Greater Myrtle Beach Area Real Estate News by Core Commercial - The Pinnacle Group, Inc.

Golf management goliath created by merger tees off Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:21:00 +0000

Sun News - Strand’s two largest golf companies combining -- The merger of the two largest golf course ownership and management companies on the Grand Strand takes effect Thursday, when the combination of Myrtle Beach National Co., and Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management begins doing business as National Golf Management. The new company is one of the 15 largest course management companies in the nation with 23 combined courses, and dwarfs competitors in the Myrtle Beach market. “We are setting out to become an industry leading company,” said company president Bob Mauragas, who held the same position with Myrtle Beach National. “… I think we’re all very interested in being one of the top profitable golf management companies in the country.” Maraugus said the combined companies generated $33.7 million in total revenue in 2011 and the new company will have more than 700 employees during peak golf months, though many will be part-time. Six employees of the merging companies are losing their jobs, for a net loss of three employees, according to Mauragas.

A press conference to formally announce the new company is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Pine Lakes Country Club. The merger comes approximately seven months after the two companies signed a letter of intent to unite. “It’s difficult when you take two successful and prideful companies … and you’ve got to sit down and join arms and find out how do you merge those two?” Mauragas said. “Now the real work gets started, the work of creating one voice, one actionable service plan.” The merger accounts for 23 of the approximate 90 public courses spanning the coastline from Andrews to Southport, N.C.. It includes 10 courses owned by MBN and five owned by B&C, and another eight courses managed by the two companies. MBN owns and operates Aberdeen Country Club, Litchfield Country Club, Long Bay Club, Pawleys Plantation, River Club, Waterway Hills Golf Club, Willbrook Plantation, and three courses at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club. It also manages Blackmoor Golf Club, Tradition Club, Wild Wing Plantation and Wachesaw Plantation East. Three of MBN’s courses feature 27 holes.

B&C owns and operates Pine Lakes Country Club, Arcadian Shores Golf Club, the Grande Dunes Resort Course and two courses at Myrtlewood Golf Club, and manages Tidewater Plantation and Golf, River Hills Golf and Country Club, Farmstead Golf Links and Meadowlands Golf Club. The merger does not include the private Members Club at Grande Dunes, which will continue to be owned and operated by B&C. National Golf Management will be driven primarily by former MBN executives and new employees. Mauragas is the president, MBN’s Jim Woodring is executive vice president overseeing marketing, MBN’s Max Morgan is the vice president overseeing agronomy, and B&C’s Mike Turrise is the human resources director. Scott Justman is being hired as vice president of golf operations from Reynolds Plantation outside Greensboro, Ga., where he worked for Mauragas for seven years, and final interviews are being conducted for a corporate controller.

“I think that comes from the scalability of merging the two properties,” Mauragas said. “We own 10 properties, they own five. Myrtle Beach National’s core of competency and focus on its business has been golf for 40 years. Burroughs & Chapin has been a longstanding 100-year-plus company that has been focusing its energies on land holdings and opportunities in South Carolina. … Yes Burroughs & Chapin was involved in golf early in this town, but not nearly at the magnitude Myrtle Beach National was.” Among the six employees not retained in the merger are B&C director of golf operations Archie Lemon, B&C executive vice president of championship golf Bob Swezey, who will remain for a 30-day transition period, and Alicia Harper, B&C’s marketing director who handled golf and other properties. “Most of [the layoffs] come from some overlap in the senior teams,” Mauragas said. Mauragas is himself a new employee of sorts for the company, according to MBN chief executive officer Matthew Brittain, since he was hired to lead MBN into the merger. Mauragas has been in the golf industry nearly three decades and was hired in late May away from his position as vice president of golf operations at the six-course, mostly private Reynolds Plantation.

“We were in negotiations with B&C, and our purpose in jumping to Bob was with this merger in mind,” said Brittain, who will not hold an executive position with the new company but will be on its eight-person board of directors along with B&C CEO. Brittain has been the CEO for the past decade of the company that his family founded in 1971, but will turn his focus to the family’s resort and hotel holdings. According to a Golf Inc. magazine study of golf course management companies last year, the new company will be positioned at No. 15 nationally and No. 19 internationally. The other top-15 U.S. companies in the market are No. 9 Arnold Palmer Golf Management, which owns and operates five former Legends Group courses, and No. 1 Troon Golf, which operates four private and semi-private courses at St. James Plantation in Southport.

The merger includes courses up and down the Strand. MBN’s courses are generally located on the north and south ends, while B&C’s holdings are concentrated on the central and north areas, though only two courses in the merger reach North Carolina. “From a marketing standpoint it filled some of our holes and gave us a complete stable we can offer to the golfer,” Brittain said. Mauragas said the company will be looking to expand east of the Mississippi River. “It will be my goal to strategically look for – whether it be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or neighboring areas – opportunities where we can use our expertise to help facilities manage their bottom line,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a rapid growth, but it’s part of the business plan going forward.” “… It’s unfortunately a declining market of golf. People are struggling out there and we think we can bring a very succinct set of skills to help them.” Though there are no private clubs in its current portfolio, Mauragas said the company is open to operating them.Only golf courses are involved in the merger, but MBN and B&C are both involved in separate lodging and golf package businesses, so the new company will have the ability to wield power throughout a changing golf market.

The market has shifted in recent years toward consolidation and lower green fees. Courses have increasingly joined management companies as package rounds have been tougher to come by, and courses have dropped rates nearly across the board since Arnold Palmer Golf Management entered the market in the summer of 2008 and greatly reduced its layouts’ fees. Mauragas suggested National Golf Management won’t attempt to be a local bully. “Are we so arrogant as to think we can set price? We don’t have that attitude,” Mauragas said. “From Day 1 when [MBN and B&C Golf Management] started their business it has all been about Myrtle Beach getting better. We don’t think price wars or low-balling price is going to help Myrtle Beach in any way. I think we’re going to continue to find a way to stabilize pricing in a declining market.” Merging its golf management division continues B&C’s focus away from operating businesses. In the past few years the company closed the Pavilion amusement park and sold attractions including water parks and go-cart tracks, and earlier this month it sold the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes. “We’ll probably operate fewer businesses going forward as we try to sharpen our business focus,” B&C CEO said. “I think we’re going to be more heavily weighted toward income-producing real estate investments.”

National Golf Management Courses

Owned and operated (15)
Aberdeen Country Club
Arcadian Shores Golf Club
Grande Dunes Resort Course
Litchfield Country Club
Long Bay Club
Myrtle Beach National King’s North
Myrtle Beach National Southcreek
Myrtle Beach National West
Myrtlewood PineHills
Myrtlewood Palmetto
Pawleys Plantation
Pine Lakes Country Club
River Club
Waterway Hills Golf Club
Willbrook Plantation

Managed (8)
Blackmoor Golf Club
Farmstead Golf Links
Meadowlands Golf Club
River Hills Golf & Country Club
Tidewater Plantation and Golf
Tradition Club
Wachesaw Plantation East
Wild Wing Plantation

New medical office to open this year in Murrells Inlet

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:26:00 +0000

Sun News - MURRELLS INLET -- Patients needing care from several different doctors, including specialists, will be able to see all of them under one roof when a new medical office building at Waccamaw Community Hospital opens this year. The 90,000-square-foot, three-story Waccamaw Medical Park West will house a variety of specialists, including pain management, physical therapy, endoscopy and, for the first time at Waccamaw, neurosurgeons – specialists that come through a growing partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A dermatologist who would work in Georgetown County also is in the works through that partnership. The expansion is one of several at Grand Strand hospitals as they aim to keep up with the growing demand for health care services experts predict as baby boomers get older.
Several tenants in the new, $16 million medical center are moving from the health care offices across U.S. 17. The goal is to make it easier for patients to see multiple doctors under one roof.

“This is being done for the purpose of providing a new model of care for patients,” spokeswoman Ronda Wilson said. For example, a patient may see a primary care physician, who wants the patient to have lab work, then a stop in physical therapy. Once all the doctors move into the new building by the end of 2012, a patient can do all that without leaving the building. “It’s available [now] just in different places,” Wilson said. “This will provide a little more patient convenience.” The first medical offices are expected to move into the new building in March, though officials didn’t know yet which practices would be first. The rest will move in phases. Waccamaw, which opened in 2002 and is part of Georgetown Hospital System, kept future growth in mind when designing the new medical office building. There are roughly 40,000 square feet that hasn’t been claimed yet, including a sprawling 15,000-square-foot space on the third floor. Based on Waccamaw’s previous growth, officials don’t anticipate that space will stay empty for long.

“We had a space like that [at Waccamaw Community Hospital] but not for very long,” Wilson said, looking at the available space on the third floor. The shell of the building is complete, with workers this week busy in what will become a parking area and inside the building painting and doing other cosmetic work. The building, which has two main doors, has a massive physical therapy room on the second floor with windows overlooking U.S. 17 and a pain management clinic. Imaging, neurosciences, gastroenterology and orthopedic will be on the first floor. And there’s room to grow. “At the rate you see us moving…we are just leaving ourselves plenty of options,” said Rod Softy, construction manager for Georgetown Hospital System.

The new center reflects a medical services boom across the area. Waccamaw also added 56 medical-surgical and inpatient rehabilitation beds, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach added a cardiac wing in the fall, and during the summer, Seacoast Medical Center in Little River added 64,000-square-feet and 50 patient beds. Brunswick Novant Medical Center opened a new 250,000-square-foot hospital with 74 beds during the summer. Officials are particularly excited about the arrival of neurosurgeons at Waccamaw who are specialized in operating on the brain, head, neck and spinal cord. “Right now we don’t have that. It’s not available,” Wilson said. The hospital system can provide that specialty through a growing partnership with MUSC. The medical office building model is one MUSC favors, with another one under construction in Mount Pleasant, said Jack Feussner, MUSC’s executive senior associate dean of clinical affairs.

“Georgetown hasn’t had a large medical office building where a lot of multiple specialties could be co-located,” Feussner said. “A patient will be able to go to one place and be able to see all the physicians they need to.” Georgetown also is working with MUSC to bring a dermatologist to the area, which Feussner said should happen in the next four months. The two have started a joint strategic planning process and have talked about using the hospitals in Georgetown for residency training for some of the MUSC grads, Feussner said. Wilson isn’t sure what will move into the space on the east side of U.S. 17 once many of those practices relocate the new building, but with the growing health care demand along the Grand Strand, she doesn’t expect it to stay empty. “My suspicion is people are lining up for the space,” Wilson said. “I would expect something to go in there pretty quickly.”

B&C sells Marina Inn in Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Sun News - The Marina Inn at Grande Dunes, which opened in 2006 along the Intracoastal Waterway, has new owners that plan to keep the hotel running as a AAA four-diamond property. The Vista Group Of Companies, which owns and operates hotels, resorts and other commercial properties, bought the 230-room hotel Thursday from Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. Vista plans to keep most of the hotel’s employees and will continue to operate it as an upscale property, said Amin S. Visram, Vista’s chief executive officer. The property sold for about $4.9 million, according to Horry County property records.

Vista is in an acquisition mode and had wanted to have a property along the Grand Strand, Visram said. This is Vista’s first property in South Carolina. “It’s a beautiful area, the Grand Strand community is a phenomenal community and we want to have a presence there,” he said. Marina Inn guests aren’t likely to notice many changes under the new ownership, Visram said. The Marina Inn is one of a handful of Myrtle Beach lodging providers to have four diamonds, which means a property must be upscale in all areas, have a variety of amenities and a high degree of hospitality and service, according to AAA.

“It’s a pretty new project,” Visram said. “It’s not something you would change. Certainly it has been built very well.” B&C, which developed the Marina Inn as well as the rest of Grande Dunes, sold the hotel so it could focus on other goals, Jim Apple, B&C’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. “The Marina Inn is an important part of the Grande Dunes resort community,” he said in the release. “However, it is the only hotel we operate, and it doesn’t fit within our strategic plan. With Vista’s acquisition, we can concentrate our resources on our core businesses.” Vista, which is headquartered in Binghamton, N.Y., and has offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, owns 11 hotels with a total of about 2,550 rooms, including the Marina Inn, with other properties in Florida, New York and Canada. It also operates three shopping malls and two retirement homes in Canada, as well as office and medical buildings in Canada and Florida, according to the company’s website.

PKF Releases US Hotel Report

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:11:00 +0000

PKF.com - While many hoteliers are feeling angst and uncertainty caused by intimidating macroeconomic conditions, PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) is assertively forecasting the continued recovery of the U.S. lodging industry. How well you do in 2012, however, will vary depending upon the price of your room and where you are located. According to the recently released December 2011 edition of Hotel Horizons®, PKF-HR forecasts that rooms revenue (RevPAR) for U.S. hotels will rise 8.1 percent in 2011, and increase another 6.1 percent in 2012.

Analyzing the performance of U.S. hotels in 2010 and 2011, we have seen the progression of indicators that one would expect during an industry recovery. Occupancy levels increased in 2010, followed by real average daily rate (ADR) growth in 2011. The only surprise has been the pace and magnitude of the surge in hotel demand.

Click on the link below to read more....
http://www.pkfc.com/en/pkfhome/FreeStuff/Newsletter/December-2011-PKF-Forecast-Better-For-Some.aspx

Supermarket Chain Winn-Dixie to be Sold to Bi-Lo

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:08:00 +0000

The supermarket chain Winn-Dixie is being sold for $560 million to Bi-Lo LLC. The combined company will have about 690 stores and 63,000 workers in eight states in the southern U.S. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will become a privately held subsidiary and its ticker will be removed from the Nasdaq. Each Winn-Dixie stockholder gets $9.50 per share in cash, a 75 percent premium to the Jacksonville, Fla. company’s Friday closing stock price. Bi-Lo, based in Greenville, S.C., runs 207 supermarkets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Winn-Dixie runs about 480 grocery stores, including approximately 380 in-store pharmacies, in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. It has about 46,000 employees. The companies said Monday that no store closings are expected and the name Winn-Dixie will remain.

Third zipline course proposed for downtown Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:25:00 +0000

Sun News - Two local businessmen want to see people soaring over Withers Swash as they ride a mechanized zipline-style chair attraction they are proposing to build on the South End of Myrtle Beach. At Wednesday’s Downtown Redevelopment Corp. meeting, Chris Trout, one of the owners and the general manager of the Sky Wheel, presented a plan to build a moveable zipline inside the grounds of Family Kingdom. He and Bill Prescott, who owns the Slingshot and other downtown attractions, have joined forces on this new venture, and want to make the 400-foot line traverse Withers Swash and the go-kart track on Fourth Avenue South. Instead of each rider being harnessed to a zip line, though, each would sit in a chair with safety belts, and get a speed-controlled round-trip ride up to 60 feet in the air. Unlike a zipline course, there would be no stairs to climb to get to the line.

Redevelopment agency Executive Director David Sebok said he thought it was a good idea to get feedback from the redevelopment board before the proposal moves on to the City Council for approval. The council will have to consider whether to grant Trout and Prescott the right to use the city’s air space and rights of way. The council usually asks what other stakeholders think of a project, Sebok said, and now Trout and Prescott will be able to answer that question. The board unanimously approved supporting the project, although there was some discussion about whether riders would be restricted from carrying items with them on the ride, as zipliners are. "I think one concern (for the City Council) is going to be the amount of trash that ends up in the swash,” said board member Chuck Martino, himself a former City Council member.

If this new plan is approved, it will be the third zipline-style adventure ride for Myrtle Beach. The other two, owned by Myrtle Beach Adrenaline Adventures, are being placed on the smaller lot of the former Pavilion site, and in a vacant lot on the South End of Ocean Boulevard between Damon’s restaurant and Springmaid Pier. Those two courses are in the construction and permitting process now, and their developers plan to be open for the peak summer season, as do Trout and Prescott. In other business Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to pay about $25,000 for decorative paving on the large lot of the former Pavilion site downtown, which this year will be used for Coastal Uncorked’s tasting arena. The food-and-wine festival, now in its third year, is abandoning its tasting trolleys for a stationary tasting area, and proposing leasing the former Pavilion site for the late-April event.

The plan calls for food and wine tasting tents and a temporary stage with about 500 chairs, plus the paved area that the redevelopment agency will pay for. The hope is that other groups will want to use the paved area once Coastal Uncorked is over, and Sebok said he has had inquiries from groups that are considering wine-tasting events and a Native American powwow. “I think it’s a good thing for downtown,” said board member Karon Mitchell, who owns the Chesterfield Inn, among other properties along the boulevard. Board member Taylor Damonte, director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University, said the board should support Coastal Uncorked. His center has performed economic impact studies of the festival, and conservatively, he said, it has a $3 million direct impact on the city. "If they want a $20,000 paving pad to make the site more usable,” he said, “it’s a no-brainer.”

The redevelopment staff is also considering asking the board to pay for electricity and water at the site, so that even more groups could use it. The paving will all be removed when the property is redeveloped, but landowner The Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc., has not said when that will happen. In the meantime, the company is leasing the property for a variety of uses, from festivals to the traveling display of the Vietnam Memorial Wall that has come to town for Veterans Day. The board also voted unanimously in favor of enhancing its storefront-improvement loan program. As it stands now, property owners can borrow up to $15,000 to make improvements to their building facades. But since the program started in 2001, only three property owners have used the loan program. Redevelopment Executive Assistant Koribrett McKeithan said that’s partly because the cost of improvements designs can be prohibitive. Board members agreed to give grants of up to $2,000 to pay for the designs, on top of the loans. The board has $48,000 set aside for loans, which are given out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Harrelson Boulevard exposes everyone to airport expansion

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:21:00 +0000

Sun News - Now that the Harrelson Boulevard extension is finished and open, drivers crossing from Kings Highway to the U.S. 17 Bypass via that highway can see a sight they probably couldn’t have before -- the terminal expansion project at Myrtle Beach International Airport. And that $118 million expansion continues to move ever closer toward its January 2013 opening date. Lauren Morris, marketing director for Horry County Airports, said the work remains on budget and moving along. Both Harrelson Boulevard and the aircraft rescue and firefighting facility are finished, with the 27,000 square-foot ARFF building coming in at a budget of $4.2 million. It is adjacent to the existing airport terminal. As for future work, Morris said two airport boarding bridges will be replaced this spring, ahead of the summer tourist season.

New life coming to former Waccamaw Pottery near Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Sun News - An investment group has bought the property known as Waccamaw Pottery with plans to revive the former shopping hub by cleaning up the area and luring new stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and other tenants. The property off U.S. 501 at Fantasy Harbour, once slated for demolition before the recession to make way for new development, is getting new life under the new owners, 3W LLC, a firm registered in New Jersey that is made up of Chinese and American investors. The firm bought the 52.29 acres from General Electric Credit Equities for $7.5 million, closing the deal on Dec. 30, according to Horry County property records. “We will gradually bring this thing back to life,” property manager Martin Durham said, sitting in an office in one of the mall buildings. “We are hoping to, over time, open everything back up.”

The change in ownership is the first step in reviving an area that has taken a few hits in recent years, businesses in the area said, with the twice-failed theme park still sitting idle and the lack of attention to keep up the Waccamaw Pottery property, which has spawned more weeds and broken windows than tenants in recent years. Crews already have pulled weeds and boarded up broken windows in the past few weeks, and area businesses have noticed – welcoming the change to a property they say looked abandoned and scary. “Aesthetically, it is already looking better,” said Holley McMillen, sales manager at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center across the street from Waccamaw Pottery, also once known as the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. “It’s a relief. Any kind of good activity over there can only help this area. This area has really been hit hard lately.” The buyers found the property appealing because it is in a highly visible location off U.S. 501 – one of the main roads tourists take into Myrtle Beach – and the building is structurally sound, said Alain Wizman, director of commercial real estate for Keller Williams who represented 3W in the deal. Wizman had been working with the group for about a year, but said a trip to China in September with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes impressed the buyers and helped seal the deal.

The buyers plan to spend about $1 million rehabbing the property, but the transition won’t happen overnight, Wizman said. Keller Williams also is handling leasing of the roughly 600,000-square-feet of space. “They felt this held a tremendous amount of potential,” Wizman said. “They feel it was a property that could be turned around into a premium product.” The first new stores could be open by the summer, though it likely will take two years before the buildings known as mall 1 and mall 2 are reopen, Durham said, adding that at least half of the space needs to be filled before it’s viable to open that interior space. The goal is to fill the spaces along the exterior of the property first. Officials aim to get a mix of tenants, including clothing stores, restaurants, nightclubs and venues with an international flavor, Wizman said. The shopping complex also will get a new name, one that will incorporate “Waccamaw” to capture the history of the area, he said. Details of the project, including the name and what the renovations will look like, are still being developed. But the first step is cleaning up the property, which hasn’t been kept up in recent years. That includes landscaping to rid the place of overgrown weeds, fixing broken windows, pressure washing, painting and working on the roof, Durham said. On Thursday, landscaping crews were working in the parking areas. “This place has had no attention for four or five years,” Durham said. “It was just sort of idle. Everything was idle here.”

The property hasn’t been kept up since about 2008 when the previous owners – also investors in Hard Rock Park – abandoned plans to tear down the mall buildings to make way for a mixed-used development dubbed “Paradise City” and tied into the theme park next door. The theme park only lasted one summer as Hard Rock Park, and the investors abandoned their plans to redevelop the mall property once the park shut down in 2008. The mall was only renting month-to-month and needed some TLC. “I’m ecstatic,” said Jay Coley, a co-owner of Imaginations costumes and dancewear, one of three tenants at the shopping complex. “It’s exciting to know this won’t be desolate anymore. We won’t have to describe this as being an abandoned mall anymore.”

Myrtle Beach in-line for new adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Sun News - A group of investors has signed a four-year lease with The Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc, to use the smaller of the two former Pavilion sites along with a few acres on the South End of Myrtle Beach for two new zip-line adventure courses. Adrenaline Adventures, a group of businessmen from Columbia, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, would like to have the new zip-line courses open by March 1. The city’s Community Appearance Board gave a nod to the conceptual plans, but no official approval or permits have been granted yet. “We’re all very excited about this, but it’s still preliminary,” said architect Tom Miller of Miller Design Services in Myrtle Beach. His firm is tasked with designing the sales cabanas and zip-line towers around two themes: The former Pavilion site’s theme will be a “Carolina Beach-shabby-shack” theme, while the property on South Ocean Boulevard between Springmaid resort and Damon’s restaurant will have a “Swiss Family Robinson-tiki” theme. The South Ocean Boulevard course will be named Ocean View Zip Line Adventures, and the course on the former Pavilion site will be called Myrtle Beach Adrenaline Adventures. Morgan Armstrong of Columbia, one of Adrenaline Adventures’ principal members, said designs are still in the early stages, and Miller said everything will have to be cleared by structural engineers to make sure “it can stand in the real world.” The courses will take zip-liners from tower to tower on very fast rides, Armstrong said. “It’s going to be huge fun,” he said. “It’ll be like you’re flying.” The city limits the height of the structures to 65 feet, and Armstrong said the plans are to “max that out.” The company also plans a drop tower at each site, and a children’s zip-line course and play area at the larger South Ocean Boulevard site. Large drop towers have gondolas and carry many passengers, but Adrenaline Adventures’ towers will be more like big bungee jumps with passengers attached to a line that spools out as they descend. Leasing the properties, he said, works for his company, B&C and the city, because it utilizes B&C’s property until the company decides what else it might want to do with it, brings a new attraction and more revenue to the city, and will hopefully be a moneymaker for Adrenaline Adventures. “This is going to be a big attraction in Myrtle Beach, Armstrong said. “The drop towers will have people lined up around the block.” Burroughs & Chapin said it does not comment on contractual matters. Before construction can begin, the company must have all its plans OK’d by the appearance board and line up all the city building permits. The next appearance board meeting is Dec. 15, and Armstrong said if all goes well, construction could begin in late December or early January. The Downtown Redevelopment Corporation wrote a letter to the city backing the project. “We think it’s a good temporary addition to the downtown,” said Executive Director David Sebok. “We’re very supportive of it.”

Lodging fee for guests in the works for North Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:10:00 +0000

Sun News - North Myrtle Beach area lodging properties could pay more starting next year to raise money to buy advertisements promoting the beach destination. The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, which proposed the $1 a night fee as part of its five-year growth strategy, is working out the details and recruiting lodging properties to participate. Guests to the properties participating will pay $1 a night that will go toward advertisements that the Marketing Co-op, a chamber committee made up of representatives of the participating properties, will decide how to spend. The fee will start in February, said Marc Jordan, president of the North Myrtle Beach chamber. About six properties have expressed interest in participating, including Elliott Realty and Myrtle Beach Seaside Resort, he said, adding he plans to recruit more businesses. "We are in the process of getting everything set up,” Jordan said. Jordan estimates the fee could bring in as much as $500,000 for out-of-market advertising. The money likely would be spent on Internet ads because that’s a popular way to reach potential visitors these days, but it also could go for TV spots in big markets the chamber can’t afford to advertise in with its current $1 million annual marketing budget, Jordan said. The Marketing Co-op would decide the details. The extra money is needed so the area can lure more visitors through advertising, Rick Elliott, chairman of the growth strategy group, said in a news release. “These additional dollars will allow for a targeted marketing message to better brand North Myrtle Beach businesses and North Myrtle Beach,” he said. The $1 a night charge isn’t likely to turn off tourists already booking rooms because it’s a small amount, Jordan said. He compared it to the sales and accommodations taxes visitors already pay. Still, consumers nationwide have been reluctant to pay more fees during the down economy. “People pay these fees all the time,” Jordan said. “A dollar probably isn’t going to make a big difference to them. It makes a big difference to us.” The nightly fee wouldn’t be new along the Grand Strand. Several years ago – before the controversial 1-cent sales tax for tourism in Myrtle Beach – a group of Myrtle Beach hoteliers used the same strategy, creating a nightly room charge to raise money to market the destination. Jordan envisions eventually taking this concept to restaurants by adding $1 to a table’s bill. But for now, he’s focusing on getting the lodging fee going. The fee is part of the chamber’s five-year growth strategy, dubbed “Building North Myrtle Beach,” which also includes plans to lure a major attraction to the north end and diversify the beach’s economy.

Grand Strand prices fall more than most areas in S.C.

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Sun News - While real estate prices made modest gains statewide, Grand Strand prices continued to fall last month, according to the South Carolina Realtors association. The median price – the price at which half sold for less and half sold for more – of a home, condo or villa along the Grand Strand was $135,000 in September, a 6.9 percent drop from the same month last year. The Grand Strand had the second largest drop in price of any area in the state in September; only the Greenwood area, with a 20 percent drop, lost more value, according to the Realtors group. The southern midlands and western upstate areas had the largest gains in price, with 24 percent and 10 percent respectively. Statewide the median price of a home, condo or villa was $150,000, a 1 percent increase from September 2010, according to the Realtors group. Many of the communities that have started seeing prices increase have more permanent residents and don’t have the high proportion of vacation and investment properties, said a real estate analyst with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. “Investors are more apt to leave a property or allow it to go into foreclosure than a permanent resident would be. The end result is that prices drop,” he said.

Grand Strand real estate prices have been dropping consistently, but sales have fluctuated and last month about 1.9 percent fewer properties sold than did in September 2010, according to the Realtors group. Statewide, sales dropped 10.4 percent in September when compared to the same month last year. Beaufort, Greenwood and the York County and Lancaster County areas had the biggest drops in sales with 37.1 percent, 33.3 percent and 22.8 percent fewer sales respectively, according to the South Carolina Realtors association. Several areas in the state had significantly more properties sold in September, including the Aiken area where 41.4 percent more properties sold than last year, according to group.

Waccamaw Bank to sell 11 branches, including those in Horry County

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Sun News - Waccamaw Bank will be selling 11 of its branches, including those in Horry and Brunswick counties, to First Bank, if regulators approve the deal. First Bank will buy all of the buildings and equipment at the branches, gain about $180 million in deposits and buy $98 million in performing loans, First Bancorp, the parent company of First Bank and Waccamaw Bankshares, Inc., the parent company of Waccamaw Bank announced Monday. The sale is expected to be completed in the first three months of next year.

New uses for shopping malls

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:51:00 +0000

WSJ.com - Sobered by store closings and the rise of online shopping, owners of U.S. shopping centers are filling space and drawing visitors by turning to unusual tenants like gun ranges and go-cart tracks. Mall giant Simon Property Group Inc. opened an aquarium in July at its Grapevine Mills mall near Dallas. Real-estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. put a fencing academy in a former Old Navy store in Florida's Tallahassee Mall, and a community theater on the lower level of a former Boscov's store in Harrisburg, Pa. Aqua Tots Holdings LLC, a business that teaches youngsters to swim, has expanded to 14 locations in Arizona, Texas and Georgia and has 10 more on the way, nearly all in former retail shops. Jumpstreet, an indoor trampoline facility, is buying or leasing former grocery stores, filling them wall-to-wall with trampolines and charging patrons for hourly access. Perhaps the most unusual use of a former big-box store is William James's Arms Room gun shop and shooting range, which opened last year in a former Circuit City store south of Houston. Mr. James spent nearly $5 million to buy the 20,000-square-foot space and convert it into a shooting range, a price he considered a bargain compared with building from scratch. The Arms Room offers handgun training courses in addition to traditional shooting practice, all in a popular shopping center anchored by Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc. stores.

"It was sort of providential," Mr. James said in his Arms Room office, surrounded by antique swords and modern firearms. "I never dreamed of a place like this." Rising retail vacancies, and loosening rent demands from landlords at struggling shopping centers, are creating opportunity for tenants previously housed in community centers, industrial parks and home basements. "In the past, we've typically been in industrial parks because of the [low] cost per square foot," said Howard Picker, founder of Speed Raceway, which is preparing to open indoor go-cart tracks next year in former big-box stores in Colorado, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But retail landlords "are coming down on price and more willing to work with tenants like us," he said. The proliferation of "nonretail" tenants comes as traditional stores cede ground in U.S. shopping centers because of constrained consumer spending and decades of retail overbuilding in the U.S. Real-estate research company CoStar Group Inc. examined a sample of roughly 830 million square feet of retail space—6.8% of the U.S. total—and found that entertainment-themed tenants like movie theaters and laser-tag complexes expanded their collective square footage in U.S. shopping centers by 2.25% since 2009 while service-themed tenants like schools and health clubs grew at a 3.65% clip. Conversely, retailers and restaurants in that period each reduced their collective square footage by nearly 1%.

Landlords are embracing unusual tenants as a way to continue drawing visitors to their shopping centers, even if those patrons aren't necessarily coming to shop. A little extra traffic generated by a gym or a trampoline center is better than an empty storefront that draws no one, they say. "They're good users, and they pay good rent," says David Henry, chief executive of Kimco Realty Corp., which owns stakes in 946 shopping centers world-wide. "In many cases, they are complementary" to the retailers in a given center, he said. Nontraditional tenants, in many cases, though, don't pay as high a rent as major chains would pay. What's more, nonretail tenants often don't pay percentage rents, a form of bonus rent that retailers pay from a small percentage of their sales when they exceed a certain threshold. Even top performing mall companies—like Simon, which reported a 19% rise in earnings Tuesday—are looking at restaurants, entertainment and other nonretail uses as a hedge against the drain from online shopping. Glimcher Realty Trust purposefully filled 25% of its upscale Scottsdale Quarter mall near Phoenix with restaurants such as Stingray Sushi and services like Drybar, a salon that specializes in blow drying women's hair. "She can't go out to lunch and have a salad and a glass of wine with her girlfriends online," Glimcher Chairman and CEO Michael Glimcher said, referring to the mall industry's coveted female shoppers.

Struggling shopping centers, like the Tallahassee and Harrisburg malls, meanwhile, are signing nonretail tenants because no one else is lining up for the space. But adding a tenant with limited potential to bring shoppers to the rest of the center—like classrooms or a church—often isn't popular with existing tenants. The move can be seen as giving up on the center as a retail venue. The Arms Room gun range near Houston had a mixed reception. Mr. James's attorneys advised him to seek written statements from Target and Home Depot declaring that they didn't object to his business opening in their shopping center. Home Depot agreed, but Target declined, Mr. James said. (Target declined to comment). Later, representatives of PetSmart Inc. thanked him for boosting the center's customer traffic, he said. There are no immediate plans for additional Arm Room locations. Jin Dong, the manager of a Mattress Giant store that shares a wall with the Arms Room, is one of the gun range's happy neighbors. "People do come in here with guns, and that's kind of weird. But they have brought a lot of traffic. It's way better than nothing," he said. "I'll tell you one thing, I don't have to worry about getting robbed, that's for sure."

Outlook brightens for outlets

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:44:00 +0000

ICSC.org - While economic indicators point to a continued, albeit slow, recovery, unemployment and consumer confidence remain the two main sources of concern for landlords and retailers, noted Cushman & Wakefield’s Richard W. Latella at VRN’s Fall Outlet Leasing & Marketing Conference Monday. Consumer sentiment fell in August by 19.2 percent year-over-year, and stands just 40 basis points above the low set in November 2008, he noted. GDP growth is expected to total 1.6 percent in 2011, he said, quoting a Wall Street Journal article. Retail sales growth for the year will reach 3.8 percent, according to an ICSC report. There are other more positive signs of recovery, though. Retail real estate transaction volumes in the U.S. reached $22.1 billion in the first seven months of 2011, marking a 184.4 percent increase over the same period in 2010. Retail cap rates averaged 7.56 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield, representing a year-over-year decrease of 39 basis points. Store closings have dropped sharply, with a total 2,329 in the first half of this year, compared to 4,396 for the same period last year, according to ICSC. And new store openings are up, he noted. The outlet sector is attracting particular interest, says Latella, an executive managing director who is Americas practice leader in Cushman’s Retail Industry Specialty Group. “There are real signs of growth in the outlet sector,” he said. Some 36 projects have changed hands in the past two years, for a total $2.8 billion, compared to just $562 million in transactions in the two years from 2007 to 2009. There is particular interest coming from conventional mall REITs, such has Macerich, he noted. “There is a flight to quality favoring trophy and core assets.” Retailers too are being attracted to outlet centers by their lower operating costs and higher sales-per-square feet performances. Outlet REIT sales reached a record $482 per square foot last year, compared to $437 for mall REITs, he said, and annual growth in outlet center sales has outstripped that of malls by an average of 91 basis points since 1995.

Self-Storage Performance in a Recession: Why This Slump Is Different From Past Downturns

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:42:00 +0000

ISS.com - The self-storage market has improved, but it’s clear the industry is experiencing a different dynamic in today’s environment. While the current economic climate has raised questions about resiliency in the property type, a more fundamental question is whether existing and potential tenants have changed their habits around self-storage. In past recessionary periods of the early 1990s and 2001-2003, self-storage occupancies and revenue were generally not negatively impacted. For most facilities, revenue continued to increase year over year, and self-storage development turned out quite well for investors and developers. The following table shows recent quarter-over-quarter changes in rental rates and occupancies based on a nationwide survey conducted by Integra Realty Resources. This reflects the nationwide market and illustrates current market conditions, which are unlike any historic trends.

Period         Rental Rate              Occupancy
1Q 2010       -2.2%                     -0.6%
2Q 2010         0.0%                      -0.3 %
3Q 2010        -5.2 %                     -1.2 %
4Q 2010       -1.1%                     -3.3 %
1Q 2011        0.0 %                       -3.5%
2Q 2011        -2.2%                       -3.5%

In this most recent recession, history has not repeated itself. Because of cuts to many individual incomes, elevated unemployment and lower purchasing power, the use of storage has moved into a more discretionary spending category. The result has been a slow but progressive slide in rental rates and revenue. A review of recent revenue changes at more than 100 self-storage facilities in major markets nationwide shows many markets are starting to settle or experience a slowdown. In 2010, revenue decreased by 5.2 percent. During the first two quarters of 2011, it decreased by 1 percent.

What Changed?

The change from prior recessions is multi-faceted. After around 1995, self-storage construction spiked, with a massive amount of development taking place in most major markets. With historic strong returns for existing facilities, this property type caught on not only with existing owners but first-timers wanting to enter the industry. The financial barriers caused by limited financing were also toppled as banks and institutions specifically sought out this property class for loans. As most developers were not known for strong due diligence and lending sources focused on just placing loans, the overall inventory increased between 1995 and 2007 by about 25 percent.

Growth in senior numbers spurs special housing

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:35:00 +0000

Sun News -The rapidly growing senior population along the Grand Strand is driving the need for housing and developments that cater to the group that wants to live independently for as long as possible. Housing, especially affordable housing, is one of the most important needs for the area’s aging population, said Ray Fontaine, director of the Horry County Council on Aging. “I don’t mean the stereotypical housing project but a decent, clean respectable community that is aesthetically pleasing,” he said. The early retiree population in Horry County – those between 55 and 64 – grew about 73.5 percent during the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of residents above the age of 65 grew 56 percent between 2000 and 2010, compared to the roughly 35 percent growth of 18 to 64 year old residents, according to the Census. The aging population has created a demand for more accessible houses with specialized features to accommodate aging bodies, more age-restricted communities and developments that offer some assistance.

The growing demand has meant rapid growth for communities catering to seniors, including Seasons at Prince Creek West, a 55-plus active adult neighborhood and Brightwater, which is a continuing care living community that provides independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing. “The market is huge,” said Rainbow Russell, the marketing director for Seasons. “How many millions of people are in this age group right now, and they’re looking for this sort of lifestyle and this sort of home.” Dutch and Emily Lichtmann were looking for a home where they would have to do less maintenance and could have a good sense of community, which is what led them to Brightwater a little more than a year ago. The upkeep and maintenance on the house they’d lived in since they moved to the area was getting to be too much and they wanted to live somewhere where they could do less and be more secure, Emily Lichtmann said. “We thought the more we’re aging, having a few health problems, it would be good to feel more secure and also relieve the children of any worries,” she said, adding “and it gives you more of a social outlet.”

Security, accessibility and a sense of community are key factors that many seniors are looking for as they try to stay independent for as long as possible, several senior housing experts and seniors said. In the past seniors would move to Myrtle Beach to retire but when they got older they would move back north or to wherever their families were, said Harry Dill, the president of the Horry Georgetown Home Builders Association. “Now more are staying here, which creates a demand for aging in place,” he said. The association’s training classes to become a Certified Aging in Place Specialist, a designation offered by the National Home Builders Association, have been full as more builders look to hone their understanding and skills of what the aging population will need. Wide doorways and hallways that allow for a walker or wheelchair are important, as are accessible bathrooms, or bathrooms that can be made accessible. In his company Sterling Homes, Dill has redesigned plans to make wider doorways standard and often does a standalone shower that wouldn’t require the resident to step into a bathtub, which can be difficult for older residents. He also builds homes so that it’s easier to add safety and accessibility features, such as grab bars in the shower or a lower sink that can accommodate a wheelchair.

“I would say anybody that doesn’t go study this aging in place is missing the boat,” Dill said. “We’re going to see it in almost all new construction in an area like us where we’re a destination area and there’s a lot of retirees.” The design changes aren’t difficult and new products that are easy to install continue to be released, he said. Combining those accessibility features with community activities has been a good business strategy for Seasons, which sold 98 houses last year and already about 40 this year, Russell said. “That’s kind of the general trend, people are looking to change their lives, do something different and retire,” she said. The residents have created an active community with regular events, card games and golf outings scheduled throughout the week. Many of the residents are from the Northeast and bought here because of lower taxes, more affordable properties and the location being about a day’s drive from their previous home, Russell said. About 200 of the 460 homes - which range in size from 1,600 to 2,500 square feet and cost between $219,900 and $304,900 - have been sold, she said. “We’ve got a ways to go, two or three years, before we sell out, build out and of course we’d be looking to do another 55-plus here,” Russell said.

The Horry County Council on Aging, which primarily provides services and operates senior centers in the county, has also decided to build affordable senior apartments, to help meet the large need, Fontaine said. Last year the council won a federal housing grant to fund affordable senior apartments off Heritage Road outside of Loris. The planned complex will have 28 apartments and a senior center on about 15 acres. Seniors with low or fixed incomes will be eligible to live in the apartments and the average cost per person will be about $350 a month. There have been some delays on the project because the federal approvals have moved slowly, but after dealing with problems with groundwater runoff and sewage, construction should start in the next month, Fontaine said. Brightwater, which is for residents 62 years old and up, has also been growing and opened an additional 32 skilled nursing beds and the secure 24-bed Alzheimer’s and memory care unit last week. The concept at Brightwater is a bit different – the development has an independent living section, an assisted living section, a skilled nursing section and an Alzheimer’s and memory care unit. The idea being that as residents age and need more care, they can stay in the community but move to a different area. “We’re covering the entire spectrum,” said executive director Jimmy Justice. “They switch over back and forth all the time and that’s kind of the whole plan here, to keep you in the same area as long as possible.”

Horry County is popular with seniors and there is definitely a strong demand for housing that is tailored for them, he said. “This is the start. It’s kind of a new industry. We’re going to need more and more of these as the tsunami of baby boomers ages,” said Barbara Gans, the lifestyle adviser at Brightwater. In the independent living section, residents can have an apartment or a house, but have all their repairs done for them, can eat in the dining room, have a weekly cleaning service and an emergency alert system, which calls onsite security and medical staff. Brightwater also puts an emphasis on activities – anything from ping pong tournaments to water aerobics – to keep the residents active and engaged, Gans said. “As you age just having good socialization around you has proven to extend your life,” she said. The community is part of what drew Vivian Gilmer to Brightwater about a year and a half ago. “I was sort of isolated before,” she said. “[Now] I have a lot of new friends.” Having fewer bills, not having to cook and the safety of the community are also big benefits, Gilmer said. Gilmer didn’t want to have to move closer to family in Virginia because she likes Myrtle Beach and this way, with her apartment, she can stay and her family doesn’t have to worry, she said. “There’s just so many advantages of just common, ordinary conveniences,” she said. “I have more time to do the things I really want to do.”

North Myrtle Beach council gives nod to annex nearly 1,900 acres

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:27:00 +0000

Sun News - NORTH MYRTLE BEACH -- The City Council has given an initial approval to expand the city by more than 1,800 acres west of the Intracoastal Waterway. The council took a first vote Monday night on the proposal to annex about 1,877 acres west of the waterway near Robert Edge Parkway into the city. The council also had a second public hearing on a development agreement between the city and landowners SLF IV/SBI Sandridge LLC, SLF IV/SBI Bay Landing LLC, SLF IV/SBI Spice Hill LLC and Main Street Commercial Partners LLC. According to the development agreement - which the council also initially approved Monday - more than 1,460 acres would be zoned for single-family homes, multifamily homes and/or commercial units, and the city will purchase about 136 acres from Sandridge for a sports tourism facility and about 8.5 acres from Main Street for access to the park site. Resident Robert Flanagan expressed concerns about why the city is purchasing land for the sports facility and has increased its property tax rate from 32 mills to 38 mills over an eight-year period to pay off a $15 million general obligation bond being used to pay for the facility and the site it will occupy. "In this time of recession, I don't understand now buying all this property," Flanagan said. "There's a lot of ways to spend money. I don't see spending money out there in the wilderness." Mayor Marilyn Hatley said the sports facility is for the community and economic growth in the city. "We're talking about at a time the lowest you can buy land," Hatley said. "Even with the 6-mill raise, you still have the lowest millage in the whole county. We have to continue to invest in our community, in our youth." Though pleased with majority of the final work regarding the proposed development agreement and proposed annexation, Councilmen Greg Duckworth and Bob Cavanaugh expressed concerns about the timeline in the development agreement for the city to build an access road to the park site. According to the agreement, the city will begin construction of the road within 60 months from the effective date of the agreement. If the city is unable to meet the time frame, then the landowners have the right to terminate the right-of-way dedication for that portion of the road. "We have a lot of timelines, including building the road, but they [developers] don't have a built-out timeline," Cavanaugh said. "Are we going to build a road before development?" Cavanaugh and Duckworth said they want the issue reconsidered before the council takes a final vote on the development agreement, which could be at its June 20 meeting.

Sports complex a go, as is tax hike in North Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:23:00 +0000

Sun News - Council approves $15 million bond - NORTH MYRTLE BEACH -- A new sports tourism facility could be opened to North Myrtle Beach residents and visitors at least two years from now, according to city officials. City Council members gave a final approval Monday night to a $15 million general obligation bond to pay for the facility and the site it will occupy, as well as an eight-year, 6-mill property tax increase - that will raise North Myrtle Beach's property tax rate to 38 mills - to pay off the $15 million bond. After the eight years, the city's property tax rate would revert to 32 mills, city officials said. Councilwoman Doris Williams and Councilmen Greg Duckworth and Jay Baldwin were absent. Several residents raised concerns Monday about the tax increase at a time of a downturn in the economy while some think the timing is right to bring in a sports facility that will be beneficial for the city. "I think it's terrible, in the worst depression, to want to raise any money," said resident Gene Sheppard. "We don't need any more burden on us." Resident Marti Drummond said she thinks the facility is "a wonderful thing." "We have to look at the big picture," Drummond said. "It will bring money into the city and help keep taxes down. There's not one person in the city that won't benefit from it." The planned sports facility is part of more than 1,800 acres of land that could be annexed into the city west of the Intracoastal Waterway near Robert Edge Parkway and S.C. 31. A request to annex and zone the land into the city and a development agreement between the city and landowners SLF IV/SBI Sandridge LLC, SLF IV/SBI Bay Landing LLC, SLF IV/SBI Spice Hill LLC, and Main Street Commercial Partners LLC, will go before the city's Planning Commission today. The commission would then forward its recommendations on the proposed annexation and development agreement to the City Council. According to the development agreement, more than 1,460 acres would be zoned for single-family homes, multifamily homes and/or commercial units, and the city will purchase 133 acres for the sports tourism facility and 6.8 acres for an access road to the park site. The sports facility will include eight multipurpose playing fields, an amphitheater, a water play area, walking trails and a dog park, according to city spokesman Pat Dowling. A new, bigger facility will help grow both sports tourism and local use as the city's existing sports fields and facilities are already full with sports tourism events, Dowling has said. He said the city's existing fields and facilities are 60 percent used by residents and 40 percent used for sports tourism.

Former North Myrtle Beach golf course back up for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Sun News - The former Robber’s Roost golf course in North Myrtle Beach is up for sale again after the developers that shepherded through a master plan to reinvent the property fell victim to the economic downturn. The property’s original owners, Tiente Limited Partnership and Burgess Investments Group Family Limited Partnership, took back possession of the property after foreclosure late last year and are now actively marketing the roughly 100 acre property that has thousands of feet of frontage on U.S. 17. The property will likely sell as three separate pieces, though the owner would prefer to sell it all together, said Macon Lovelace, a broker for NAI Avant, who is marketing the property.  "It’s just more likely that in today’s development environment that you have two different types of developers that go in there,” he said.

Lovelace said that the company has reached out to active mixed-use developers it has relationships with to tell them about the property. “We’re aware of a handful of tenants who are interested in being in the North Myrtle Beach market and were waiting for this type of location to become available,” he said. Given the current lagging economy, the development is likely to be completed in stages over time and be driven by tenant demand, Lovelace said. “Nobody is going to buy this on a speculative basis, as is with any raw land and developments occurring anywhere right now,” he said. Previous developers created a planned development district for the area and got all of the approvals from the planning commission and city council. That planned development district will now be the foundation for any future development. The city approved the plan in 2009, but the recession put the development on hold, leaving the former golf course overgrown. The development district divides the property into three specific sections: a town center, village shops and a residential community.

The goal was to create a walkable community and the town center would be a similar concept to The Market Common in Myrtle Beach, said Greg Duckworth, the founder of Environmental Concepts, LLC, which developed the plans. Duckworth is also a North Myrtle Beach city councilman. A lot of work went into studying traffic patterns and addressing the concerns and needs of the existing neighboring residential communities, Duckworth said. The town center is designed to have a movie theater, a large anchor retailer such as Kohl’s, and several smaller retail and restaurant spaces. There would be residential or office space above the stores.  The town center, which is envisioned as a more urban area, would also have a central lawn area to be used for gatherings, concerts and other activities. It is one of the many green spaces in the development, which proposed several parks and planted buffer areas separating the commercial and residential areas. Nearly 20 percent of the development was slated to be kept as open space. The plan was for a few businesses right along U.S. 17 and several live-work townhomes in the town center area as well.

The village shops area would have a few stores along U.S. 17 and then a number of small shops, such as boutiques, gift stores, hair salons around a lake. The residential neighborhood was designed to have 164 single-family home lots that averaged 6,233 square feet. There would be a total 394 residential units in the three phases. “It has to be neighborhood friendly,” Duckworth said. “There is a lot of passion on all sides of this situation.” Pat Dowling, a spokesman for the City of North Myrtle Beach, said that plan in place is high quality and the city would like to stay close to its guidelines. Lovelace said that any potential buyer will know that they have to work within the zoning in place, but some changes will likely have to be made and would go through the traditional approval process. The existing plan may not be feasible in the current economy but any changes would have to conform to the planned development district and be in line with its character, he said.

The city will consider changes, as it has in other projects, on a case by case basis, Dowling said. In response to market conditions, the city has allowed developers to tweak plans to build different types of properties as long as they fit the character of the area. “This council has proven that if a quality alternative is presented they will act on it,” Dowling said, but added that they would want to make sure that it was a quality project and wouldn’t dilute the developer’s financial commitments to the city, including building new roads. A potential buyer for the property approached the city recently and wanted to buy a strip shopping center, Dowling said. The city said that requests to amend the planned development district to allow for it would be denied and that type development wouldn’t be allowed on the property, he said. “There are a lot of established neighborhoods in that area, a lot of them are around what used to be a golf course so we have to be careful about how we impact them,” he said.   The former Robber’s Roost, despite any potential challenges, is an important project in a critical area in the city, Dowling said. “Ever since it was abandoned or ever since it became economically infeasible to accomplish, it’s just been a challenge to upkeep,” he said. “We would certainly like to see it developed in a quality manner.”

Hotel supply: Where are we in the cycle?

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:11:00 +0000

HotelNewsNow.com - In our previous columns we discussed the relationship between occupancy levels and average-daily-rate growth, and the components of demand growth. This article will link the final component of hotel performance, supply, completing our story of the hotel market cycle. Beginning in Q1 2010, demand for hotel rooms started to increase. As this new demand outpaced the change in supply, increases in occupancy led to a recovery in ADR and profit margins during the second half of the year. In Chart 1 below, the full cycle is plotted with the current year denoted by the green circle.

Chart 1: Hotel Market Cycle

Naturally, as we move up the cycle, we expect development activity to increase and eventually for new supply to enter the market. In reality, the cycle doesn’t always act according to its script. Because of the long lead-time between the initial planning, financing and construction times of hotels, we often see new supply coming into the market at inopportune stages of the cycle. Studying Chart 2, it becomes apparent supply increases sometimes come at a time when there isn’t the demand available to absorb it, which leads to deceases in occupancy.

Chart 2: U.S. Hotel Performance (Supply, Demand, Occupancy Change), 4-Quarter Moving Average

The increasing cost of land and building materials in the early-to-mid 2000s contributed to the low levels of supply growth experienced in 2004-2006 (see Chart 3 below). Many developers were tempted by the occupancy and ADR gains found in the hotel industry at the peak of the cycle in 2006-2007. Because it takes 18 months or longer to build full-service hotels, many of these properties that began construction in 2006-2007 didn’t enter the market until 2008-2010, when the industry had fallen into a deep recession.

Chart 3: Supply Change and Producer Price Index

To justify construction of a new hotel, many variables must fall in line: First, the market must have unsatisfied demand. Historically, this became apparent in larger-than-normal increases in ADR and occupancy. Prolonged occupancy increases in 1994-1995 fueled the supply gains in 1997-1999, while the strong demand in 2004-2007 stimulated a massive infusion of development and ultimately an increase of 260,000 rooms during the three-year period of 2008-2010. Second, the cost of land and raw materials must be sufficiently low. The years of 2005 and 2006 saw the lowest level of new supply growth since STR (the parent company of HotelNewsNow.com) began collecting data, yet occupancy and ADR increases were the largest of the decade. During the first half of the decade, the producer’s price index saw increases of 250% that were driven largely by oil prices and the housing boom, as Chart 3 illustrates. Note: The large increase experienced in 2008 was a result of the oil price bubble.

At PKF Hospitality Research, we spent a good part of the past 10 years fine-tuning our Hotel Horizons econometric forecasting models for hotel demand, ADR and changes in supply. Because building a hotel doesn’t happen overnight, by lagging our variables that go into the model we are able to account for the time it takes to develop and construct a new hotel. The two principal variables that compose our supply equation are occupancy and ADR. New development is triggered once these variables move beyond a certain point, which varies by market. Other variables, such as PPI, will be added when circumstances warrant, like we saw in the early to mid 2000s (Chart 3). Our current Hotel Horizons supply forecast calls for very little supply growth during the next five years. The occupancy and ADR variables from which new supply is triggered are not projected to return to levels that warrant supply additions until 2012-2013 at the earliest. Returning to Chart 1, these levels occur approximately at long-run average occupancy and equilibrium ADR—ADR combined with occupancy that provides satisfactory returns to developers and capital suppliers. This news, coupled with the 18-month development time of a hotel and a PPI forecast that remains at elevated levels, translates into small levels of new competition throughout our forecast period.

Some markets, however, are still faced with the task of absorbing large quantities of new supply. Fortunately, the markets welcoming new additions during 2011 and 2012 either saw a milder decline than most, such as Pittsburg and New Orleans, or saw a very strong rebound in 2010, for example, New York and Miami. Still, 30 of the 50 of markets that PKF-HR forecasts are projected to have supply increases of less than 1% during the next two years. On a national level, supply is not forecast to increase beyond its long-run average until 2015. We expect available rooms in the U.S. to climb 2.3% in 2015, primarily because of above average occupancy and ADR levels in 2013 and 2014. Thanks for reading along with us, we welcome comments and discussion on where you think the hotel market cycle will be heading next.

The Ocean 7 live-work development debuts soon in Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Sun News - Ocean 7, an eight-unit live-work building on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, should be ready for its first occupants soon. The three-story townhomes each have retail space at street level and living space on the top two floors. Construction on the property, which is being built by Ocean 7 Developers and is on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and 7th Avenue North, should be done in the next couple of weeks, said Jason Merritt, of By the Beach Properties, who is the property manager and is also helping sell the units. Four of the townhomes are already under contract, he said. A pizza restaurant is likely to move into one of the retail spaces, Merritt’s business will move into another and two others have been purchased by Beach Discount Beverage, Merritt said. The retail sections each have between 1,500 and 1,800 square feet of commercial space, while the living sections each have about 2,000 square feet of living space and between four and five bedrooms. The townhouses are going for about $649,000 each. All of the buyers are local investors and local owners and most plan to put the properties into a rental program, Merritt said. Ellis said he’s gotten several calls about leasing the commercial space and a lot of questions about renting the townhomes. There is such a large demand for the rentals, in part because of their size, that he already has a waiting list for once the building is down, he said.

Third time a charm for theme park in Myrtle Beach?

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0000

Sun News - The owners of the former Freestyle Music Park continue to search for a buyer or new operator as experts wonder whether the third time might be a charm for the twice-failed theme park. Attorneys for FPI US, the mortgage holder who bought back the property for $7 million during a foreclosure auction in August, have been handing out proposal guidelines to potential buyers and park operators with the goal of reopening the park off U.S. 501 in Fantasy Harbour by the summer tourism season next year. To have time to get the park ready by next summer, a new owner or operators should come on board this fall, officials said. As the search for a new operator continues, economists and theme park experts disagree on whether the theme park can succeed in the Myrtle Beach area, where tourists flock to the beaches during the day – not a theme park. Still, some are still rooting for the park to take off and say it can work if done right, which would include major changes in the way the park operated during its first two summers in 2008 and 2009 – both of which ended in bankruptcy or foreclosure. “It’s a challenge, but there’s still potential,” said John Gerner, managing director for Leisure Business Advisors, a Richmond, Va.-based firm that does feasibility and design work for theme parks and other amusements. “People in my industry, we are cheering for that park to come back.”

‘Colossal failure …’ Some say the theme park’s ride in Myrtle Beach is over. Owners have tried twice to make the park work, and neither could. The $400 million attraction debuted as Hard Rock Park in 2008 but closed after one summer and was sold out of bankruptcy in February 2009 for $25 million. FPI MB reopened it as Freestyle Music Park in May 2009, but it failed again after the summer, falling into foreclosure owing money to bands, website designers and other firms that did business with the park – payments most of them never received. It will be difficult to find investors, not only because of today’s tough economy but because of the park’s track record, said Rob Salvino, an economist at Coastal Carolina University. When a company buys a $400 million park at the bargain of $25 million and still can’t make it work, it doesn’t seem promising, he said. “And it still didn’t make it,” Salvino said. “I don’t know how you could pay less for it. “I think it would be a very high-risk investment for a group to take on,” Salvino said, adding that he doesn’t think the park can succeed even if it did find investors. “When you look at that much of a colossal failure … the likelihood is just not very good [that it would succeed].”

Attorneys for FPI say they’ve gotten several groups interested in the park – though they declined to say how many – and that “most people are still very positive about Myrtle Beach,” said Franklin Daniels, an attorney representing FPI. Despite the park’s bumpy ride, FPI is confident the park can be successful here with the right operators, he said. “They completely believe it can work and want it to work,” Daniels said. “We are in a tough economy and the park has its history. … But there are enough tourists who come here who want to be entertained. It would be a fun and interesting thing to do while you’re at the beach.” Locals and experts have speculated about what went wrong with Hard Rock Park and Freestyle. Most blame its location several miles away from the beach, high ticket prices – especially during a recession when consumers aren’t opening their wallets – and the daytime competition from the amenity that brings tourists here to begin with: the beach. “The beach is a dynamic that really makes it hard for a theme park to do well,” Gerner said. “Generally, [tourists] are already there to do something else during the day.” About 14 million tourists visit the Grand Strand each year, most of them lured by the ocean or golf. A theme park will be an activity they do after the beach – such as a Broadway at the Beach experience – and will never be the main reason vacationers come here like Disney World is in Orlando, experts say. “Will it be a destination like Carowinds or Six Flags or Mickey Mouse? Not unless Six Flags comes in,” said Horry County Councilman Gary Loftus, whose district includes the theme park. “It’s not going to be a destination. It’ll be like Broadway [at the Beach] – something to do when they get here.”

‘Off the beaten path’ Loftus and others said the theme park could have a place here if it operated like the beachside amusement parks that have done well for so many years, including Family Kingdom Amusement Park and The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park, which closed in 2006. A key to success is crafting a business plan that fills that niche, said Mark Lazarus, a veteran amusement park operator along the Grand Strand who contacted FPI’s attorneys to express interest in working with investors to make the former Freestyle work. Lazarus also tried to buy the park out of bankruptcy after its first season as Hard Rock Park. “I still think it has potential if it is done the right way,” Lazarus said. Dropping the gate fee is one of the first steps, he said. Lazarus and others said the ticket price – starting at $40 for adults as Freestyle – was way out of reach for budget-conscious families – especially during the spending cutbacks of the recession. And unlike Disney-goers, theme park visitors here don’t want to stay the whole day recouping that cost; they are more likely to see a trip to the theme park as a way to cap the day, experts said. Experts suggest free admission, with guests paying for what they want to do while inside, such as buying a wristband for rides or a ticket to a concert. Lazarus suggested opening in midafternoon and staying open until midnight, possibly with a laser light show as a nightly feature. “If the gate is free, a lot of people will just venture in,” Lazarus said.

The park’s location is another challenge, experts say. It’s about 5 miles from the oceanfront, so tourists have to make an effort to go west of the Intracoastal Waterway instead of just strolling along the main strip or driving a couple of miles to Broadway, they said. “This place is off the beaten path a little bit,” Salvino said.
The park also needs to be more easily seen by drivers along busy U.S. 501 headed into the beach – several experts suggested demolishing the mall building. In addition, the Fantasy Harbour area itself needs some sprucing up, experts said. More rides also would make the park more appealing and give guests more to do, Lazarus said.

A summer 2012 opening - The park’s owners want to have the theme park ready to go for summer 2012. It has been closed for the past two summers as officials worked through its financial and legal woes, though a few workers stayed on to regularly run the rides and keep them in shape. They are gearing up even more now to possibly show off the park to potential buyers or operators, Daniels said. But some local leaders – even though they want to see the park reopen and be successful – aren’t sure a summer opening is in the cards. Loftus said the park can be successful with the right business plan, but said the new owners or operators should wait a couple of years until the economy has improved. “I think it could [succeed], I just don’t think the time is right,” Loftus said. “But I hate to see it just sitting there.” Theme parks across the country haven’t escaped the down economy. The industry improved some in 2010, but the verdict on the 2011 season is still out, said Colleen Mangone, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. Parks have reported mixed results, with some saying wet weather at the beginning of the 2011 season hurt attendance, while others said attendance, season pass sales and corporate outings to the parks continued to increase, she said. “We are still feeling the effects of the economy,” Gerner said. “There seems to be a feeling that things are improving. We are holding our own.” Experts said it’s too early to say how 2012 might shape up – a lot of it will depend on which way the economy goes in the next few months. Still, several parks – including Dollywood and Carowinds – are adding major, multimillion-dollar rides for 2012.

It’s unclear how long it would take to get the former Freestyle park ready to open by the summer. Freestyle owners did it in about three months, but Lazarus said it would take eight months to a year to get it ready through rebranding, marketing and adding rides. So if the park wants to open in 2012, a buyer or operator needs to be locked in soon, Lazarus said. “It needs to be happening right now,” he said. Now is a tough time to line up investors, especially considering the park’s history, Horry County Council Chairman Tom Rice said. Still, a reopened park could create much-needed jobs in Horry County, which like many other areas in the state and the country, is being hammered by double-digit unemployment rates, he said. “If I was an investor, I’d be cautious,” Rice said. “If somebody buys it, I wish them the best of luck. We sure need the jobs.” The Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp., the county-funded agency charged with luring jobs and businesses here, has talked with the park’s existing owners about state job tax credits that a new operator might qualify for, but it is not pursuing theme park operators because it is focusing on diversifying the tourism-based economy by luring aviation, marine and technology businesses, president Brad Lofton said. “I would hope somebody could make some good use of it,” Rice said.

Freestyle Music Park bought out of foreclosure

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Sun News - The theme park formerly known as Freestyle Music Park might be back in business in time for summer 2012. FPI US LLC, the mortgage holder of the former park that has been closed for two years, bought the property out of foreclosure this week with a goal of reopening the theme park in Fantasy Harbour in time for next summer, its attorneys said Wednesday. “There’s a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” said David Slough, an attorney for FPI US.  Elected leaders and business owners near the park heralded the news Wednesday, saying it could help rejuvenate an area that desperately needs it. “Any time you can take something that is dead and you can bring some life to it, it is good,” said Horry County Councilman Gary Loftus, whose district includes the theme park area. FPI US is looking for either a partner to manage and operate the park or a buyer who can purchase the park and reopen it, Slough said. Talks are in the early stages, so it’s not clear exactly when the park would open, whether it would still be called Freestyle or whether it would create a new theme.  “They hope it reopens and it’s a big success,” said Franklin Daniels, an attorney for FPI US. “They don’t want to see it be a vacant theme park. They are not willing to just let it go.”

FPI US LLC, which had foreclosed on former park operators FPI MB Entertainment LLC a year ago, bought the property at the Horry County foreclosure auction Monday through a “credit bid” of $7 million. That means FPI US gets the property but doesn’t pay that amount because it’s already owed more than that by the former park operators. The total debt was $34 million, according to court records. Other businesses that were still owed money by Freestyle are out of luck. FPI US won the auction over one other bidder, Alton Swann, a real estate professional in Myrtle Beach who said during a brief telephone conversation Wednesday that he had been working on a plan to bring somebody in to take over the park. “I’d just like to see something happen to it,” he said. “It’s a shame to see it go to waste.” The 50-acre theme park has sat idle for about two years, a far cry from the hoopla that marked its first and second openings during a two-year period. The theme park, which was built for $400 million, originally was branded as Hard Rock Park and debuted in 2008. It filed for bankruptcy protection after a slow first season.

The park’s second run started early the following year when a group of investors bought it out of bankruptcy for $25 million in February 2009 and reopened it as Freestyle Music Park a few months later. It also fell into financial troubles after just one summer - a season where tourism statewide took a hit because of the lagging economy that kept many people from traveling or prompted them to cut back on their spending if they did go on vacation. The park has been closed since, riding a wave of cases in court. With the litigation behind it, the park can move forward, Daniels said. FPI plans to look at what went wrong the first two times the park operated, identify what needs to happen to make the park a success and find a buyer or good partner to manage the park, Daniels said. That means the theme, marketing and ticket prices – which some critics said were too high, especially during the tough economy – all will be reviewed, he said. Tickets for admission to Freestyle started at about $40 for adults and about $30 for children, though the park dropped them later in the summer 2009 to less than $20 for special promotions.

“Many things in the past have to be done differently,” Daniels said. “They’ve learned a lot of hard lessons, lost a lot of money. But they are committed to it.” Some business owners in the Fantasy Harbour area, off U.S. 501 at the Intracoastal Waterway, said a revived theme park could be the first step in getting the area back to where it should be. A re-opened theme park could bring more people to the area and make it look better, said Robbie Love, owner of The X Sports Center off George Bishop Parkway near the park.  "Definitely, that’s a boost,” he said. “That should be a good shot in the arm for the area.” Having the park reopen might not translate into more business at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on Fantasy Harbour Boulevard, but it would help the look of the area, said Lori Posma, the hotel’s sales director. “That would be great,” she said. “Just the perception of the area - everybody says it looks so decrepit over here...Any action over here would be fabulous.” During the past two years, theme park operators and others have stopped by the park interested in buying some of the rides, but the investors didn’t want to sell off the park piece by piece, still optimistic that the theme park could eventually work in Myrtle Beach, Daniels said. A small crew has continued to work at the park, including an engineer who regularly runs the rides to keep them in shape, Daniels said.

“You start selling off the rides, you destroy the value of the theme park,” he said. “They truly are committed. They want to see it reopen. They want to see it work.” But they’ve learned lessons from the park’s back-to-back failures, Daniels said. Loftus said a theme park can work in the Myrtle Beach area if it’s done right. "There were many issues that kind of led to the demise of the first two. Obviously, there were a heckuva lot more that went wrong than right,” Loftus said. “Done correctly, and with the right marketing, it should have a chance.” One culprit that hampered the park’s second run was the Great Recession, which led to an 8 percent drop in tourism in South Carolina in 2009, according to figures released this week by the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department. Tourism throughout the state generated $14 billion in 2009, down about $1 billion from the previous year. Tourism officials have said the industry has picked up since then. FPI’s talks with potential managers or buyers are in the early stages, and it’s unclear when FPI would announce details of a reopening. It probably would take between six and nine months to adequately prepare the park and promote it, though Freestyle owners did it in three months after they bought the park out of bankruptcy. “There’s no timeframe,” Daniels said. “They are working hard.” Posma of the Clarion hotel, like Loftus, said a theme park could be successful here. “If they take input they have learned and apply it, commit to it, I think they can make it work,” she said. “I’m hoping for the best.”

Merger to create Myrtle Beach Golf Goliath

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:49:00 +0000

Sun News - The two largest golf course ownership and management companies on the Grand Strand are merging, creating one of the 15 largest course management companies in the nation and a juggernaut in the area golf market. Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management and Myrtle Beach National Company have signed a letter of intent to combine their golf assets and become equal partners in a new company that has yet to be named. Myrtle Beach National currently owns 10 of the 14 courses it manages, while B&C Golf Management, a subsidiary of Burroughs & Chapin Company Inc., owns five of the 10 courses it manages. “We believe with the strength of this new venture that represents the best of both companies, it will give us some growth opportunities and give us a greater opportunity to get the message out about the golf offerings Myrtle Beach has,” said Jim Apple, B&C president and chief executive officer. MBN Chief Executive Officer Matthew Brittain said due diligence still has to be done and the merger may not be consummated for “a couple months.” Though both companies own other entities in the golf industry, including hotels and golf package companies, the merger only involves courses.

The Members Club at Grande Dunes, the only private club owned by either company, will continue to be owned by Burroughs & Chapin. Apple said initial plans call for the new company to manage the six-year-old layout so it is involved in the 24-course merger. The merger accounts for 23 of the approximate 90 public courses stretching the coastline from Andrews to Southport, N.C., and they are at 20 facilities, with Myrtle Beach National Golf Club, Myrtlewood Golf Club and Grande Dunes featuring multiple courses. In addition, three of Myrtle Beach National’s courses are 27 holes. “We do some things well and they do some things well and we’ll pick the best practices of both companies,” Brittain said. According to a Golf Inc. magazine study of golf course management companies, the new company will be positioned at No. 15 nationally and No. 19 internationally. The other top-15 U.S. companies in the market are No. 9 Arnold Palmer Golf Management, which owns and operates five former Legends Group courses, and No. 1 Troon Golf, which operates four courses at St. James Plantation in Southport. N.C. The second largest golf course management company on the Strand is Signature Golf Group with six 18-hole Strand courses and nine total courses, so the new company will dwarf its competitors within the market. “It’s a very powerful connection, no doubt about that,” said Tim Tilma, general manager of the 27-hole stand-alone Sandpiper Bay Golf Club in Sunset Beach, N.C., which is a marketing partner with MBN and does business with both companies in lodging and golf packages. “It creates a powerful synergy between those two companies, and let’s see where it takes us.”

Combining the courses with the lodging and package businesses MBN and B&C are involved with, the new company will have the ability to influence a large portion of the golf market. “I hope our relationship with Myrtle Beach National and the volume of business we do with them doesn’t change, but only time will tell,” said Classic Golf Group general manager Tommy Smothers, whose company manages four Strand courses.
All 24 courses in the merger are on the Strand – only Farmstead Golf Links, with holes on both sides of the Carolinas border, is in North Carolina – but the new company may expand outside the area. “It doesn’t have to be limited to Myrtle Beach,” Brittain said. “I think we’re looking for opportunities outside the market.” The executive hierarchy and number of employees in the company have yet to be established. “I think we’re going to identify the positions and fill them,” Brittain said. Brittain and Apple said they believe the merger will benefit the market, because without each other to compete against, the new company is more likely to market the destination rather than engage in price wars in local media. “We do think it’s good for Myrtle Beach and not just for us,” Brittain said. “It’s two companies that believe in advertising and advertising out of the market. We believe Myrtle Beach golf is about choice. … “I think we’re taking two companies out of fighting for the local and making them more marketing oriented.” The merger has the potential to create price stability in a market that has dropped prices nearly across the board since Arnold Palmer Golf Management decreased prices considerably at the properties it took over a couple of years ago. "For a group of properties of that size and importance in the community, if [B&C is] looking for a buyer or merger, what better than to do it with a company with a long-term vested interest in the community,” said Bill Golden, president of marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday. “With that comes stability and commitment. … “For the smaller guy – the stand-alone company and smaller management company – it’s competitive regardless. It’s already hard for the small guy and hard for everybody. We have to focus on getting golfers to Myrtle Beach.”

•Burroughs & Chapin courses

Owned and managed
Myrtlewood PineHills
Myrtlewood Palmetto
Pine Lakes Country Club
Grande Dunes Resort Course
Members Club at Grande Dunes (private)

Managed
Tidewater Plantation & Golf
River Hills Golf & Country Club
Arcadian Shores Golf Club
Farmstead Golf Links
Meadowlands Golf Club

Myrtle Beach National courses

Owned and managed
MBN King’s North
MBN Southcreek
MBN West
Aberdeen Country Club
Long Bay Club
Waterway Hills Golf Club
River Club
Litchfield Country Club
Willbrook Plantation
Pawleys Plantation

Managed
Blackmoor Golf Club
Wild Wing Plantation
Tradition Club
Wachesaw Plantation East

Top 20 golf course management companies
(According to Golf Inc. magazine)
Place; company; headquarters; 18-hole equivalent courses
1; Troon Golf; Scottsdale, Ariz.; 209.5
2; Pacific Golf Management; Tokyo, Japan; 157.5
3; Accordia Golf; Tokyo, Japan; 138
4; Billy Casper Golf; Vienna, Va.; 131
5; ClubCorp; Dallas, Texas; 128
6; American Golf; Santa Monica, Calif.; 109
7; KemperSports; Northbrook, Ill.; 107
8; Eagle Golf; Dallas, Texas; 77
9; Arnold Palmer Golf Management; Addison, Texas; 65
10; Marriott Golf; Orlando, Fla.; 62.5
11; Canongate/Sequoia Golf; Atlanta, Ga.; 58.5
12; ClubLink; Ontario, Canada; 50.5
13; OB Sports; Scottsdale, Ariz.; 42
14; Crown Golf; Binfield, UK; 39
15; Lindsay Management; Fayetteville, Ark.; 32.5
16; SunBelt Golf Corp.; Birmingham, Ala.; 26
16; Heritage Golf Group; San Diego, Calif.; 26
16; Landscapes Golf Group; Lincoln, Neb.; 26
19; B&C-MBN merger; Myrtle Beach; 24
20; Touchstone Golf; Burnet, Texas; 21.5

Grand Strand single-family home market stable, condo prices still dropping

noreply@blogger.com (Hunter Platt) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Sun News - Real estate data released today shows that the single-family home market has stabilized, but the condo market is still navigating a bumpy road, according to local Realtors. Single-family home sales were down about 16 percent in June, when compared to the same month last year, according to the Multiple Listing Service. But for April through June sales were down only about 3 percent from the same period in 2010. The median single-family home price was up 3 percent in June, to $169.450, when compared to the same month last year, according to the MLS. The three-months between April and June had a 4 percent drop in median price, to $162,500, when compared to the same period last year, according to the MLS. "The single-family home market has stabilized," said Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. "There have been enough months of consistency without big swings." The condo market, by contrast, has continued to have more sales than last year, but also has had continually dropping prices. Foreclosures and short sales are driving down prices in the condo market and appealing to buyers who are more interested in lower-priced properties, Maeser said. Many of the lower-priced single-family homes have already sold, so sales have slowed in that part of the market while they have continued in the condo market, he said. Condo sales were up 3 percent in June when compared to the same month last year, according to the MLS. Condo sales were up 6 percent between April and June, when compared to the same period last year, according to the MLS. The median condo price last month was down 5 percent from June 2010, to $118,900, according to the MLS. The median condo price between April and June was down 12 percent, to $108,000, compared to the same period in 2010, according to the MLS. Marvin Heyd, the owner of Prudential Myrtle Beach Real Estate, said he is confident the market has stabilized. "I know regardless of what the numbers are saying we are extremely busy," he said. "We have a lot of contracts being written and a lot of people coming in and looking at property and its going to feed right into the fall market."