The Waikiki Village Motel is a second row, off the ocean, Myrtle Beach motel located at 1500 South Ocean Blvd. The motel was built in 1963, during the height of Myrtle Beach’s boom years. It is an idiosyncratic example of Mid-Century Modern architecture, with a distinctive Hawaiian style hut at one corner. These types of decorative features were fairly common at the time, but many have succumbed to the Downtown Redevelopment Corporation’s (DRC) bulldozer in this recent era of Myrtle Beach redevelopment.
The Waikiki Village has been saved from the bulldozer, however, because of an inventive idea brought to the DRC by the firm Rogers, Lewis, Jackson, Mann & Quinn, LLC.
An income producing property, like the Waikiki Village, that is 50 years old or older can qualify for a tax credit of 20% of qualified rehabilitation expenses (QRE’s). These tax credits can be used to offset a corporate investor’s costs for land and building.
This novel approach allows a small, mom and pop hotel owner to bring in corporate partners for investment. These corporate partners then use the next 5 years in tax credit write offs which the corporation needs. After 5 years, the mom and pop buys the corporation out of the business or puts the motel on the market for sale to the general public.
The idea was pitched to the DRC last week by Robert Lewis as can be seen above. This program is now in effect for restoration at the Waikiki Village.
Details of the program can be found here.
