Market Common gets public bathrooms. They are a lot nicer than you are thinking.

New restrooms on the way to Market Common’s Valor Park, but they’re not the flimsy, smelly, portable accommodations many are used to.

“The typical public restroom, they’re built very crudely. Every one of our buildings is fully grouted, fully rebar-reinforced, fully built out roof structure just like you’d find in your home,” said Mike Earle, a regional sales representative with Nevada-based Public Restroom Company.

The city’s Community Appearance Board in May approved preliminary designs for modular structures that will be installed by early next year near the park’s Hackler Street entrance. Each boasts a 20-foot roof, ADA-accessible stalls, changing areas, lockable doors and hand driers.

The $198,000 project is being paid for through via tax increment financing, which allows the city to fund projects with property tax growth from a designated area.

“Valor Memorial Garden has become a busy public space, and people have an expectation of facilities,” city spokeswoman Mark Kruea said. “The garden has events every weekend. For larger ones, we bring in portable restrooms, so this will be a more attractive and permanent solution.”

Building public restrooms in a post-pandemic world has changed industry standards along with customer expectation, Earle said, and Myrtle Beach’s design reflects that change.

The company, which works in communities along the Atlantic seaboard and tornado-prone parts of Texas and the Midwest, also said their buildings are constructed to withstand hurricanes, gale force winds and other hazards that could impact waste treatment and storm water.

“We over design and overbuild,” Earle said. “They’re indestructible.”