Changes may be coming to Superblock in Myrtle Beach

Pure Ultra Club owner Hector Melendez says the city is trying to push clubs in the Superblock out of business to make way for new development after a succession of new city laws restricting bars downtown.

City leaders say there is no master plan afoot to force the businesses out, but they admit that a new day may be dawning for the Superblock bound by Ninth Avenue North, Main Street, U.S. 501 and Broadway Street.

In its heyday from the 1930s to the mid-70s, the Superblock, also known as Five Points, was the beating heart of the city’s commercial district sharing the bustling Main Street with Chapin Department Store.

Then the mall came.

Then shopping centers.

And as time went on the heartbeat of the Superblock grew faint as new commercial hubs scattered throughout the city. Then the Great Recession came, halting plans of new developments and business ventures everywhere.

But with other parts of the city now flourishing with growth, leaders hope to revive the Superblock along with surrounding parcels that make up the city’s 100-acre south mixed-use district.

“That area just hasn’t had the same kind of growth and development as these other areas have,” said Councilman Wayne Gray, listing activity in Grande Dunes, Broadway at the Beach and The Market Common.

“The balance of the city seems to be resurging and rebuilding after the Great Recession,” he said, but leaders now find it important to focus on making sure the south mixed-use district isn’t left behind.

Gray’s great grandfather, Daniel Wayne Nance, built many of the downtown buildings in and around the Superblock that hosts Nance Plaza – erected in honor of its master builder. But even though the area represents a part of the city’s history, revitalizing its aging buildings that lack adequate parking for busy businesses won’t be easy.

“There is no magic wand,” Gray said, but hope may rest in plans to realign U.S. 501.

“The city has proposed as a part of the Ride III effort to realign 501 into Seventh Avenue (North),” Gray said, a move leaders think will spur redevelopment of the entire downtown area that includes the Superblock.

Plans for the new U.S. 501 route connect the city’s busiest entryway to Seventh Avenue North, bypassing the Superblock where the highway and four other roads converge in a multi-traffic-light intersection motorists have dubbed “malfunction junction.”

Plans for the new route show a future Superblock more square than trapezoid, repurposing some of its current lanes for extra parking and public spaces.

The new layout would help “make the area more inviting, more safe, more accommodating” and offer better lighting and “opportunity for more parking, which is so critical to any kind of retail or restaurant success,” Gray said.

The city owns the central parking lot shared by the businesses in the Superblock, and City Councilman Randal Wallace said plans are already underway to spruce up the lot with landscape work, unified trashcans and new paint designating parking spaces.

“The Five Points area has a lot of challenges and complex issues to deal with,” said David Sebok, executive director of the city’s Downtown Redevelopment Corp. Aging buildings, a history of disinvestment and expensive repair challenges hinder revitalization efforts, he said. “And at the same time you have challenges finding tenants that are a good fit for that location for today’s market giving the travel patterns and buying patterns,” he said.

But beyond public and private investments now in the pipeline for the block, he said, “there is no secret big redevelopment plan that would cause the city or Downtown Redevelopment Corp. to try to force individual businesses or property owners … to change.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Changes may be coming to Superblock in Myrtle Beach."