Palmetto Coast Industrial Park receives approval on first reading

By Ruben Lowman 

North Myrtle Beach may soon be getting a new industrial park in a rapidly-developing part of the city that officials hope will help diversify the local economy. 

The proposed plans for the Palmetto Coast Industrial Park were initially approved by the city’s planning commission a few weeks ago before being approved by NMB City Council in the meeting held on Monday, April 4. The park is a nearly 515,000 square foot industrial complex that will house three warehouse buildings when constructed. 

The developers of the property needed an amendment so they could revise a portion of the Henry Road West section of the Parkway Planned Development District (PDD) into the park, which will see it consist of three warehouses with over 600 total parking spaces. The original plans for the area were zoned as “Mixed-Use 3” and allowed for more than 300,000 feet of commercial space with an additional 300 residences. 

The ordinance states that the rear of the property consists of stormwater ponds, a water tank and wetlands. An extension of the East Coast Greenway is also included in the amendment. The industrial park is part of the larger 1,363-acre Parkway PDD that has become a significant part of the city’s recent plans, after the former Waterway Hills Golf Course closed its doors in 2015. The course was annexed into the city by the former property owners in 2008, which became the Parkway PDD that the Palmetto Coast Industrial Park lies within.

The Parkway PDD plans have already seen multiple residential properties receive approval. Grande Dunes North, a 998-unit housing development, along with several other planned subdivisions are either in construction or have active plans in the process. Watertower Estates and the Bell’s Lake subdivision have already broken ground in the vicinity of where the Parkway PDD plans are proposed and portions of Grande Dunes North and the Waterside infrastructure are underway, according to the ordinance. 

A big factor behind the area’s appeal to both commercial and residential developers is its prime location, with several major highways lying nearby, as well as the Intracoastal Waterway. The long-proposed I-73 project and Highways 22 and 31 are right along the corridor, and new neighborhoods are popping up at a rapid pace in the area. 

NMB City Council also held a workshop last Monday, March 28, where they assessed plans for one residential chunk of the Parkway PDD. Those plans, the Preserves PDD, included more than 600 residences as currently presented to council. They lay out that The Preserves would consist of several different parcels of land that would each have distinct communities within them. 

Mayor Hatley and several councilmembers present told the developers to alter their plans, saying they supported lowering the density of the project and providing residents with more open space in the parks and trails on the property. 

Palmetto Coast Industrial Park is set to be built just slightly above where The Preserves developments are located. The industrial park would be part of a smaller, but still significant, commercial element to the Parkway PDD, which was intended to diversify the city’s economy and revenues. The Grand Strand area is almost exclusively reliant on income from the tourist industry, and the industrial park is an early step towards the city’s goal of altering that. 

The Parkway PDD and its developments would wrap around Water Tower Road, which was until recently a dirt road. That changed drastically in 2009 when a wildfire in the area burned nearly 20,000 acres and affected close to 100 homes within Barefoot Resort. The city decided to pave the seven miles that runs from Highway 90 to the former course in order to make it passable for first responders and emergency personnel to react to life-threatening situations. 

Hatley said that the road will eventually be a vital intersection for North Myrtle Beach, saying it would one day be a “major bypass to our city.” Water Tower Road lies on the corridor between the burgeoning Barefoot communities and the growing developments that formerly made up Waterway Hills. So far, the developers of Palmetto Coast have not given a set date for when construction would begin or end, but their plans state they would be completed within three years of approval by the city. 

UPS just recently completed the construction of a 40,000 square foot package delivery center that officials have said will create over 50 jobs in the next few years. The delivery center, which cost more than $11 million for the company to build, lies not far from where the proposed plans for the park are set to take place. There are also several landscape contracting companies who already have their businesses in the area.

In order to cope with the increased demand for emergency services and first responders along the corridor between where the Parkway PDD developments will take place and Barefoot, city officials have said they will eventually build both fire and police stations. NMB Fire Rescue spokesman/fire inspector Jay Ortiz said that the city plans to build the new fire station off Water Tower Road but is not sure on the timetable yet, as building materials have been expensive and difficult to acquire recently. 

For the time being, services to the Barefoot and Parkway PDD subdivisions will be provided by NMB Fire Rescue Station 5 just past the Barefoot Swing Bridge as you enter the community. The city also holds a public safety assistance agreement with the county, as the majority of the area lies adjacent to Horry.  

NMB City Council will be holding their annual budget retreat on April 18-19, with their next regularly scheduled meeting to be held on Monday, May 2.