Myrtle Beach City Council hopes to clean up downtown through incentive program

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - Myrtle Beach city leaders are hoping to clean up Ocean Boulevard and the surrounding areas with a new incentive program for hotel and motel owners.

“We’re presenting a cleaner, more aesthetically appealing downtown for our folks,” City Manager John Pedersen said.

Pedersen said the program would essentially reimburse hotel owners a specific amount of money so they could put that money toward renovations and upgrades to the building.

“Let’s say that there is a large hotel that’s built for $50 million,” Pedersen said. “Our program allows us to set aside 2% of that total in the way of a voucher. So for the $50 million, we’d set aside a voucher of $1 million. The developer then applies to get a refund of the money they’ve already paid us first. So usually that would include any impact fees, permit fees, and those sorts of things.”

He said the incentive program would be valuable for everyone since taxpayers wouldn’t foot the bill.

“The main thing there, council doesn’t have any incentives that involve taking money from one taxpayer and using it to incentivize anyone else,” he said.

Pedersen said the goal is revitalizing hotels and motels on and near Ocean Boulevard, which he said could help everyone.

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