GREENVILLE, SC (WBTW) – Myrtle Beach City leaders spent Thursday and Friday traveling around the state to come up with new ideas to revamp downtown Myrtle Beach.
News13 has reported a great deal about the library and children’s museum that was originally proposed for the downtown area known as the Superblock. We were the only TV station to follow city leaders all over the state as they try to decide if the project is something the city still plans to do or not.
Thursday, members of the Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Corporation, city council members, the city’s attorney, and the city manager toured the EdVenture Children’s Museum in Columba.
That museum is a lot like what the city has talked about bringing to the Superblock.
Plans to build the museum and library were put on hold with new leadership coming into the city, and News13 asked new Mayor Brenda Bethune after touring the museum if it would be something she’d want to see in downtown Myrtle Beach.
“Absolutely, I do. The fact that Edventure is already managing the children’s museum in Myrtle Beach, I think the partnership and the synergy there will help so much, the sharing of services, the sharing of exhibits, traveling exhibits, I think it’s a great fit,” said Bethune.
The controversial part of the project has been the location because some business owners there say they feel like they’re being pushed out by the city.
President and CEO of EdVenture Karen Coltrane says she’s ready to move forward with the city to build a museum, but it doesn’t have to be in the Superblock.
“We are completely agnostic as to where the location is. We have never had a dog in that fight. We want to be where the city thinks we make the most sense,” said Coltrane.
After the tour of the museum, city leaders traveled to Greenville to see what city staff there did to revamp their downtown district.
Two current Myrtle Beach employees previously worked in Greenville and were part of revitalization efforts there before moving to Myrtle Beach.
Bethune says that’s part of the reason staff wanted to visit there.
“I think it’s very important that they were here in Greenville when a lot of this redevelopment was taking place because they have first-hand experience with it. They know what worked, they know what didn’t work so well, and they can help us through that process,” said Bethune.
Friday, Bethune and the rest of city staff met with city managers for Greenville, and Greenville Deputy City Manager Nancy Whitworth said their downtown revitalization started with money from private partnerships. Later, the city added money to make the downtown area what it is today.
Myrtle Beach city leaders have said multiple times if they want to change the Superblock area, it would have to start with an investment from the city.
Whitworth also told city leaders there was a lot of skepticism and challenges in the beginning stages of development from community members and business owners.
That’s just like the pushback Myrtle Beach is facing now with the proposed Superblock project.
“You can never over communicate. So communication and from a city perspective, it’s a lot of listen. I think it’s important to understand the concerns that people have because in their mind they’re real,” said Whitworth.
City leaders spent most of the morning Friday touring downtown Greenville and highlighted the sidewalks and plants as two of the first things they want to emulate in Myrtle Beach.
“Now we go back to the table. We prioritize what we want to do and put some true, hard costs on some of those priorities and do some of the things that they shared with us today,” said Bethune.
In this next step, Bethune says they’ll basically have to figure out was is doable and what’s not from a budget standpoint.
She says the biggest challenge moving forward with any type of development will be money.
