Myrtle Beach: Horry County has one year to figure out old terminal plan

The city of Myrtle Beach gave Horry County officials one year to come up with a plan for the old terminal building at Myrtle Beach International Airport, which allowed county officials to delay a $3.5 million facade improvement project Tuesday.

For more than seven years, city and county officials have thrown around ideas of what to do with the old airport terminal once the new one was built. The new terminal cost $118 million to build and opened in 2013.

“They don’t know what they’re going to put in there or what’s going to go in there, so there’s no sense in putting $3.5 million into something that you don’t know if it’s going to fit into the decor that these people want,” Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes said Wednesday. “We looked at it and there’s no harm in giving them some time. They’re working their butts off on getting the terminal ready.”

For a while, the debate on what to do with the 21,500-square-foot former ticket lobby centered around the differing views of vocal Horry County officials and members of the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board. County officials wanted to see the ticketing area of the old terminal come down, while CAB members wanted to ensure the old terminal’s facade complemented the new terminal. The county’s administration committee went as far as voting in August 2013 to tear it down. But, county officials have since learned that it could not be torn down because moving around a fiber optic cable that leads to the new terminal would be cost prohibitive.

The facade, a mere 700 feet across, was pegged to cost $3.5 million, mostly because of the material in the glass. Earlier this year, the airport advisory committee wanted answers as to what, if anything, could be done to reduce the price tag.

The overall renovation project was supposed to cost $10.1 million, which consisted of opening five more gates, renovating, landscaping and repaving the employee parking lot, and matching the facade of the old terminal with the new one. Plans still include removing the canopy from the old terminal. Everything but the facade will be completed at a cost of about $6.6 million.

Kirk Lovell, assistant director at the airport, said the renovations are in concourse B, which will have six gates. One gate was completed last year and the remaining five gates are scheduled to be completed by mid-May.

“The construction project has progressed as planned, without issue, and looks fantastic,” Lovell said. “While all gates will be ready in the second week of May, 2015 schedule commercial flight operations will only require the opening of [Gates 1-3].”

Allegiant’s numbers have grown this year compared to last already and Spirit, Delta, WestJet and U.S. Airways expanded their seat capacity earlier in the season. Some airlines even extended their season a few weeks earlier, which has brought the numbers up, airport officials have said.

Even though the airport is county-owned and operated, it is in the city, which sometimes makes the two government agencies work together.

Mark Lazarus, Horry County council chairman, said at the council’s Tuesday night meeting the county had to keep its options open.

“To spend $3 million on the facade part of it, we started having a little heartburn over it,” Lazarus said. “What happens if you find the right tenant and we need to build an entrance for them and we’re going to have to tear it down or move it or remove it and that wouldn’t be a wise expenditure of our dollars.

“I think this is a wise decision by council.”

Parking restrictions and accessibility have made marketing the old terminal difficult, but Rhodes said he’s hoping someone in the aviation industry could use it.

“Maybe the Transportation Security Administration would be able to use it for something, which would be good,” Rhodes said. “Maybe we’ll have more international flights coming out of Canada more rapidly that maybe we’ll have to have a place to go through with customs.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach: Horry County has one year to figure out old terminal plan."