New Starbucks and town homes could be coming soon to Market Common in Myrtle Beach area

Will the last piece of Market Common become a reality?

Today, Myrtle Beach City Council members heard from the project developers about their plans for MarketWalk.

Now, the amended plans show space for 189 homes, bungalows, townhouses and even a new Starbucks.

“Together, with your support we can complete the development of Market Common on a high note, and ensure that it will continue to be an asset to the City of Myrtle Beach,” Anthony Giocoia, vice president at Homefed Corporation, said on Tuesday.

Council members have yet to vote on the new amended plan, and official discussions on whether or not to adopt it are scheduled for a future council meeting.

Discussions about MarketWalk have been years in the making, with city council members voting 5-2 last January against a plan that would’ve built more than 200 rental units in the popular shopping center.

“I don’t want our area to turn into another Horry County,” council member Philip Render said at the March 28, 2023 council meeting. “The density is just too great and to that end, I’m just not going to be able to support this.”

Render still serves on the council.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the project’s attorney, Dan Stacy, told the city council that he had surveyed the Market Common community to get feedback on these new plans.

Stacy said they conducted two meetings with leadership from six adjacent neighborhoods by meeting with their HOA or POA leadership.

“We believe we had a successful series of meetings, not a full, necessarily, wholehearted endorsement, but certainly some more education and understanding about what the project is and what it is not,” he said, adding that they’re hopeful to make some tweaks based on the feedback they received.

One reason last year’s MarketWalk plan didn’t come to fruition was the outpouring of opposition from neighbors in the Market Common area.

Prior to Stacy’s presentation to council, he said he was advised by several council members to engage with community members about this new plan. He also later said that these meetings he held were only with leadership members from the six neighborhoods, and were not public.

Originally, the MarketWalk plans had the space zoned as a 180,000-plus-square-foot department store, according to city documents.

In 2017, those plans were amended to favor building a giant hotel in the same area. In 2023, they were amended again to favor more than 200 rental units, which was ultimately shot down.

Now, the new plans are for slightly fewer homes than council members voted against last year.

They said during Tuesday’s public presentation that this newly proposed plan would “complete the puzzle” in the final Market Common master plan.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7:53 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2024, to correct the spelling of Stacy’s surname in one of the paragraphs of the article.