Myrtle Beach is getting a $50M residence hall for visa workers. It’s similar to Dollywood.

The path is clear for work to begin on a multi-million dollar international residence hall at a busy Myrtle Beach intersection. This ends weeks of controversy over the facility’s potential impact within a historically Black enclave.

Despite unanimous city council backing for a $50 million project that officials and proponents said is long overdue given the nature of Myrtle Beach’s workforce, opponents vow to keep fighting.

“It’s not over until that building goes up,” said Hellestine Graham, a property owner inside the city’s Harlem neighborhood where the campus is set to open sometime in 2025.

Mike Winfree and his wife, Kathy, have housed J1 students for several years and are involved with the city police department’s international student outreach program.

“You know that housing is terrible around here, and some of these students have to find their own housing and they go on these websites and they don’t know who they’re dealing with, and it’s a nightmare for them,” Winfree said. “This place is just going to be a godsend.”

International employees comprise about 4 percent of the city’s workforce, arriving from more than 30 countries.

A development team lead by former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus is looking to use 7.6 acres at the intersections of Mr. Joe White Avenue and Robert Grissom Parkway for a walled-in campus that could house up to 3,000 international employees when fully built out.

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Karen Riordan, president and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Convention & Visitor Bureau, told The Sun News in a May 9, in an email both organizations favor the project.

“This housing is greatly needed to compete with other tourism destinations,” Riordan wrote. “Businesses are seeking seasonal workforce help, but cannot employ these international students if housing is not available. Further, this will free up housing stock that is critical for our year-round residents that need more housing options.”

Lazarus said the beds will run about $150 per week, with the expense coming directly from workers’ paychecks.

“It’s in close proximity to everything. A lot of these kids work at Walmart, a lot of them work on the ocean front, Broadway at the Beach and local hotels and restaurants, so it’s a very central location,” Lazarus said.

His team of investors are partnering with Wisconsin-based Holtz Builders on the venture, which would be it’s first in the Palmetto State.

Holtz officials could not be reached for comment.

Dollywood dorm for international workers will be comparable to Myrtle Beach project

The company also has similar residence halls operating around the southeast, including Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee’s largest tourist attraction.

“Holtz Builders has been phenomenal to work with. They are a very reputable company,” Pigeon Forge Mayor David Wear said. “They have stuck by their word. They have done what they’ve said they do.”

That complex, which opened last spring, sits on 136,000 square feet with space for 750 seasonal workers.

Under terms of its deal with Myrtle Beach, area improvements would include privately funded stormwater enhancements to alleviate existing drainage problems throughout the Harlem neighborhood, a 10-foot wide bicycle path and Coast RTA bus shelter accessible and open to the public.

All that work would come on top of the more than $1.2 million worth of infrastructure repairs covered through federal Community Development Block Grant aid that city leaders have funneled into Harlem and its surrounding areas since 2019.

Wear said Holtz made similar infrastructure upgrades near the entrance to its Dollywood campus, including working with city leaders to expand a trolley line so employees could get to and from work safely. Myrtle Beach would get similar improvements, according to plans.

Wear recently toured the campus and said it was well lit and clean.

“You know, I went to college at Middle Tennessee State University and if my dorm was as nice as that, I probably wouldn’t have gotten an apartment,” he said.

Brian Babbitt, owner of Good Vibes Surf Shop on Broadway St., said he gets hundreds of messages every year from international workers who have been scammed out of deposits as they hunt for accommodations.

“This is not something that needs to be built in 2025. This is something that should have been built in 2005,” he said.