Myrtle Beach Paviolion to Close After 2006 Season

[Cyclonic]

Sad, but it looks like we are about to lose another park.  I hope to make it down there this year.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/business/indus...

2006 is last season for MB amusement park
By Dawn Bryant and Emma Ritch
The Sun News

Read Friday's edition of The Sun News for more coverage.

It's official: Say good-bye to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement
Park.

The beach's landmark symbol, which has greeted tourists every summer
since 1948, will close after this season, park owner Burroughs &
Chapin Co. Inc. announced today.

"A great deal of careful, painstaking thought has gone into making
this decision. The Pavilion has been one of the central landmarks of
Myrtle Beach tourism for more than 50 years, and no one has a stronger
or deeper emotional attachment than the people at Burroughs & Chapin,"
said Doug Wendel, president of the company.

The announcement was made at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club.

It's an emotional move some visitors, and locals, had feared for
years, ever since the city's Downtown Redevelopment Corp. suggested
that the park leave the area a few years ago.

The Pavilion has not been a viable venture for B&C for many years,
Wendel said, with operational costs growing as revenues decline.

The goal is to replace the rides and funnel cake booths, which only
operate during warm weather, with a mix of lodging, shops and
attractions that would lure people to the Pavilion area year-round.

Charleston firm LS3P is working on details, but they won't be ready
for another two months.

Board Chairman Egerton Burroughs said today that the company is
holding off on announcements about the Pavilion site and about the
rides at the park.

"We don't want to take away from today with what will happen when the
park closes," he said.

The company plans to announce those details after LS3P's study, Wendel
said.

Wendel said the fate of the Pavilion building on the oceanfront is
clearer: "My best guess is it will not be there."

The Pavilion opens on weekends starting March 17 and every day
starting April 7. The complex includes an oceanfront arcade, Attic
teen nightclub and 49 rides. It stretches from the oceanfront to Kings
Highway in the heart of the city.

"We've known this is coming for quite some time," said hotelier Bert
Anderson, who is a member of the Downtown Redevelopment Corp."