Surfside Beach Town Council to consider contract for pier restaurant

Surfside Beach Town Council members will have a signed contract for the town pier restaurant space to consider when they meet in a special session Monday morning, town administrator Jim Duckett said Friday afternoon.

“I have a contract in my hand that has been signed by two individuals,” Duckett said of a lease that he has negotiated with a three-person LLC.

Duckett said he will give council members enough information to approve or reject the contract at the meeting, but could not say which would happen.

“I’m not a gambler,” agreed Mayor Allen Deaton. “I can’t predict the minds of this council.”

The lease of the restaurant has been an issue in Surfside Beach since late 2010, when popular restaurant Nibils vacated the space after 20 years. The restaurant’s withdrawal came as the town was preparing to seek proposals for restaurants there.

Deaton said he doesn’t know why Nibils decided to move, but he added that the town tried to impose rules in the lease that should have been the decisions of the lessee, not the town.

He said the town should consider the restaurant as any vacant space and not worry about not too many details other than the lessee pay on time.

The town had conditionally agreed last year to lease the space to a New Jersey man, but withdrew that agreement when it learned things about the man officials felt were undesirable.

The man has filed a breach of contract lawsuit, but is has not yet been heard, said Ken Moss, attorney for the town. Included with the filing, he said, was a notice of lis pendens, in effect a warning against any future lessee that they could be a party to a lawsuit should a court agree with the lawsuit.

Moss said the town has filed a motion to dismiss the suit.

“There’s never been a lease,” he said of the lawsuit’s basic argument.

Two council members said Friday they want an update on the lawsuit, and Moss said he will be prepared to give it to them at the special meeting.

He said he sees no reasons why they town should be reluctant to proceed with a contract to lease the space.

Councilmen Doug Samples and Bob Childs said they want the update and that they assumed Monday’s meeting was called because the town had or was close to having a contract on which they could vote.

“I’m glad there are people out there who are interested in the space,” he said, “and we need to move on.”

Deaton said the town has learned some things from its experience over the space.

“We probably got off on the wrong foot,” he said of the previous effort.

He said that an agreement now from the town, if it comes, is important to the new proposed lessee so that improvements can be made to the space prior to tourist season.

“We learned a lot,” Deaton said of the process. “It was painful.”