Former pavilion site to host new amusements

MYRTLE BEACH - The former Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park property in downtown Myrtle Beach is getting a new lease on life, thanks to a lease with the Downtown Redevelopment Corp.

The agreement paves the way for festivals and events to be held on the 11 acres, which also will be available for general public use.

Land owner Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. has signed a revenue-sharing agreement with the redevelopment agency like the one the two groups have for use of the Pavilion parking garage, said redevelopment corporation executive assistant Koribrett Turner-Vaught.

The lease won't cost the redevelopment agency anything up front, but it will be responsible for cleaning up the broken glass, rebar and chunks of concrete that litter the two pieces of Pavilion land on both sides of Ocean Boulevard, and the agency will have to have insurance on the property, as well, before it can be used by the public.

The redevelopment group has already received a handful of bids for the cleanup, Turner-Vaught said, and "the cost of that is something we're going to have to deal with," but the bids are just being opened, so she did not have an estimate for the work.

Turner-Vaught said the plan is to have the smaller piece of land on the oceanfront - about 1.6 acres - cleaned up in time for the city's first downtown Cinco de Mayo festival planned for the weekend of May 8 and being produced by Global Attractions, the same group that put on the 2010 New Year's Eve festival downtown.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has also said it wants to use that smaller property for the May 15 Beach Music Festival and ribbon cutting for the new boardwalk, and the Oceanfront Merchants Association wants to use it for the Beach Life Festival in conjunction with Coastal Uncorked, the city's first locally produced gourmet food and wine festival. A group has already contacted the redevelopment agency about having a volleyball tournament on the property this fall, Turner-Vaught said.

Downtown property owners have suggested using the site as a park or event area since the Pavilion was torn down in 2007.

B&C has not revealed redevelopment plans for the property, and Egerton Burroughs, chairman of B&C's board of directors, has said that what is built there must be part of a larger redevelopment of nearly 60 acres downtown.

This story was originally published April 16, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Former pavilion site to host new amusements."