MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The City of Myrtle Beach says a partnership with Coastal Carolina University could bring a graduate campus to downtown.
If an agreement is made between the city and CCU, the university’s graduate education program will move into the Chapin Memorial Library.
A K-8 charter school will also take cover the former First Presbyterian Church next door.
“I think this is the perfect marriage of need and opportunity,” said city manager, John Pedersen, “That is an effort that we really need to have is to bring people here. Have the younger generation of people feel like Myrtle Beach is their home as well.”
An economic impact study shows that the downtown campus could bring in millions of dollars of revenue for the city and will add jobs.
“That’s going to add 88 jobs to the downtown on a permanent basis and have an economic impact of eight million dollars a year,” said Pedersen.
Pedersen says the project would cost around $9.3 million dollars and the city would be responsible for five million dollars of the bill.
Through the redevelopment of the former church, the city would be eligible for two million dollars of state and federal tax credits.
Pedersen says the remaining three million would be paid by the city’s parking funds, which were made available after the Downtown Redevelopment Corporation was dissolved.
He adds that tax payers and people using parking meters would not feel the financial burden of the project.
“The bottom line is that this will not have any impact on millage. This will not have any impact on parking rates. And of the three and a half million dollars, two and a half million of it is for the renovation of some needed maintenance for the Chapin Memorial Library that we have to do one way or the other,” said Pedersen.
On Tuesday Myrtle Beach City Council will vote to approve or deny the project.
Stay with News 13 for updates in this developing story.
LATEST HEADLINES:
