New kitchen & bath business brings luxury products, charitable ways to Myrtle Beach
Jack Abutbol and wife Dana West-Abutbol have brought their luxury kitchen and bath products from Florida to Myrtle Beach, and some first responders are among the first in the area to enjoy them.
As part of their grand opening celebration, the owners of Milano Kitchen and Bath Center in Myrtle Beach held a raffle to award a new kitchen to either a fire station, police station or veterinary clinic.
Myrtle Beach Fire Station No. 5 won the raffle, and a new kitchen is being built at the station on 79th Ave. North. When the Abutbols learned of the condition of Myrtle Beach Fire Station No. 1 on Mr. Joe White Avenue, they decided to donate and build a second kitchen for the firefighters, which was completed Friday.
“We heard through the grapevine that Fire Station 1 was really dilapidated, so we’re doing both of them,” West-Abutbol said.
Milano has also donated needed kitchens to the Chabad of Myrtle Beach synagogue on Oak Street and a Brazilian Baptist church in the couple’s short time on the Grand Strand.
They work primarily with three installers in Myrtle Beach and don’t normally install their products, but their staff is taking part in the building of the fire station kitchens, which are being completed in two to three days.
“The entire crew had to be at the fire station because we needed to demolish it and build it immediately because these guys need to eat,” West-Abutbol said.
The firefighters were allowed to choose their own cabinets, countertops and backsplashes, so they are getting some of the company’s top products. “They got the best kitchens,” West-Abutbol said. Abutbol values the first station kitchens at about $40,000 each.
“For them to donate this is just phenomenal. We’re very appreciative of it,” said Charles Miller, a battalion chief at Fire Station No. 1, which he said opened in 1999. “It was definitely needed. Some of the doors, the hinges were starting to break or fall off. It was starting to show its age.”
Miller said that without the donation, maintenance funds could have been used over time to rebuild the kitchen, but those funds can now be used for something else. “A large project like this would eat up a lot of that money, and we’d have to do maybe a little bit at a time or do a lot of it with guys who are handy,” Miller said.
“It’s different for Myrtle Beach”
Milano sells custom floors, countertops and cabinets, and all bathroom vanities and fixtures.
“It’s pretty much anything you can imagine for a kitchen or bathroom,” said West-Abutbol, who has been a model and commercial actor since she was a teenager and was a host of AdrenalineTV.com that has aired on numerous TV stations.
Though multiple materials are available, Milano features quartz countertops and porcelain floors for kitchens, and the large slabs are book matched so they are mirrored to match the pattern, movement, and veining found in the material.
“It’s different for Myrtle Beach. This stuff has never, ever been here before,” West-Abutbol said.
Materials available for bathroom vanity tops include quartz, porcelain, granite, marble and corian.
Milano Kitchen & Bath Center is located on the corner of Grissom Parkway and U.S. 501 in a former veterinary hospital. Its grand opening was held Aug. 27.
The Milano Quartz and Porcelain Gallery is expected to open in mid-November in a 10,000-square-foot building on Third Avenue South. Both businesses have extensive showrooms.
The name Milano comes from the name of a former business, when Abutbol received Italian-made kitchens from Milan.
The couple is from California and has businesses in Florida and other states. Friend Yakov “Koby” Zroya of Myrtle Beach convinced Abutbol to bring his businesses to the area and has become a partner in them.
“In the beginning I didn’t think this market would be good for us, but I was wrong,” Abutbol said. “To begin with, the people here are amazing and this place is exploding as far as construction and there’s nothing like our product here. People are buying it like I’m selling donuts in the morning with coffee.”
The Abutbols have purchased two additional buildings on Third Avenue South totaling about 40,000 square feet to use as warehouses, with one being the longstanding Pat-Mor Salvage building, which Abutbol doesn’t expect to take over until early 2022.
They have additional warehouses in Florida, so as many businesses, contractors and construction companies await products delayed by supply chain issues, Milano’s products are in stock and available.
The Abutbols are investing more in the Grand Strand than just their kitchen and bath businesses.
They recently purchased a number of lots in Carolina Waterway Plantation off River Oaks Blvd. for the forming business Milano Real Estate and recently-created Milano Homes.
“We were actually retiring. I was planning to retire and take the RV around the country and visit my grandbaby, then Myrtle Beach came around,” West-Abutbol said.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 5:58 AM.
