‘Preserve the history:’ Old Myrtle Beach theater will be transformed. Here’s the latest
Myrtle Beach officials are working to restore a piece of cinematic history into a modern luxury in the downtown.
Plans to reconstruct the former Broadway Theater into a performing arts theater are moving along with the Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Office announcing a tentative timeline for the project that would see the facility opening in Spring 2022. The project is a partnership between the city and Coastal Carolina University.
“It seems like a far-off dream, but it’s really not,” Lauren Clever, director of the DRO, said Thursday afternoon during city council’s two-day planning retreat.
The project would transform the historic theater, located at 811 Main St., along with two adjacent buildings in the Superblock area of Myrtle Beach, along Highway 501, into an approximately 300-seat, multi-use facility.
Clever said Myrtle Beach architects LS3P Associates are currently working on the theater’s schematic design, which is expected to be presented to council next spring. Along with performing arts-type events, the theater would host musicals, concerts and speaking engagements, she said.
“It really has to be a multi-function location so we can provide the success that we want it to and CCU wants it to,” Clever said.
Myrtle Beach purchased the three buildings for $1 million last year with the understanding there would be a lease agreement that would grant CCU the authority to operate the theater.
A current Memorandum of Understanding between both entities would give CCU free rent for the first five years, after which the university would pay $95,000 per year. Before moving in, the university would be expected to move $400,000 of their own theater equipment from their current location on 79th Avenue North.
Once opened, the city would be able to host up to 30 productions per year, as long as they don’t conflict with other CCU performances. No lease has been signed yet, but Clever said she is meeting with CCU representatives to walk through the buildings on Monday.
With a vision to preserve the theater’s structural history, Clever explained the architects are creating a design that would obtain approval from the State Historical Preservation Office to receive historic tax credit, a state and federal tax offered to buildings that hold historical significance to a community.
The former theater operated from at least 1940 into the 1970s, and was renamed Cinema in the mid-1970s. The Broadway Theater eventually closed and became Encore Video Productions.
Along with the tax, the buildings could qualify for abandoned building credit. Abandoned buildings, which are 60 percent empty, can receive a 25 percent credit.
Both taxes would ultimately reduce the amount of money the city would need to budget to reconstruct the buildings.
“We’re never going to lose the history of what this theater was,” Clever said. “It will preserve the history of the buildings, which is something this whole process envisions.”
The new theater would join the city’s Arts & Innovation District, a new zoning designation established in September as part of the city’s Downtown Master Plan.
The master plan, which was approved in March, aims to bring change and revitalize four districts: Oceanfront, Kings Highway, Historic Main Street and an Arts District. The Arts & Innovation District includes approximately 56 acres with 115 parcels along Main Street, Broadway Street, Oak Street and 9th Avenue North.
The district is desired to be a year-round, walkable, mixed-use urban destination that will serve as a hub for artistic, cultural and civic life for both residents and visitors to enjoy.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 1:35 PM.
