Bankrupt AvCraft bails on rent, airport writes off revenue

Horry County officials are ditching their efforts to collect nearly $114,000 in unpaid fees from AvCraft Technical Services, the bankrupt aircraft maintenance company that abandoned several airport hangars last year because it couldn’t pay the rent.

The county was originally owed nearly $197,000 by AvCraft but received a $83,000 payout from the bankruptcy proceedings. The Horry County Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to write-off the unpaid balance, saying officials had exhausted all attempts to collect the debt.

“It’s unfortunate they went out of business,” Mark Lazarus, Horry County Council chairman, said after the vote. “They paid their rent throughout the years, into the millions of dollars.”

In 2012, AvCraft became the first industry expansion arranged by Brad Lofton, the former CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. In exchange for local and state grants of $200,000, the company agreed to hire 150 workers.

When the jobs failed to materialize, so did the funding. The company filed for bankruptcy last year.

Other relocation incentives provided to the company that originally relocated from Texas in 2003 included state tax and job credits of up to $281,000 annually in exchange for the creation of 80 jobs. The company instead hired 65 workers, and the promised funding was eventually forfeited.

The county also gave AvCraft a discount on the airport hangar rentals, reducing the price from $5 to $2 per square foot.

Lazarus said the only public dollars eventually given to the company were to cover expenses for repairing the hangar doors, which was technically county property.

Lazarus said taxpayers will not be stuck with the uncollected rent -- the money is lost revenue for the airport.

With the exception of a sole airplane inhabiting one of the hangars, the property on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base appears to be deserted. Yellow caution tape blocks off the entrance to the former office, and the common area is overrun with weeds.

Arrigo Carotti, Horry County attorney, confirmed that two of the three facilities are now occupied by Executive HeliJet, and an agreement with another company to occupy the third hangar is in the works.

The council’s resolution writing off the debt said the account was delinquent for three years, and says that the airport’s finance department had made every effort to collect the back rent and fees through bankruptcy claims as well as collection letters.

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Bankrupt AvCraft bails on rent, airport writes off revenue."