Myrtle Beach is one of America’s best-performing cities. Why? The reason will surprise you

A dominant hospitality sector and rapidly growing high-tech realm has propelled Myrtle Beach near the top of America’s best performing cities, a major new study shows.

And that momentum likely will continue in the coming years as waves of people continue settling down in South Carolina’s fastest-growing region, a report co-author said.

“I think Myrtle Beach this year had a very nice combination, because it was definitely bolstered by leisure and hospitality, but looking at its rankings across other components of the index, the city doesn’t do poorly and is way above the middle of the pack,” Milken Institute economist Maggie Switek, who co-wrote the study, said. “It ranks above the median even among large cities.”

The nonprofit think tank this week listed Myrtle Beach as the nation’s 12th best-performing city out of the 200 it evaluated, based on metrics including broadband access, labor market conditions, high-tech impact and housing affordability — vaulting it up 89 spots from 2021 rankings.

“This fits into the exact motto and vision that we’re out on the streets pitching saying, ‘hey this is where it’s at,” Howard Waldie IV, Myrtle Beach’s chief innovation officer, said. “We’ve got this third-party entity here, who is doing their own research, and they’re seeing that Myrtle Beach region as a whole is poised for high-tech growth.”

Milken, a California-based think tank, has published its list of best-performing cities since 1999.

“What we have seen in the last few months is the high-tech sector in itself is not doing that great in terms of jobs especially, so cities that have a more diverse economy and more sectors contributing to their growth generally will fare better,” Switek said.

While high-tech companies aren’t yet major contributors to the region’s economy, Milken forecasters see the sector growing by nearly 52 percent through 2028.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines “high-tech” as clusters with a concentration of workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Myrtle Beach is courting new investments, and the high-tech sector is key.

Milken’s assessment of the city’s tech climate comes at a pivotal moment in Myrtle Beach’s recent history.

Officials are beginning a multi-year plan to create a downtown arts and innovation district defined by cutting-edge technology and streetscape designs.

“All I’ve heard from everyone in the region, whether it’s education or economic development or just hearing from individual municipalities and the private sector, everybody is talking about, ‘what does the future look like, and what do we have to now to be prepared,’” Waldie said.

Myrtle Beach’s pandemic bounce back has been well-documented. In 2021, it led the nation in lodging recovery rates with a 38 percent year-over-year jump as visitor spending more than doubled to $1.9 billion.

But it was the October 2022 groundbreaking of a $31.5 million data center and transcontinental subsea transmission line inside the city’s International Technology and Aerospace Park that helped reposition the local economy.

Waldie said that project by DC Blox and the HTC Hub on 9th Avenue North — a business incubator that caters to entrepreneurs — are catalysts for Myrtle Beach’s growing tech sector.

The Sun News pays a monthly fee for reporters and editors to use the downtown workspace.

“If you look across the country, a lot of places that are big tech hubs, they kind of have been overdeveloped at this point. I think what makes a region like ours so attractive is that we aren’t (overdeveloped), and it is more affordable from a business perspective.”

Sandy Davis, who’s led the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation for a decade, said interest among prospective developers is at an all-time high across the county’s business parks.

Most recently, Myrtle Beach hosted the 19th annual Business Facilities LiveXChange, connecting site selectors with groups like Davis’s for talks on “big ticket relocation and expansion projects,” according to its website.

“The subsea cable (project) has really made a huge difference in the companies that we’re talking to, the interest that see.” Davis said. “Technology is definitely at the forefront.”