Myrtle Beach city-owned hotel improves performance
By John Temple Ligon
Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

The Myrtle Beach Convention Center's headquarters hotel is a 402- room Sheraton, formerly a Radisson that went under. The faltering Radisson attracted plenty of Midlands press in early 2004 because Columbia was about to seek the same fate.

At that time, Columbia City Council still had a majority opinion in favor of a city- financed, city- developed, and city- owned convention center headquarters hotel.

The argument against the city deal in early 2004 was the illustration offered by the Myrtle Beach Radisson, a four- star property that actually cost $100,000 less to develop per room than what Columbia City Council was about to build.

The Radisson was already losing money. If the Radisson at Myrtle Beach couldn't cut it, the argument went, how in the world could an overly expensive Columbia hotel on Lincoln Street pull it off?

As it turned out, the Radisson couldn't cut it. On April 1, 2004, the Radisson team could not make a payment and had to default on some of its bonds. But its successor, the Sheraton, is doing all right.

For the current fiscal year, which began April 1, the Myrtle Beach Sheraton at the convention center should spin off $2.25 million to help with its own debt.

The original concept expected the hotel to not only carry its own debt but to also pay out 3% of its revenues back to the city. That probably won't happen until 2014, at the earliest, according to city officials.

Still, the turnaround at Myrtle Beach bodes well for Columbia and its privately developed convention center headquarters hotel, the Hilton developed by Greenville- based Windsor/Aughtry. The Hilton is due to open in the first week of August 2007.