Will a $22.3 million theater ‘attract the right people’ downtown? Who’s footing the bills?

Uncertainty and mixed messages still envelop the multi-million dollar new theater that the city is picking up the bill for.

The project consists of gut renovating three historical buildings in downtown Myrtle Beach and creating a 300-seat theater in a partnership with Coastal Carolina University.

But, the university isn’t paying any of the construction costs.

Instead, the new theater’s $22.3 million construction bill will be footed by the city and its taxpayers through a bank loan.

The university will be in charge of operating the theater and associated costs once it’s opened, according to city spokeswoman Meredith Denari.

The money spent on the project is part of a longer-term vision of what elected officials are naming the new Arts and Innovation District, with the theater itself as “the heart of the arts.”

It’s something that Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune calls “human infrastructure.”

“This is an investment in our community, for our residents, for our businesses, and will also help us to attract the right people that want to live and work in Myrtle Beach,” she said. “Bringing this back to life is just a passion to me.”

The city’s agreement with the university to foot the initial bill and have them pay for operating the building after it’s built followed what Bethune said was a lot of collaboration and conversations.

“We don’t know how to manage a theater, and they do, and they do it quite well,” she said. “But we want this to be more than just for Coastal Carolina University, this is for the community.”

The now abandoned Helen Mates Dress Shop, J&J Drugs and Broadway Theater buildings will be gut renovated and combined into one large new complex. The land that the three buildings sit on is currently owned by the Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Corporation, according to Horry County property records.

Bethune confirmed to The Sun News that one of her LLC’s owns 817 and 819 Main Street. She said they plan on starting renovations this fall.

Denari said construction on the theater should be completed by summer 2026.

According to budget documents from last year , the city planned for $17.4 million worth of projects in the district for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Those planned costs are in addition to $165 million of long-term debt that the city was in as of last summer, with payments going until 2042 in some cases.

The cost for the theater also seems to have risen by about ten million dollars after reports from 2023 said the project would cost $12 million.

Denari said $4.9 million of the overall costs for the theater would be refunded back in historical tax credits and abandoned building tax credits through state and federal funds for their work in the former Helen Mates Dress Shop building.

To get the tax credits, an ordinance was passed by City Council earlier this summer that allows the Myrtle Beach City Manager to let the city enter a sublease for the property with MB Theater Owner LLC.

According to Ordinance 2024-37, the membership of that corporation includes Federal Tax Credit Investor (98.99% member), MB Theater State Credit Tax Investor (0.1%), MB Theater Manager LLC (1%).

The credits are paid out in installments over five years, Denari said.

Part of that credit comes after the design team planned to keep and restore original shelving, cabinetry, front door, lighting and parts of the staircase in the old dress shop, a media release from the city said.

The lease agreement for the new theater carves out 150 minimum “use” days for CCU for plays and other performances and 100 other days available for third-party use via CCU. The city will have 30 “use days” a year based on the lease, according to Denari.

Monteith Construction, a general contracting firm headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, won the bid for the project and will be in charge of building the complex.

Project manager Christopher Edwards said both the budget and the project’s two-year timeline are on track, with the official city organized groundbreaking ceremony taking place on Monday morning.

Monteith said they’ll begin construction two weeks later, on Aug. 5, with abatement and interior demolition.

“We have a set budget under contract with the City of Myrtle Beach and no changes, no issues with it,” he said. “We do have some provisions in there for unforeseen conditions, which are normal in a situation like this, so we feel very comfortable with the budget and shouldn’t have any issues with that moving forward.”

Right now, Monteith is utilizing city-owned space on 9th Avenue as their office space. Denari said she wasn’t sure if they were paying rent or if it was included in the construction bid.

Edwards said the folks they have working there typically would be in a trailer adjacent to the construction site. Since the space was open and available, he said they decided to utilize it instead of setting up a site trailer.

Currently, Edwards said they’re trying to work out a deal with the architect of the project, LS3P Associates, to figure out what the rent would be. He said in their approved contracted budget, they had money set aside for an on-site trailer office.

“We’re trying to work out a deal with the city to reimburse them for that in lieu of paying for the trailer,” he said.

Both he and Denari were unsure of how long the empty space would be utilized as an office for Monteith and what the exact dollar amount it would cost.

“We don’t know if it’s going to be four months, six months, we have our local offices down in Market Common, but we always try to have an office closer to the job,” Edwards said.