Myrtle Beach is looking to this other coastal city as a template for its own growth. Here’s why.

Visitors to North Charleston’s Park Circle neighborhood can spend the day aiming at 18 disc golf baskets nestled between Spanish moss and live oaks on its namesake green space.

For lunch or dinner, they can grab a table at Commonworks Alehouse or Rusty Bull Brewery — two of many eateries ringing the park as part of the area’s burgeoning culinary scene.

In the evening, it’s likely a band will be playing at one of the eclectic bars along Montague Avenue.

“It was almost like looking at the future of Broadway,” Amy Barrett, executive director of the Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance, said following a recent visit to the humming community.

On Feb. 23, she led a delegation of 21 city officials on a walking tour of the North Charleston enclave, where members huddled with Mayor Elliott Summey, small business leaders among others to get an idea of what it took to transform the once blighted spot into a Lowcountry destination— and how Myrtle Beach leaders can follow that lead.

“I think people got it,” Barrett said. “It was easy to make that connection.”

Despite its 60 miles of beaches and dominance of the state’s tourism market, Myrtle Beach still has, for some, a tawdry reputation.

Late last year, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce launched a new Grand Strand marketing campaign, in hopes the city could shed its derisive “Dirty Myrtle” moniker in favor of something officials say is more reflective of the area.

Park Circle, about 100 miles from downtown Myrtle Beach, had to overcome a stigma of its own.

After the Charleston Naval Base closed in 1995, buildings in the area that supported middle class jobs quickly fell into disrepair.

But targeted investments, strategic zoning and incentive programs helped bring Park Circle back to life.

Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune, who was part of the North Charleston trip, said the parallels to her city’s Broadway are obvious.

“We are already seeing a resurgence on Broadway,” she said. “But one of the main things for me was the importance of communication with the business owners and property owners and what we allow, in certain areas, to make them more successful,” she said.

Barrett said she wanted Myrtle Beach leaders to see firsthand the impact private investment has played in redefining Park Circle.

That’s a timely move.

In early December, City Council approved the $15-million purchase of 10 parcels east of Kings Highway, between Sixth and Eighth avenues north to spur downtown revitalization.

A month later, officials voted to take on millions more in debt- backed by future tax revenues - to spark investment by increasing its borrowing power from $20 million to $35 million. That money would be used across a 520-acre redevelopment district.

Bethune said the challenge now is figuring out how to leverage all that land into projects that support long-term economic growth, and help the city move away from its reliance on visitor spending.

“It’s important to look at things that other places are doing and really discern what we want to emulate and what we don’t want to,” she said.

“It’s about taking what we have and making it better. To do that, you have to have thriving businesses. You have to have people living in the district.”

Myrtle Beach has an advantage that few American cities can claim, urban planner James Lima told the Downtown Alliance board during a Jan. 27 meeting.

By its nature, Myrtle Beach can offer something that few other places of its kind can, Lima said.

“People want to be in urban centers, but they love having proximity to nature,”Lima said.

“You are already an urban beach, which makes you way ahead of so many other places in terms of your potential,” he said.

This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach is looking to this other coastal city as a template for its own growth. Here’s why.."