Take a look inside the old Myrtle Beach theater that's becoming a CCU performance venue (2024)

MYRTLE BEACH— Jay Hood yanked on the front door of the old theater as small pieces of dry rotted wood flecked off the edges.

“It’s time for new doors,” the city’s capital projects director said, freeing the swollen doors from their seal. “You won’t recognize this place when it’s done.”

Earlier on Feb. 27, a few blocks away,Myrtle Beach City Council pried open a plan it had been discussing for more than five years— partnering with Coastal Carolina University to convert three city-owned buildings into one performing arts center in the Arts and Innovation District.

Council gave initial approval to an agreement that would allow the city to be Coastal’s landlord for 807, 809 and 811 Main St. A separate contract outlines Coastal’s responsibilities ranging from scheduling shows to selling concessions.

The five-year lease agreement and the operation agreement do not require the city to fund the estimated $12 million renovation project.

The renovation plans include converting the three buildings into a 300-seat theater with a 3,000-square-foot stage, multipurpose rooms, a rooftop patio and a lobby that seamlessly connects the three buildings.

The funding part of the partnership agreement will be months away, said Brian Tucker, assistant city manager.

Tucker said now that the city has passed the first reading to partner with Coastal, the city’s finance team will put together renovation estimates, engineering cost projections and how much money the city can expect in federal historic tax credits to offset the renovation costs. For now, Tucker said the city is looking at about $2 million in tax credits, leaving the city responsible for about $10 million in renovation costs.

To get the historic tax credits, he said, standards include keeping the exteriors as close to original as possible.

The buildings, all constructed around 1938, were Helen Mates women’s clothing store, J & J Drug and the Broadway Theater.

“Where is the light switch?” Hood said, shining a flashlight around the darkened theater lobby before tripping over a miniature Christmas tree and an old ticket counter left on the floor. “I haven’t been in here in a few years. It’s not too bad. The other two buildings? They’re different. It’s bad, but I’m not worried. We can fix it.”

Hood weaved his way through interior theater doors, his hand fumbling around corners for a light switch until finally a hall was lit. Swinging the flashlight quickly from up to down, side to side, he ascended a spiral staircase in the back of the old theater.

“There it is,” he smiled beneath a generous gray mustache as he plugged in a floodlight mounted on what had been the theater balcony railing.

A yellow glow filled the space, revealing beige curtains framing the back wall where a stage and screen had once been, four blue theater seats covered in dust, shelves with paint cans and oil, signs covered in crumbling piles of plaster, light stands, computer monitors and wires tangled in shadowed corners.

The brick wall separating the theater from the rear of what had been J&J Drug Co. will be torn down, doubling the size of the space, Hood said.

On the other side of the drug store was Helen Mates, a 2,500-square-foot store. Old black and white photos on the city’s website show satin dresses suitable for Saturday nights or Sunday mornings, outfits for country club soirees and meeting the in-laws for the first time, and Easter bonnets for children. It was open from the 1950s until 1970.

The outside had once been stark white with Helen Mates in signature-like font above the display windows.

Today, the whiteness has been scraped down to graying brick, and the display windows are covered in an Arts and Innovation wrap.

Next door, 809 Main St., had been J&J Drug Co. The city website hints less at the interior but shows the red brick exterior with a Sealtest Ice Cream mounted beneath an art-deco sign for the drugstore. Today, the outside is naked with blackness where the signs had been. The left display window is blocked by black wood, while the right is blocked by white wood. Identical 2-inch tall pencil-written notes for $2,400 are on the wood inside each window.

The exterior of the theater, originally art deco with three large windows on the second floor, has been stripped of the gray Encore Video Productions sign that hid the second-floor windows. Now the window openings are covered in wood and plaster, and the art-deco sign is gone.

“It’s going to take a while, a few years, but it will be back. The exteriors will be like they were,” Hood said, confident that City Council will follow through on plans that sprung conversations more than six years ago.

In 2018, the city bought the three side-by-side buildings when the area from Main Street to 9th Avenue was called the Superblock, a four-sided block where the back of the businesses opened to a shared parking lot.

The city adopted a master plan in 2019 that featured renderings of new buildings, parks, realigned roads and pedestrian-friendly wide sidewalks. The city eventually rebranded the Superblock as the Arts and Innovation District to put a spotlight on its plans of attracting its namesakes there and making it a destination for locals and tourists.

And this week, Tucker repeated why the city began investing in property in the district.

“We need to be the first ones to invest in ourselves,” he said, adding the district had struggled with crime and blighted businesses that deterred the private sector from investing in an area that's within sight of the ocean. “We believe that light pushes out darkness. It’s extraordinarily rare when you see a city, a municipality, making an investment in itself to do things that should be done … We will see an improvement in life, a better, safer downtown.”

Tucker said the city has already invested about $1 million in the three continuous buildings through purchase prices, engineering and visioning design work.

The theater project will differ from the other city-owned buildings on 9th Avenue North because the city plans to own the three buildings in perpetuity, Tucker said.

The city owns most of the buildings on 9th, including Tasting Room wine bar, Dolly Llama dessert shop, Le Manna Bakery, the HTC Aspire Hub, Enhanced Speed & Agility Fitness and the city offices for downtown redevelopment. Tucker said the city plans to sell the buildings to the businesses once the leases expire, giving the city time to collect on tax credits it will receive for buying and rehabbing the buildings.

The city owns 15 parcels out of 33 in the old Superblock, including the center parking lot, an open space between Grand Strand Brewing Company and Mashburn Construction, and the two small park areas that make up Nance Plaza.

The city is working on a $34 million infrastructure project to serve the district that includes a new sewer pump station and an electrical conduit.

In 2013, Myrtle Beach voters approved a referendum supporting a performing arts center paired with a property tax increase for a $10 million, a 35,000-square-feet venue near the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. It was planned to seat 720 people. The referendum was site specific with a deadline of 2018 to issue bonds to fund the project. The city couldn’t find a plan to build it for $10 million at the site, so the bonds were never issued.

Chief Financial Officer Michelle Shumpert said city residents will not be shouldering the cost of the downtown theater project because it is in a special tax district. She explained as the district grows and more businesses move in, additional taxes paid specifically for the district are relegated to staying within the district.

“The growth will pay for itself,” she said.

Coastal Carolina University trustees voted in favor of the agreement on Feb. 28 during a meeting in Columbia.

The lease agreement states the city is the landlord and Coastal is the tenant for five years with an option to extend for another five years. Coastal can use the facility for academic, theatrical, dance, music, civic meetings and special events.

Coastal gets the project for free the first five years, according to the agreement, but the rent is about $7,900 monthly the sixth year before inching up to $8,250 monthly by the 10th year.

The operation agreement calls for Coastal to be responsible for opening costs and losses; CCU will use the facility for at least 150 days annually; book at least 100 days for third-party uses such as meetings, receptions and seminars; allot 30 days to be used by the city (the city can donate its days); and CCU will be responsible for contracting with a food service to provide concessions. It also states if there is an annual profit, Coastal keeps the profit from its events, the city keeps profits from events it used in its 30 days, and the city and Coastal will split the profits evenly for any third-party events.

The city can select the name of the facility and any money made for naming rights, the agreement states, but CCU has the right to approve the name. CCU can only reject the name if it can prove the name negatively impacts its reputation. Coastal can sell naming rights for seats and scholarships.

Both agreements state the city and Coastal can each back out of the deal if it is not economically feasible.

Tucker said the feasibility question should be answered in a few months when it is brought before council with a financial plan and estimates, but he expects Coastal will be occupying the facility by 2026.