Market Common hopes to fill role of 'new' Myrtle Beach downtown

Martha Hunn

When you look around at Market Common, it's hard to believe that it used to house plain, standard, military buildings. It's truly been transformed.

Market Common is designed to be an urban village. The company that developed it, McCaffery Interests, is known for these kinds of developments.

It's a $400 million project, and Market Common promises to employ 1,000 people.

So when you invest that kind of money, build 386,000 square feet of rental and commercial space, add another 1,400 to 1,500 residential units, you might expect your investment to pay off big.

Market Common is being promoted as the “new” downtown, and that has some Myrtle Beach business people in the “old” downtown concerned.

Jonathon Staton has been dishing out deli sandwiches in downtown Myrtle Beach for a decade. He's the owner of Dagwood's Deli and Bumstead's Bar. He says the downtown scene was different when he first started working there.

"At the nighttime you would have bumper to bumper traffic on Ocean Boulevard, bumper to bumper traffic on Kings Highway, bumper to bumper traffic on the side streets," Staton said.

Now, while business is still good, Staton says he's watched the downtown decline.

"Every year you see a little bit more go away from downtown Myrtle Beach," Staton said.

Staton is now president of a fledgling organization - the Oceanfront Merchants Association, 62 businesses that came together to market the Myrtle Beach downtown.

"Whether it's concerts, street performers, the fireworks off the 2nd Avenue pier, just trying to keep it alive until redevelopment comes to downtown," Staton explained. So, He wasn't happy to learn about efforts to attract people to what's being called the “new” downtown - Market Common. "Oh I don't like that- the ‘new’ downtown. There's only one downtown Myrtle Beach.

Buddy Styers is senior project manager for the development of Market Common. He also serves as executive director of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority, a position he has held since 1995.

The Market Common Urban Village concept has been long in the making, first introduced to Myrtle Beach City Council in 1993, according to Styers. He said it was 2003 when they identified McCaffery Interests, a company known for urban village development. Styers said McCaffery Interests invested the $400 million, and the City of Myrtle Beach supported the project by establishing Market Common as a Tax Increment Financing area, and provided $43 million for public roadways, public parking and parks.

"We want people to live out here and work and play and enjoy this community," Styers said.

But as a Myrtle Beach native, Styers also understands the concerns that Myrtle Beach downtown business owners would have about the possible establishment of a "new" downtown. In fact, he said he wouldn't want there to be a new downtown.

Styers said one way to ensure the old downtown remains the center of Myrtle Beach is with the kind of investment that's been infused into the former Air Force base property at Market Common.

Styers also said the ball is in the court of Myrtle Beach City Council to lead that effort, an effort that would transform Myrtle Beach's downtown into a hub of activity again, with the proposed boardwalk, and the redevelopment of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion area as the center piece.

That's precisely what Jonathan Staton hopes for.

“My No.1 goal is to do my best to help spread the word that this boardwalk is important not only to downtown but to the entire city."