A total $1 billion in local road improvements will open up new development areas shortly.

"Myrtle Beach has experienced a tremendous economic real estate boom for the last six or seven years," David Sebok, executive director of the Downtown Redevelopment Corp., tells Globest.com.

"There's no element of growth we're not experiencing ," adds Stephen Greene, vice president, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. "It's kind of across the board, everything from business parks to Home Depot stores."

Estimates are the 60-mile-long Grand Strand, the main tourist area of town, has up to 1,850 restaurants. A trade publication says the area is tops in the nation in number of restaurants, double the next most popular area of Flagstaff, AR and nine times greater than the national average.

Much of the growth is driven by tourism, with Horry County's 200,000 population swelled last year by more than 13.6 million visitors who come for the area's 120 golf courses and its beaches. Visitors from the Carolinas and others areas have helped tourism grow 3% to 5% a year.

That growth has led to the area's 249,000 sf convention center proceeding with a planned convention hotel to add to the existing 60,000 rooms in the immediate vicinity.

Seasonal tourism remains the area's economic engine, capturing 73% of local employment, but year-round development has also been active, says Greene.

One recently developed artery is a 28-mile highway called South Carolina 22, which connects major highway 501 and adds another alternative for visitors to get to the beachside area. The roadway is set to open May 4.

"It has the ability to become a scenic highway, billboard free. There's a lot of farmland as well that has potential room for commercial development," says Greene. Development will be somewhat lessened, however, because the road has limited off-on access, he says.

Tourist and other commercial development have also led to plans for a multi-county business park. It would be a multi-million square foot development, Green says, though details are still being discussed.

There are also discussions about moving one of the area's defining attractions, the 11-acre Pavilion Amusement Park, to make way for hotels, apartments, restaurants and retail development.

The Downtown Redevelopment Corp. is considering a rezoning that would change height and other restrictions to open up the park for more intense commercial development that could include one million square feet of new product.

After taking suggestions from the many local development groups, the Downtown Corp. wants to have a local vote on a plan as early as May.

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Restaurants Help Feed Growth in Golf Course-Rich Myrtle Beach

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