I&R Subcommittee on Rural Civic Center Meeting - September 9, 2025
I&R Subcommittee on Rural Civic Center Meeting
On September 9, 2025, the Horry County Infrastructure & Regulation Subcommittee on the Rural Civic Center met to review arena layout options, cost estimates, and authorize the next phase of design. The committee moved forward with the preferred master plan concept (Option 1) for schematic design.
Consent Calendar
- The agenda was approved unanimously.
- The minutes from the March 15, 2024 meeting were approved without objection.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were offered.
Discussion Items
- Arena Layout Options: The master planning consultants (Charlie Johnson, Margaret Butler, Jay Renkens) presented four options for the arena and associated facilities. Option 1, the preferred concept from the master plan, included a 150x300 ft arena floor with 3,800 fixed seats, a covered warm-up, and a 200-stall barn, with an estimated cost of $115 million. Option 2 featured only the arena ($99 million). Option 3 added a covered warm-up and prefab stalls ($104 million). Option 4 was a simpler design with two stall barns and a 90,000 sq ft arena ($85.5 million).
- Funding & Next Steps: David Gilreath and Barry Spivey reviewed available funding: $35.5 million in cash on hand, potential state grants ($5–10 million), and hospitality tax revenue. The schematic design phase (Phase 3) was estimated at $729,607 and would produce refined cost estimates and design details.
- Committee Support: Members expressed strong support for Option 1, citing the county's growth, regional significance, and the need for a flexible, multi-purpose facility. Several members noted the economic development potential and the importance of not undersizing the project.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Move Forward: A motion was made and seconded to authorize the schematic design phase for Option 1 (the preferred master plan concept). The motion passed unanimously.
- Next Steps: The design team will proceed with schematic design, including civil, structural, and landscape consulting, and will return with updated cost estimates. The road improvements (Hardwick Road) will be coordinated with the facility timeline.
- Funding Strategy: The committee acknowledged the need to pursue state and private funding to supplement the county's $35.5 million allocation and hospitality tax revenues.
Meeting Transcript
For our rural multi-civic center meeting, and as always, with our meetings, we'll start out with the invocation and the pledge of the flag. And we all stand, please. Praise God. Heavenly Father, we're thankful, dear Lord, that we might be able to gather once again and work for the people of this county. Help us, oh dear Lord, and encourage our hearts and watch over us. Touch and bless each and every household and family that is represented here today, so that all things will be done for your glory. Amen. Please do the flag. One nation under God and the visible justice for all. Thank you all for being here. And so we're gonna we're gonna turn it over to Brandon, but uh but uh I would like to recognize uh uh Mr. Archie Howe here. He is the one that helped us obtain this land to start with, and he's in he's in our presence today and stuff, and I just want to extend that. And uh he's been very um involved. He calls me and texts me often to find out where and what we're doing and stuff because uh uh he's helped us, we're gonna help him, and he's gonna help us some more. So all right, Brandon. Okay, take it away, buddy. So since our last meeting was in March of 2024, so it's been a while since we've sat down together. Uh since then, some progress has been made on putting some different layout options together. Uh I have our master planning consultants with us, Charlie Johnson from Johnson Consulting and Margaret Butler from MHM Architecture. Uh today we're going to be going through those different layouts for the arena, uh looking at some different price points for those. They've uh developed to say you know, we've got all these concepts. So with that, I want to turn it over to Johnson Consulting and the Master Planning Consultants. All right. You guys can get started whenever you're ready. Yes. Are you ready for us to proceed? Yes, sorry, Charlie. All right, thank you. Um I want to make sure everybody can hear us, and then Margaret is has some material we like to say. And first we want to thank you for the time today. Um this has been a process that we've gone through. Um, I think when we first started, we began um thinking more rodeo and equestrian. And as we got along, that becomes critically important to retain the capability, but this became more multi-purpose. And we think that that's the right answer for the uh the U County and Myrtle Beach. Um you're a dynamic market. I think it's very important to future proof these types of buildings. And so when Margaret talks about the options that we're going to talk about, and does Jay uh reviews the site plan, I think that'll give you some discussion points of why um the options exist and what the consequences uh and opportunities are of the different options. So with that, I wanted to say, are there any opening comments that you want to make uh Brandon and David? Uh we did, Charlie. I think you might have been on mute, but we can go ahead and proceed with the presentation. Perfect. Okay, great. All right, so these are the topics we're going to um discuss. Jay's going to start off talking and reminding people about the site and what the opportunities are, and then we're going to go through the um different um options. And we're going to remind people about the building uses and then talk about the cost summary. All right. So Margaret, I think you're driving the bus. Jay. You're up.
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