Myrtle Beach considering police substation downtown

Downtown Myrtle Beach could get a “24/7/365” police presence if City Council approves a proposal from the city manager to move two units into a new police substation.

City Manager John Pedersen said the dispatch and property evidence units have outgrown the Ted C. Collins Law Enforcement Center that houses most of the police department.

“The building doesn’t lend itself to expansion well,” Pedersen said. “So the hope it is to use the money that we would need to spend anyway to try to expand and instead [acquire new space].”

Business owners and residents have long said they would like increased police presence in the part of downtown Myrtle Beach described as the south mixed-use area, which is defined as the area from First Avenue North to Seventh Avenue North and from the Atlantic Ocean to Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach.

Police Chief Warren Gall said the department would consider putting the special operations unit – which includes the waterfront officers – in the new substation.

There is no timetable for the opening of the possible substation.

“We have a need that needs to be met sooner than later, but it’s not urgent,” he said.

“It will help the developers and everybody thinks that in order to prompt development, they want that feeling of police security [in that area],” Gall said. “They need to feel safe.”

Pedersen said the city has not yet set a budget or determined a location for the property, but said it likely would be done by using a $10 million “loan pool” that would give the city the ability to pay for blighted property demolitions and purchases.

“The loan pool would be available for any acquisition or implementation to help redevelopment in that area,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen presented the idea of the loan pool to City Council in January primarily as a way to recoup money when it has to demolish blighted property in the south mixed-use area. In the months since then, Pedersen said city staff has considered other ways the loan pool could be used to spur redevelopment in the area, including purchasing property for infrastructure needs such as parking garages.

City Council will consider a motion Tuesday to enter an agreement with South Atlantic Bank for the $10 million loan pool. When council discussed the creation of the loan pool during a February meeting, members said once the property is purchased, the city then would sell those properties to private companies to be developed.

Pedersen said that’s where a public-private partnership could work for the police substation.

“We’re going to look to see where we could locate the station to serve the needs of the public and police and also leverage the likelihood of private development,” he said.

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach considering police substation downtown."