Sunday, Jul. 01, 2007

Business mixed along Boulevard

Editor's note: Downtown Myrtle Beach faces its first summer without its longtime landmark, The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park. The Sun News will show how the area copes by following several businesses through the season.

The absence of The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park is having drastically different effects on the businesses that remain along Ocean Boulevard, depending on the type of business and its location.

Crowds still flock to the area as they have every summer - though no one has official numbers to compare to previous years - but the stores and attractions those tourists frequent are being shaped by the 11-acre hole the park has left.

Hotels and shops closest to the former park, mainly along Eighth and Ninth avenues North, miss The Pavilion the most. The customers they've come to rely on no longer have a reason to stroll by their doors - and inside to spend money - with the park gone.

Other establishments, especially the remaining arcades and restaurants to the north of the park, barely miss The Pavilion at all. They say they're doing better than they did up to this point last year.

But the busiest part of the season remains, so business owners aren't quite ready to either celebrate the summer as a success or throw in the towel.

``It's too early to tell,'' said Dave Sebok, executive director of the Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Corp., which works with property owners to improve the area.

Headed into the season, downtown business owners - uncertain of what would happen in the post-Pavilion era - increased their advertising, planned regular concerts in Plyler Park and hired strolling entertainers, such as stilt walkers and jugglers, to keep tourists returning.

Those efforts by Oceanfront Merchants Association, which formed after The Pavilion closed in September, are paying off, by creating an atmosphere similar to Key West's Mallory Square, Sebok said.

``It creates that destination identity, an awareness that you can always go downtown and find something to do,'' he said.

Each weekend's turnout offers more clarity on the Boulevard's future, adding anxiety for businesses not seeing any improvement or relieving those that are doing well.

``You breathe a little easier this week,'' said business owner Chris Walker, who is ringing up more sales this summer, ``sleep a bit better the next week.''

Going good so far

The air hockey tables at the Fun Plaza are getting a workout this summer. So are the skee-ball ramps and the baseball games.

With the game over for The Pavilion's arcade, the Fun Plaza - the largest arcade left on Ocean Boulevard - is ringing up records like a determined game-player who wants his or her initials on the ``top score'' screen.

April went in the books as one of the best ever. May, dominated by the bike events, was about the same as last year. Then there was June and a bigger influx than usual.

``I can't believe how many families I saw that first week of June,'' owner Jimmy Waldorf said. ``I've had all my same customers coming back and new people coming in. We are getting our share.''

Waldorf started the season optimistic, refuting those who speculated the Boulevard wouldn't make it.

He was one of the business owners who last year posted sandwich boards at each of the arcade's entrances letting passers-by know the Fun Plaza wasn't going away like The Pavilion. The message urged gamers to return, and so far Waldorf says they are - and then some.

Waldorf figured the sprawling, multi-level game hub would do better than last year with the main competitor gone, but wasn't sure how much of a surge he'd get.

``Summer's been going really good so far,'' Waldorf said. ``It only looks like it is going to get better and better.''

Some ups and downs

Don't be surprised if you stroll into the Goody's Mini Mart on an early summer evening and see cashier Tabatha Tindall passing the time with an impromptu Rummy tournament.

The traditional rush of customers ducking in for sodas, snacks and cigarettes just isn't there this year, freeing up too much down time for Tindall, who recruits friends to keep her company playing cards at the checkout counter.

Blame the lull on the big mound of dirt across the street - the patch that once held The Pavilion's towering Hurricane roller coaster.

Forever, it seems, that landmark park produced an automatic stream of customers at the store, at Eighth Avenue North and Flagg Street.

Now, most folks don't even know Goody's Mini Mart is there.

Many tourists accustomed to parking on The Pavilion's north side don't venture past the fenced-in former park property - and therefore never see Goody's.

``They don't go past the construction,'' Tindall said. ``The other side - it's packed. They just seem to stop right there at Ripley's [Believe It or Not! museum at Ninth Avenue North].''

Sales have gotten slightly better since April, when the store's nearly empty shelves gave the impression that the store was about to shut down for good. Business picked up as the days got warmer, and the shelves were replenished.

The Harley-Davidson rally was a highlight, and a steady stream of business during the high school senior weeks helped, too.

But now, approaching the height of the family vacation season, things have leveled off. If there is a busy time, it's at night, starting about 9 p.m. The store is abuzz after nearby nightclubs shut down at 2 a.m., sending throngs of customers searching for snacks and beer.

But some nights, the store is so dead Tindall locks the doors early. Her usual summer workweek of 60 or 70 hours is down to 50 or so.

A nearby hotel, the Seaside Plaza, recently shut down - another hit for the store. No more hotel guests stopping in for groceries or detergent and fabric softener for the hotel laundry.

Tindall, who has worked this counter for seven years, took insurance classes in the winter just in case.

Despite her back-up plan, she still has a slight glimmer of hope for the area, long term.

``It's gonna pass,'' she said. ``It can't stay this way forever. ...They can take The Pavilion away, but the Boulevard is going to be the Boulevard. This is a legacy.''

Doing even better

Chris Walker is trying hard not to say, ``I told you so'' yet to the naysayers who predicted the Boulevard's demise without The Pavilion.

He knows the traditionally busiest part of summer is still ahead for his cluster of businesses on the Boulevard, but so far, so good. Actually, maybe even better than good - sales increases of as much as 15 percent to 20 percent over last year.

Walker likes to see the crowds strolling the Boulevard's sidewalks, cruising the strip and asking him about the concerts and strolling entertainers that have been added this summer to give tourists more reasons to visit the city's main drag.

Those crowds translate into more business for Walker, who runs Mad Myrtle's Ice Creamery, Nightmare Haunted House and an old-time photo shop. All are in the blocks between Ninth Avenue North and Mr. Joe White Avenue - a section of the Boulevard that's faring better than businesses such as Goody's Mini Mart south of the shuttered park.

``I don't want to jump up and down and say, `I told you so,' to all the people who said we are going to die down there,'' Walker said. ``We're all trying very hard and it seems to be paying off. Everything seems to be right where we hoped.''

Contact DAWN BRYANT at 626-0296 or dbryant@thesunnews.com.