Myrtle Beach plans ‘exciting announcement’ after possible connection to land purchases

One day after The Sun News reported a possible connection between the City of Myrtle Beach and an unnamed entity that has approached several downtown property owners to buy their land, the city now says it has an “exciting announcement” next week.

An email from City Spokesman Mark Kruea to the press Friday said the city will hold a news conference for the announcement in Nance Plaza Tuesday afternoon. Nance Plaza is next to the superblock, the area where several landowners told The Sun News they had either been approached by or made a deal to sell to a broker named Scott Taylor. Taylor has not disclosed the buyer.

“The city of Myrtle Beach, the Downtown Redevelopment Corp. and others” will be present, Kruea wrote. In a phone call Friday, he declined to comment on the reason for the news conference.

“We want to make a nice announcement of what we want to be doing in Myrtle Beach in the future, so council’s decided that things will be discussed at the press conference,” Mayor John Rhodes told The Sun News.

Rhodes then said he was not at liberty to say anything else about the matter.

“All the discussions we’ve had have been in executive session, which means we’re not privy to be able to discuss that until some time as council says ‘we will let this information discussed in the executive session be known,’” he said.

City council enters executive session to discuss confidential matters that do not have to be disclosed under Freedom of Information statutes, including contractual matters and negotiations related to land acquisition or sales. On Jan. 10, when council held its most recent regular meeting, the body entered an executive session for just over an hour.

City Attorney Tom Ellenburg cited a briefing on potential litigation for the session. Then councilwoman Mary Jeffcoat suggested “real estate matters” as an additional reason for the session.

“Is it a contractual matter?” Ellenburg asked.

“Yes,” Jeffcoat said. “A proposed contractual matter.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach plans ‘exciting announcement’ after possible connection to land purchases."