New funding puts ITAP on front burner for Strand economic developers

The Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. will have an extra $500,000 to try to lure businesses to the International Technology and Aerospace Park, which has yet to attract any tenants.

The money originally was given to Myrtle Beach International Airport, which is adjacent to the business park, by the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority for economic development but hasn’t been used.

Buddy Styers, executive director of the redevelopment authority, said the EDC could potentially use the money for things ranging from sale and lease signs on ITAP property to incentives to help companies locate there.

“That money has not been used by the airport,” Styers said Wednesday afternoon. Airport director Pat Apone could not be reached for comment.

The redevelopment authority was in charge of creating new jobs and development at the base after it closed in 1993. Developments such as The Market Common, Grand Park and numerous neighborhoods have been built on the former base land. All of the property has been transferred from the military, but the authority still exists handling things such as funneling state grant money to the airport.

Jim Moore, new MBREDC CEO, said he was delighted when he learned of the new money to market ITAP and said he hopes it will help attract aerospace employers to come look at the property and have it on their final lists by the end of this year or early next year.

Moore said former EDC CEO Brad Lofton nearly snagged a French private jet manufacturer to build a plant there in recent years, but it ultimately decided to locate in Arkansas, where it already had a small facility.

“I think we can do that again,” said Moore, who was involved with the recruitment in his former position with the North Eastern Strategic Alliance. “We’ve just got to put our story in front of aviation people.”

ITAP was designated as an EDC project in about 2009, said MBREDC board chairman Fred Richardson.

It is located between other development at The Market Common and a large apron near the airport’s runway. The federal government and the airport recently spent $5.45 million to build a new taxiway to directly link the site to the main runway.

Styers said he sat in on 10 to 15 conference calls between potential ITAP employers and Lofton.

“Nothing ever came of any of them,” he said.

He suggested that a major stumbling block to getting an employer at the site could be that each one would need approval of the Federal Aviation Administration, a process that could take six months or longer with no certain outcome.

Not many companies are going to want to commit to a move to a new location and then have to wait another six months to find out if they would be allowed to, Styers said.

“Things have got to move and got to move fast or you’re going to lose them,” Styers said.

Richardson and Moore also thought that the economic downturn could have had something to do with the lack of success in landing a prospect at ITAP.

Richardson said the EDC recently hired a new lead generation firm, which could bring the right prospect to the table. But Moore noted that company will be looking for non-ITAP prospects as well and hopes he can generate leads through consultants he knows or though airport personnel.

Styers said he’s disappointed that no business has yet located at ITAP, but likened the situation to at least one he faced in other development at The Market Common. He said sometimes a multi-year effort is needed while you try one approach, then another before finding the one that works.

“I think there are things that can be done to get things started in there,” he said.

Moore said he believes that landing the first tenant will be the hardest part of filling up ITAP acreage.

“It’s an amazingly unique site,” he said. “Once you get one company to go in ITAP, the rest will follow suit.”

Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765 or on Twitter @TSN_SteveJones.

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 6:09 PM with the headline "New funding puts ITAP on front burner for Strand economic developers."