Steve Lawson, Joel Pelici, Bob Singleton, and, the Mayor’s Husband Brown Bethune, recently showed their support and enthusiasm for Myrtle Beach’s newest coming attraction, Challenge Axeccepted.
The four are long standing best friends, as well as, City of Myrtle Beach establishment insiders. Brown Bethune operates Tidelands Commercial Real Estate in Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach First Family Brown Bethune Shows Off His Marksmanship
Challenge Axeccepted was recently unanimously approved by Mayor Brenda Bethune and City Council for opening. The new attraction is expected to open in May, however, a site location has not been announced.
This after, long-standing, downtown Myrtle Beach businessman Tuvia Wilkes had the application on his property denied August 14, 2018. The Mayor and City Council labeled the axe throwing attraction business a “fad” at the time of Wilkes’ application.
Wilkes says he sees this as a pattern of unfair and inconsistent business practices that he highlights as ongoing by city government. Some recent inconsistencies highlighted were:
UNFAIR TREATMENT LAWSUIT FILED BY MOTEL
The Patel family is suing the city claiming the town tried to shut down the motel “through any means necessary.”
- This originated from calls made out of the motel complaining about properties nearby. Because of the many calls made to city government, then City Manager John Pedersen and the town, listed the motel as a nuisance property.
- Many of those calls, however, were reported from issues that occurred on the adjacent Fountain Bleau Inn and Oasis Motel.
The city has been attempting to shut the Lancer down and have it condemned.
WHAT DID THE CITY DO TO THE OWNER OF THE FOUNTAIN BLEAU AND OASIS?
The owner of the Fountainbleau and Oasis formerly served on the city’s Downtown Redevelopment Commission. After years of shootings, deaths, and drug related problems on his two hotels, the city finally listed the the properties on its nuisance list. Then, just weeks later, they paid the owner, Noam Pyade $15 million for the run down properties. We reported this story on Dec. 14, 2021.
MORE INCONSISTENCIES
The owner of the Coral Sands Motel ran into the same issues with the city. Myrtle Beach City Council voted on November 9th to demolish the Coral Sands Motel. This motel was also deemed a nuisance property due to the “alarming” number of calls for drugs and prostitution. Yet in our own coverage, the Oasis and Fountainbleau made the news an alarming 6 times over the Summer of 2019. Pyade’s properties led the local news for all the wrong reasons ongoing.
The Coral Sands Motel owner, Harkishin Bhambhani, and his lawyer were at the city council meeting and wanted to establish a timeline that the city would agree to for making the necessary repairs. Bhambhani wanted 90 days to make repairs.
WBTW reported: These motions are separate from the judge’s order, and was due to a list of code violations and “structure damage.” The buildings faced serious structural and electrical issues, a building inspector said. Bhambhani and his lawyer said those claims are unfounded.
“There’s no structural issues, period,” Bhambhani said. “The electrical issues they showed you is fixed by a certified electrician.”
Mayor Brenda Bethune said that Bhambhani had plenty of time to bring the building up to code.
“If Mr. Bhambhani cared so much about this property he would’ve been bringing it up to code all along, not waiting to get a letter,” Bethune said. “Not waiting for the solicitor to step in, and not waiting for us to make a motion. He clearly does not care about his property or its condition.”
HYPOCRACY OR JUST POOR GOVERNMENT
The biggest inconsistent irony is a bar named Barnacle Bill’s. A host of ongoing complaints come from this establishment. The bar is a well known Hell’s Angels hang out.
When the city chose to purchase the $15 million in properties from Pyade, Barnacle Bills was one of the properties that made up the parcel.
Barnacle Bills had a four year lease with Pyade, which the city chose to honor instead of buying out the lease of around $200,000.00.
WHO IS IN THE NUISANCE BUSINESS?
While the city works to close what they deem as “nuisance properties” in the downtown area, the City of Myrtle Beach is now actually in the nuisance property bar business itself.
WILKES’ RESPONSE
In an effort to help the community come together for positive change, Wilkes has leased the rights to receive emails on the platform of Myrtle-Beach.com for 60 days while he talks with other merchants and considers his options moving forward.
Any downtown merchants who want to discuss issues with him, can reach Tuvia at: [email protected]
SOON MEETING ABOUT AN ADDITIONAL TAX
A soon meeting is scheduled where downtown merchants will be asked to voluntarily agree to a downtown mid tax of 1%.
Wilkes asks anyone with questions or concerns about the inconsistencies in how the city continues to operate reach out to him at the email address above.
Wilkes tells us all communications will be held in the strictest of confidence.