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SUNDAY, JULY 1.~, 199~8 _* ~' '_
<br />
<br />City officials dash wi h developer
<br />
<br />BEACH ~omID
<br />
<br /> Wendel considers the
<br />NASCAR project a coup for the
<br />company, one that could lead to
<br />business opportunities outside
<br />Myrtle Beach. As a licensee of
<br />NASCAR, Burroughs'& Chapin
<br />now has the right to develop
<br />NASCAR Speedparks around the
<br />world, with the exception of
<br />Nevada and Southern California.
<br /> Meanwhile, road work has
<br />started on Grande Dunes, a
<br />$1.3 billion residential, boating
<br />and golfing community on 2,000
<br />acres, mostly outside city limits.
<br />"It's our most ambitious project
<br />to date," said Wendel.
<br />
<br /> Burroughs & Chapin's growth
<br />has transformed Myrtle Beach
<br />from a minor seaside resort to a
<br />crowded, destination city that
<br />swells to more than 500,000
<br />people on a single peak day.
<br />Projections put that figure at
<br />close to 900,000 by 2005.
<br /> Growth has brought tension to
<br />the town, as well as a kind of new
<br />attention that tourism officials
<br />would rather avoid. This spring
<br />saw a major battle over a gay
<br />pride march, controversy over a
<br />play deemed "too adult" by
<br />Burroughs & Chapin to run at its
<br />Attic theater and biker celebra-
<br />tions that make retailers happy
<br />but upset local residents.
<br /> "We're just now beginning to
<br />
<br />mature from a beach and seafood
<br />town to a new identity, and we're
<br />all a little sensitive about it," said
<br />Wendel.
<br /> With ownership of a majority
<br />of the undeveloped land in the
<br />city, Burroughs & Chapin is
<br />nearly everywhere. Its high-pro-
<br />file developed projects include
<br />the landmark Pavilion amuse-
<br />ment park by the ocean and
<br />Broadway at the Beach, several
<br />miles inland.
<br /> Indeed, elected officials' ability
<br />to shape the city's destiny is
<br />limited to a few blocks downtown
<br />and several hundred acres on a
<br />former Air Force base, It's the
<br />downtown core, home to the
<br />Pavilion, though, that is bringing
<br />normally cooperative city offi-
<br />cials and Burroughs & Chapin
<br />officials to the brink of public
<br />conflict.
<br /> The 52-year-old Pavilion occu-
<br />pies about I 1 acres in a neighbor-
<br />hood that has become shopworn
<br />and dominated by body-piercing
<br />salons and tattoo parlors. Bur-
<br />roughs & Chapin and city officials
<br />say the area needs to be cleaned
<br />up, but they can't agree on the
<br />means or who should pay for it.
<br /> "Downtown has been in a slow
<br />decline for the last 10 years or
<br />so," said Ashby Ward, president
<br />of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of
<br />Commerce,
<br /> Burroughs & Chapin has
<br />threatened on occasion to move
<br />the Pavilion to Broadway at the
<br />
<br />Beach. City planners have lithe
<br />doubt that doing so would push
<br />the core of downtown into full.
<br />blown blight. It would also de.
<br />stroy the "beach" in Myrtle
<br />Beach, said McBride.
<br /> "People come here to go to the
<br />ocean," said McBride. "You could
<br />put Broadway at the Beach in the
<br />middle of Kansas, It doesn't say,
<br />'Myrtle Beach.'"
<br /> But Wendel responds that
<br />"The center of Myrtle Beach has
<br />already moved away from Myrtle
<br />Beach."
<br /> To forestall the chance the
<br />Pavilion will move, the city has
<br />come up with a plan to expand it
<br />on a new ocean pier.
<br /> Wendel said he supports the
<br />idea, though the leg~ and finan-
<br />cial obstacles are sizable. State
<br />lawmakers would have to ap-
<br />
<br />Wprove a new pier,
<br />unless the Pavil.
<br />/on could some-
<br />how incorporate a
<br />water use. Pres.
<br />ently, piers in
<br />South ' Carolina
<br />must support a
<br />water-based func-
<br />tion such as fish-
<br />Mcadde lng, swimming or
<br />boating.
<br />
<br /> Wendel puts responsibility for
<br />crafting the pier plan squarely on
<br />the city.
<br />
<br />seen them come up with a
<br />comprehensive plan," he said.
<br /> City planning director Jack
<br />Walker said the city has a plan
<br />possibly due for City Council
<br />action later this summer.
<br /> Burroughs & Chapin, mean-
<br />while, will continue its develop-
<br />ment efforts around the three-
<br />year-old Broadway at the Beach.
<br /> With its crew-cut gardens,
<br />huge variety of specialty shops,
<br />big-name restaurants and care-
<br />fully staged laser shows, the $250
<br />million entertainment complex
<br />draws big crowds and accolades
<br />from travel and tour operators.
<br />There are no body-piercing shops
<br />or musty seaside arcades with air
<br />hockey and skeeball. Rare are
<br />roaming groups of unsupervised
<br />teen-agers.
<br /> "It's all about family values,"
<br />said Wendel. "That's the kind of
<br />experience we are creating for
<br />people."
<br /> But downtown merchants,
<br />such as Justin Plyler Sr. of the
<br />Gay Dolphin Gift Cove, said the
<br />Myrtle Beach scene has always
<br />had an edge.
<br /> "We talk about family values ~
<br />well, teen-agers are family too,'
<br />said Plyler.
<br /> "Body piercing sounds bad, but
<br />~'emember, we ate goldfish and
<br />stuffed ourselves into phone
<br />booths;"
<br />
<br /> "They're going to need to do it .....................................................................
<br />It's going to cost hundreds of Reach Leah Beth Ward at (704)
<br />millions of dollars. We haven't vet 358-5249or Ibward~.~'hn~'h',on ~
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