Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Myrtle Beach's sales tax hits mark

Myrtle Beach received its first collections from the 1 percent sales tax for tourism promotion this week and got a pleasant surprise.

Budget Director Michael Shelton had estimated the tax would generate $1.98 million in August, and the check from the S.C. Department of Revenue totaled $1,987,891.84 -- which includes $400 interest and is $4,119 more than Shelton estimated.

"You're scary-accurate," Councilman Wayne Gray told Shelton when he announced the check at Tuesday morning's council workshop.

Shelton said he projects the tax, which went into effect Aug. 1 and raises money for out-of-area tourism marketing, will generate $15 million by September 2010.

Tuesday's workshop and meeting were tourism-themed, with the council giving first approval to Teak Collins' $7.1 million plans to renovate the Second Avenue Pier and replace the Lighthouse Motel with a parking-and-retail structure, remodel the intersection at Second Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard and add parking and a retail structure west of the Boulevard at Second Avenue North.

No one spoke in opposition to the plans.

Architect Frank Bowen said the Lighthouse Motel will be torn down in December, and work on the pier will go through the winter in hopes of having its makeover done by spring, when the new milelong boardwalk opens. Work on the parking-and-retail structure would continue through summer and fall, with an opening planned for spring 2011 at the latest.

The city is working out details with Collins on how to extend some streetscaping and underground utility work from First Avenue South to Second Avenue North, saving future sidewalk destruction for the work.

"I'm impressed with the guts of the family," Councilman Phil Render said. "This is the kind of guts it takes to get a struggling local economy moving - private enterprise dovetailing with the boardwalk. The ones who take these kinds of chances are the ones who stand to make a lot of money if the cards fall in place, and I support that foresight."

City Council members also heard a report from Oceanfront Merchants Association President Jonathan Staton on the group's Oktoberfest celebration. He said the event drew between 7,500 and 10,000 people and generated about $10,000 in profit, some of which will be used to pay the city for its culture and leisure services crews who worked the event. Some will go to the Special Olympics, which was the charity of choice for the merchants association, and the rest will go into OMA's budget.

"It shows the potential for what can be done," Staton said. "This was only our first event, and we put it together in six weeks. We had a lot of interest from North Carolina, and people from the House of Blues art show came down, and it got a lot of locals to come down to the Boulevard for the first time in a long time, too."

Staton and OMA are planning a similar St. Patrick's Day festival, and he said the group will learn from Oktoberfest. Planning has already begun, and Staton said he wants to find more food and arts-and-crafts vendors for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day than he did for Oktoberfest, which was on a busy weekend with three art shows in the area and other Oktoberfests that had been planned and booked earlier.

Additionally, Lawrence Thornton, with the Pee Dee Street Rodders group, approached the city Tuesday morning with a plan to move his group's 20-year-old car show from the former Waccamaw Pottery site on U.S. 501 near Freestyle Music Park to the former Myrtle Square Mall site in Myrtle Beach. The annual "Run to the Sun" draws thousands of people and hundreds of cars, and Thornton said one of the highlights for entrants has always been the annual parade down Ocean Boulevard.

"We've always wanted to get into the city," Thornton said.