As Atlantic Beach fights for survival, will a $100M high-rise hotel help be its savior?
Atlantic Beach’s community center is at the bottom of a dead end street, nestled between the Hawaiian Rumble miniature golf course and Pearl’s Cabaret, a gentleman’s club and adult gift shop.
Inside the complex — where the temperature is set at 74 degrees to keep offices warm — a lightly attended Thursday planning commission meeting took place. There were votes on esoteric issues.
Should parking requirements be modified? What to do about density standards?
Then Charles Morant spoke.
“This is a landmark community, and we want to preserve that heritage and build on that heritage,” he told the commission. “We think it’s time for Atlantic Beach to move forward. To develop. And we think this is the perfect opportunity to do that.”
Morant, through his company Legacy Builders, wants to build an $80 to $100 million “condo-tel” high rise on a block with unmolested views of the ocean — combining hotel rooms with condominiums and short-term rentals on 30th Ave. S.
The 21-story “Black Pearl of the Atlantic” would also have space for a banquet hall, conference rooms, a museum and upscale restaurant.
Morant, who now lives in New York, was born and raised in Georgetown County and recalls summers on the sands in Atlantic Beach.
A grand opening isn’t likely for several more years
Like many others who have memories of an Atlantic Beach crackling with activity, Morant said its current state drove him to consider the massive investment. He anticipates The Black Pearl opening sometime in 2027 or 2028.
The venture needs approval from Atlantic Beach’s planning commission and town council first, which is expected over the next few months.
“It would change the dynamic of the town and I think the town understands that it needs economic turnaround,” Morant said. “The budget the town has now, it cannot survive. Some of the streets don’t have sidewalks”.
Regina and Jonathan Moody opened their C&G Bakery and Eatery at 413 31st Ave S. in 2019. There are no sidewalks in front of it.
Neither are from the town but grew up nearby and recall escapade-filled summer nights on its beaches.
“This is where we had our teenage fun at. We want to get people back to know that Atlantic Beach is a positive place, not the bad image it’s had in the past,” Jonathan said. “The vibe is great, man. You just feel this positive energy coming back.”
At least one legal challenge has already been raised about the hotel. The planning commission on Thursday spent nearly an hour in executive session “for the receipt of legal advice related to a pending or threatened legal claim concerning the proposed Black Pearl of the Atlantic development.”
A search of Horry County court records has no indication of a lawsuit being filed against the venture.
The notion of luxury vehicles being valeted into a brightly lit parking structure cushioned by landscaping would be a stark economic juxtaposition from what’s in the area now.
Within walking distance of the proposed site is the burned out Sandbox Bar and Grill, which crumbled in a September 2022 fire.
And two blocks away, golf carts and bicycles zip across the 32nd Avenue crossing that separates Atlantic Beach from North Myrtle Beach — some headed to the North Village Shopping center where the “N” in its Dollar General sign is missing.
Today, Atlantic Beach is most famous for its Bike Week — a giant motorcycle rally held every Memorial Day weekend. The 43rd rendition rumbles into town May 26 through May 29.
Given the event’s popularity, the town has attempted to run spin-off events highlighting its role in the history of Black America.
John Sketers, a co-founder of the festival, isn’t sure a mixed-use skyscraper is the catalyst for a town renaissance.
“We know it takes revenue to live from day to day, but I don’t think we should go to the extent where we’re going to destroy ourself in that respect, and I don’t think at this point we can create some things in this little bit of space just for the almighty dollar, because it means more than that,” he said.
Growth is a decades-old talking point in Atlantic Beach. The New York Times in 1989 ran an article headlined “Black Resort in South Splits over Developing” back when the town’s year-round population was 800 and Joe Montgomery was mayor.
“We’ve gone through this several times before, going back to my administration,” he said. “So I hope this (the hotel) comes to fruition, but you’ve got some people who oppose it. Mostly people who came here in recent years and don’t want to see anything down there. But we been trying to get this thing going.”
Atlantic Beach doesn’t have a competitive economy
Held back by underdeveloped — and in many places, absent — infrastructure, low property values and virtually no tax base, Atlantic Beach struggles to keep pace with surrounding communities.
It’s current budget is $918,784. By comparison, Horry County’s 2022-23 spending plan is $678 million.
The town’s 2017 comprehensive plan — a blueprint for growth that sets goals through 2027 — suggests overhauling land management rules, creating a small business association and even partnering with groups like the Waccamaw Market Collaborative to run a farmer’s market.
All of those things would help Atlantic Beach bounce back, Irene Armstrong says, but more is needed.
“It takes smart balance, and I think we’re very much aware of that. We don’t want to become a duplicate of Myrtle Beach. We want to develop around our heritage and our character. There’s not another one like Atlantic Beach in the nation. There’s not another Black-chartered oceanfront town in the nation, and perhaps even the world,” the 12-year mayor and real estate agent said.
Armstrong said if the hotel concept works, it could allow Atlantic Beach to build out using the property tax dollars, tourism fees and other benefits that could come from it.
“As long as it’s not going to change the face of Atlantic Beach dramatically, I have no problem with it,” she said. “Economics. That is the bottom line. And so if that’s going to flush the lining of Atlantic Beach’s coffers, than I support that. You can’t be a town that’s afraid of development and growth if you’re strapped economically.”
Atlantic Beach was born in the grip of Jim Crow laws
In 1934, Black entrepreneur George Tyson gave Horry County a $2,000 down payment for the rights to 47 acres of beachfront property between 29th and 32nd avenues south, east of U.S. Highway 17.
Officials expected him to default on the $10,000 balance but instead Tyson had made enough to buy 49 more acres in the summer of 1941 along the highway’s west side.
With 90 acres of pristine land hugging the Atlantic shores, Tyson created a Black enclave where nightclubs, restaurants and street carnivals thrived. Its sands were lined with Black families from across the southeast who could safely enjoy the water without fear of violating segregation laws.
In the years to follow, acts including Chubby Checker, Fats Domino, The Drifters, James Brown and Marvin Gaye would gig at venues like the Black Hawk Night Club and help give Atlantic Beach its “Black Pearl” moniker.
As many of the smaller beach communities purchased by Tyson started merging with North Myrtle Beach, Atlantic Beach in June 1966 incorporated.
It’s days as a bustling oceanfront community were numbered, though.
Once America desegregated, Black families and visitors were drawn to entertainment attractions and neighborhoods once off limits to them, hollowing out Atlantic Beach to such an extent that it’s still never fully recovered.
That’s left natives with generational ties to the town — many who still remember Atlantic Beach’s heyday — torn between reclaiming its past with the realities of modern capitalism.
“Remember, most of the other people here, they’re telling you what somebody else told them. But I live here. That’s a hell of a lot of difference,” said Sketers, whose parents opened an Atlantic Beach restaurant in 1952.
This story was originally published February 19, 2023 at 7:00 AM with the headline "As Atlantic Beach fights for survival, will a $100M high-rise hotel help be its savior?."