Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Multi-million dollar Arts and Innovation District Masterplan made public

David Hucks

The City of Myrtle Beach released the masterplan to its multimillion dollar downtown re-development this week.

The Arts and Innovation district re-work includes: making Oak Street the main corridor of the district, terminating Broadway Street at 8th Ave. North, realigning highway 501, as well as, putting in a new plaza in the district.

The city has already spent towards $100 million acquiring property that runs from 7th Avenue North to 8th Ave North from Ocean Boulevard to Highway 17 business.

American millennials, aged 26 to 41, could possibly be the focused target group for these downtown re-designs. The City of Myrtle Beach has never publicly addressed their target audience intentions for these changes.

A Move Away From Capitalism

Efforts to create more private-public downtown business models are clear. The City of Myrtle Beach is moving away from traditional capitalism and more towards private-public business models where new businesses actually partner with the city in revenue sharing.

Some models already in place with this re-design include:

More public-private business arrangements are in the works. The city is currently looking for an investor property to partner with a business model on its newly acquired city block downtown just off the ocean.

Ocean Is Here – Different View

City of MB 1
Oceanfront back view of masterplan

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