Four facts you might not know about Myrtle Beach’s Market Common development
The walkable community of Market Common in Myrtle Beach has now been open since April 2008.
According to its online directory, the district is home to 23 shops, 15 eateries, five entertainment businesses such as a movie theater and children’s museum, and 11 businesses that focus on services such as dentistry, real estate and banking.
The land used to be U.S. Military property
Did you know the Market Common area used to be the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base?
According to the city’s website, the federal government closed the 4,000 acre base in 1993.
“In 1995, the city and the Redevelopment Authority came up with a plan for converting the former Air Force Base property into what you see today, generally known as the Market Common district,” the website read. “The concept called for an ‘urban village,’ with a town center, nearby neighborhoods, lots of park land and a walkable environment. The goal was to create a place where people could live, work, shop, dine, play and exercise.”
Buddy Styers, a retired air force colonel, has been there since the beginning. Styers has been the executive director of the redevelopment under the Redevelopment Authority since 1995.
According to Styers and Mark Kruea, a public information officer for the City of Myrtle Beach, the original plans made in the 1990s for the Market Common area are not very different from what Market Common looks like today.
“When the base was announced for closure, and the Air Force paid for a community development plan, a lot of public meetings invited the public to ask what they wanted. They wanted parks, recreation, jobs. They wanted establishment, an urban village. They wanted to golf course. They wanted an airport. And those are the things that were put in the final development plan,” Styers said.
He also said that about 2,800 air force families were stationed at the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base at the time of its closure. Styers also said that about 800 civilian employees worked at the base during this time. The families were stationed elsewhere and civilian employees were given the chance to either retire or work at another base.
Hundreds of jobs were done away with because of the base closure, but according to Styers, the amount of jobs that the Market Common district has provided “probably exceeds 6,000,” he said.
Market Common ponds. Yes, they’re man-made
Styers said that the ponds in the Market Common area are man-made.
“They’re all man-made. The large one is about 18-feet deep,” he said. “It’s all part of the regional storm water management system. And we did that because we didn’t want every buyer of a piece of property having to dig his own storm water pond. So we did original ponds. And all of those were man-made. Pipes all over the base empty into that large lake.”
He said that Myrtle Beachers living in the area at the time of the district’s development desired ponds, fountains and parks to be built.
Shine Avenue in Market Common has an interesting story behind it
Shine Avenue in the Market Common area is named after Air Force serviceman Anthony “Tony” Shine, who was stationed at the former air force base.
Shine was on duty in Vietnam when he was declared missing in action in 1972. His daughter was able to visit the area where Shine lost contact and recovered his helmet from a Vietnamese village. DNA technology was then able to verify his final resting place and his remains were finally buried in 1996.
Market Common received an Environment Protection Agency award
The redevelopment received the National Site Reuse Award in the Base Realignment and Closure category in 2019, according to the city’s website.
“This redevelopment project has had a large economic impact on Horry County by employing 25,781 people and providing $2,972,700,000 in annual economic activity and $119,872,710 in annual tax revenue,” according to an EPA news release.
