, 1101 N. Oak St.), both of which are, as always, open to the public.

The city does collect fees from right-of-way swaps, and could consider using that money toward the boardwalk extension, but considering the 1.2-mile boardwalk cost $6 million to build, it’s a good bet the two-block extension would cost quite a bit more than the $30,000 or $40,000 in alley-swap fees.

At the meeting where Hubbard presented the preliminary restaurant plans to the city’s Community Appearance Board, he said he did not know what investors had worked out with the city regarding who would pay for the extension. But council members have said they like the idea of growing the boardwalk, Myrtle Beach’s newest city-built amenity.

Other construction

There are going to be inside lane closures along U.S. 17 Bypass from 62nd Avenue North to 79th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach as the city continues its installation of a 36-inch sewer line in the median of the bypass.

The $1.9 million project begins later this week and is expected to take about two months.

The city said much of the work will happen at night, from Sundays through Thursdays, and that’s when the lane closures will occur, too -- from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The new 36-inch sewer line replaces a 30-inch sewer line that’s more than 30 years, old, the city said. Three additional phases are planned for future years, extending the sewer line into Restaurant Row.