Personal Injury Attorneyin Myrtle Beach, SC.

Across the street from the Grand 14 movie theater in Market Common sits a new restaurant nestled into the familiar retail area.

Once you walk inside, you’ll notice the wooden floors and brick walls, murals of Rome and Naples on the wall, and a slight view of the kitchen where people are hard at work making your meal.

You can sit at a marble-top table or the bar, peruse the many spirits on the back wall, or look at the espresso machine if you need a midday pick-me-up.

The elegant aesthetic goes with Market Common’s new high-end pizzeria. Gios Pizzeria Napoletana opened at 4003 Deville St and offers several types of pies, salads, desserts and a charcuterie board. Patrons wanting to sip wine can choose from wines imported from Italy and France. Gios is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 12-8 p.m.

Erjola Hoxha is a co-owner of Gios, and her husband, Vesel Emini, oversees cooking the pizza. Hoxha also owns and operates Gios Italian Kitchen in Pawleys Island and Myrtle Beach with her brothers— the Hoxha family moved here from Albania in 2003. Indeed, Gios Pizzeria Napoletana is a family operation. The family works in the kitchen, and Hoxha’s mother prepares the Tiramisu.

Hoxha said that they’d been looking to open a pizzeria restaurant in Market Common for several years.

“We served pizza in Pawleys Island (restaurant). We stopped serving seven years ago because we wanted to focus on fine dining only,” Hoxha said. “So we’ve been looking for seven years searching for the right place in Market Common.”

That opportunity came in April 2023 when the former tenant of 4003 Deville St, Ultimate California Pizza, closed, and Hoxha and her family jumped at the chance.

“It’s beautiful, it reminds us of Europe, and we’ve always looked for an opportunity here,” Hoxha said.

Vesel Emini knows how to make pizza. A real estate agent in the Myrtle Beach area, according to his LinkedIn, he’s been making pizza for about 15 years. Emini added he started at his father’s Italian restaurant in Oxford, C.T.

At Gios, Emini’s ovens now offer Neopolitan-style pizza cooked in a gas-fire oven that heats up to 650 degrees Fahrenheit and can cook in less than five minutes. While Gios’ pizza is mostly Neopolitan-style, he added the pizza also draws on his Connecticut roots.

“We tried to do a blend of the Connecticut style and not too thin, not too thick,” Emini said. “We like it a little bit more on the crispier side, so we just want it cooked perfectly.”

As well as the standard Margherita pizza with basil and extra cheese sprinkled on top, Gios also offers barbecue and buffalo chicken variations. The French Connection pie is a specialty creation, an olive oil-based pizza topped with shaved ham, fig, dijon jam, brie, and mozzarella. Indeed, the new Gios pizzeria’s menu takes inspiration from Gios’ past selling pizza.

“We had this menu seven years ago, and we added on new special pizzas to it. When we came up with (the French Connection) seven years ago, I don’t remember how we came up, but we did,” Hoxha added. “We tried different things, and then whatever we liked, We put it on the menu.”

Initially, the pizza would be cooked in a brick oven, visible to customers. However, the building’s layout prevented this, although patrons can still see the pizza-making process through the kitchen visible to the dining area.

While open, Gios is still searching for more employees and is hiring front-end and back-end staff.

CAROLINA FOREST — Conway Medical Center has abandoned plans to build a hospital near an Horry County nature preserve and intends to sell its land to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, county officials said.

“This matter has never been about whether it should be conserved or developed,” said County Councilman Dennis DiSabato, whose district is anchored in Carolina Forest.

“It’s always been about if it was going to be developed, how was it going to be developed," he added. "I would prefer it not be developed at all, be conserved. … I’m tickled to death that we seem to have found ourselves in a position where it’s going to be conserved altogether.”

Myrtle Beach News

County Council postponed a scheduled vote on a development agreement and rezoning for the hospital, which was planned for a nearly 360-acre site on International Drive, after CMC on Feb. 20 sent a letter outlining its plans.

CMC President Brian Argo asked county leaders to defer their vote on the rezoning for six months.

In exchange for the rezoning vote deferral, CMC will work with the county and state, "and any affiliated entity to reach agreeable terms regarding the sale," Argo wrote. He added that CMC would agree not to sell the property to any entity other than DNR during that time.

County officials said CMC is looking at another location for its hospital. After the meeting, a CMC spokeswoman declined to comment on the provider’s plans.

Myrtle Beach News

DNR has publicly expressed interest in buying the land and the agency wants the greenspace preserved, spokesman Stephen Fastenau confirmed.

DNR is interested in conserving the property in order to "protect the interests of natural resource management of fire-dependent ecosystems at the adjacent Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve,” Fastenau wrote in a prepared statement.

CMC announced plans to build a Carolina Forest hospital in 2020, saying the $160 million, 50-bed facility would serve the growing suburban community of more than 38,000.

Myrtle Beach News

The project soon faced pushback from neighbors, conservation groups and DNR.

Neighbors worried about the traffic, lights and noise of a hospital impacting their quality of life. McLeod Health already owns a medical campus within two miles of the CMC site, and nearby residents said a second hospital wasn't needed so close to the McLeod facility.

For the conservationists and state agency, the issue was the compatibility of a hospital located across the street from a massive nature preserve.

The Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve spans more than 10,400 acres. It is home to black bears and other animals as well as rare plant species such as the Venus flytrap.

Myrtle Beach News

Controlled burns help manage that land by eliminating shrubs and weeds that choke out rare plants. Those burns also reduce overgrowth that can fuel wildfires. Gates on International Drive close during the burning. The hospital would have been built beyond the gates.

Although hospital officials said they would build the facility in a strategic location and add a smoke filtration system, conservationists worried the project just wouldn’t work in the planned location.

Horry officials also grew concerned about the hospital, specifically its potential impact on the county's road-building program.

Myrtle Beach News

For about six years, county officials have tried to establish a wetlands mitigation bank on International Drive. This type of project would allow the county to earn credits by restoring wetlands on the approximately 3,700 acres the county purchased in 2018. The proposed hospital site is close to the county’s land, which is also expected to be managed with controlled burns.

In the summer of 2021, county leaders said they wouldn’t approve the hospital rezoning until they could be assured the project wouldn’t jeopardize the mitigation bank.

County officials haven’t said why they placed the item back on the agenda after two and a half years, but Argo's letter indicates it was an effort to facilitate sale discussions between CMC and DNR.

Myrtle Beach News

Argo noted that CMC had not approved the version of the development agreement that was scheduled for a council vote and the provider was blindsided by the item's addition to the agenda.

"The County made a unilateral decision to proceed ... without notice or a discussion with (CMC)," he wrote.

But the county's move got a quick response.

Myrtle Beach News

As Argo noted in his letter, the hospital could sell the property to a party other than DNR, but if that happened the county could move forward with rezoning the property from residential to a classification that would limit its use to a medical facility.

Conservationists expressed cautious optimism after the council meeting.

“It’s actually the best outcome,” said Scott Hartley, a former North Carolina park ranger who lives in Myrtle Beach. “It’s something that everybody wanted from the beginning.”

Hartley volunteers with the Friends of Lewis Ocean Bay and often walks the nature preserve. He and other conservationists wore stickers bearing an image of the Venus flytrap to the meeting.

Myrtle Beach News

“It’s one of the last places in Horry County where you can really get out and get away from everything,” he said.

Trapper Fowler, north coast project manager of the Coastal Conservation League, said the news of CMC’s plans was encouraging.

“I’m a little surprised that it has taken this long for CMC to understand what the right move is, that a hospital doesn’t belong there,” he said. “... That truly proves that they are a part of this community and they do care about our natural resources, which is really important.”

Still, Fowler cautioned that the property sale isn't complete.

“I’ll be much happier when it is owned by DNR,” he said of the site. “We’re not there yet.”

Horry County needs $25 million more to complete a highway interchange planned along S.C. 31 in the Carolina Forest area.

The highway interchange would connect Augusta Plantation Drive and Revolutionary War Way to Highway 31, bringing a new entrance into the Carolina Forest area between U.S. 501 and International Drive.

In 2022, county officials said the project would cost $75 million and they hoped to break ground in the fall of 2023, according to a Facebook post. However, construction has not started.

It now appears the project won’t get started until 2025.

Plans for the project have been ongoing for years. The county purchased 23 acres of land for $1.5 million in December 2021 with the intent of building an interchange, The Sun News reported.

Horry County Council Member Dennis DiSabato told The Sun News on Wednesday the project now needs $100 million. The county hopes to use RIDE IV money to fill the gap.

The Road and Improvement and Development Effort, or RIDE, is a 1% local sales tax that generates billions to construct and improve roads around the county. Horry County’s total sales tax collection rate is currently 8%.

A fourth iteration of RIDE, which lists specific transportation projects, could be up for vote on the November election ballot. If approved, the RIDE 4 program would go into effect May 1, 2025.

DiSabato said if RIDE IV does not pass, the county will be able to secure the extra funds in other ways.

A county document states construction on the interchange is set to begin in 2025 - two years later than originally anticipated. The roadway should be finished in 2028, DiSabato said.

The connection road would go past two schools and several neighborhoods. It is expected to ease traffic congestion on roads in the Carolina Forest area. The 2022 Facebook post stated the plan is to build a four-lane road with a sidewalk and multi-use lane.

Carolina Forest’s population has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, increasing by 420% from 2010 to 2020, The Sun News reported. When trying to get to the north side of Highway 31, the only way to do so is either by U.S. 501, International Drive or River Oaks Drive. U.S. 501 is located about seven miles away from the other streets.

Connecting Augusta Plantation Drive and Revolutionary War Way would provide another access point to the area north of Highway 31.

If you want to learn more about the project, an information session will be from 4 to 7 p.m. March 18 at the Carolina Forest Recreation Center, 2254 Carolina Forest Blvd.

The Myrtle Beach area real estate market in 2024 is looking to speed up after a slowdown in 2023.

Homes stayed on the market longer than in previous years as the pace of buying property in the Myrtle Beach area has slowed due to national factors. However, new homes have been developed across the Grand Strand, and the influx of residents from one Sun Belt state is helping grow the Palmetto State’s population.

The 2024 Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors President Brianne Bender said 2023 saw a downturn in business and blamed increased interest rates, while mortgage rates also reached levels last seen in 2000, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Economic Data.

“We’ve had such an interesting year; last year. We didn’t have as high sales as we had in 2020, 2021, and even 2022,” Bender said in an interview with The Sun News. “(There was) a little bit of uncertainty in the market as to what was going on sellers not being able to move because of interest rates being higher, because they couldn’t then go and take the money that they got from their sale, and equally apply it and purchase of another property. So I think people were just a little bit hesitant.”

Bender, who is also the director of brokerage operations and broker in charge for South Carolina and Florida for BRG Real Estate, said part of the problem is home buyers having to wait longer to buy homes.

“The average buyers who we are working with this past year; they’re probably waiting a good extra four to five, maybe even six months to find that right inventory when it comes on the market,” Bender added.

Indeed, while a lack of supply affected the market, houses also stayed on the market longer than in previous years. CCAR tracks data regarding the Grand Strand real estate market.

CCAR’s 2023 Annual Report found that realtors sold $4.6 billion worth of homes in 2023, a 36 percent drop compared to the $7.2 billion sold in 2022. The report also found that listings did increase, as did home sale prices from 2022 to 2023. New listings for single-family homes fell in 2023 by about six percent compared to 2022, which also saw a drop of about six percent compared to 2021, according to a December 2023 report by CCAR.

New Condo listings also dropped in 2023 and 2022 and closed sales for single-family homes declined by about eight percent and more than 18 percent for condos, according to CCAR’s December 2023 report. Meanwhile, homes are sitting for sale longer. The CCAR December 2023 report found that single-family homes were for sale an average of 123 days compared to 113 in 2022, a trend continuing from 2021. Condos sat for sale for an average of 95 days in 2023 compared to 75 in 2022, still an overall improvement from the average of 99 days in 2021, The CCAR December 2023 also stated.

Jeff Forman is a real estate agent for Keller Williams Realty, Inc. and has 53 townhomes, beach homes and condos with an estimated market value of about $25 million either currently on the market or close to completion. Forman said several properties are already under contract; however, investment properties like beach homes are selling faster than residential ones, and the specifics of each plot determine how quickly it sells.

“It’s so specific, based on the property,” Forman said in an interview with The Sun News. “I can have one property that just is out in Conway, and the Conway property will take 240 days to close compared to somewhere more desirable ... So it’s really hard to correlate that.”

Forman also said high-interest rates were why people avoided buying homes in 2023.

“The interest rates pushing up caused people to calculate further,” Forman said. “People are starting to make wiser decisions with their money, and that’s understandable because you’re not throwing three percent interest rates at them any longer ... it’s definitely slowed down, but I don’t think it’s anything alarming.”

Real estate was not the only Myrtle Beach area economy sector that saw a decline in 2023 compared to other years. Some short-term renters, specifically some Airbnb hosts, told The Sun News in July 2023 that 2023 was not as strong a year as past ones.

Bender said she believes 2024 will be a good year for sellers and more homes will get put up for sale this year.

Indeed, one part of the market that continued to perform well in 2023 was new home construction. Horry County saw an uptick in building permits issued during the 2022-23 fiscal year, The Sun News reported in September 2023, and new home sales helped buffer the Grand Strand real estate market in 2023.

CCAR reported that more than 5,200 new homes were sold in Horry and Georgetown Counties 2023 compared to the 4,600 plus in 2022, and newly built home purchases made up 35 percent of total sales in 2023.

For the high mortgage rates that hurt the Myrtle Beach area’s real estate market in 2023, the St. Louis Fed’s economic data also shows that 30-year fixed mortgage rates have fallen from their peak in late October 2023. While interest rate cuts at large might not be in the immediate future, for Bender, the fundamentals have not changed.

“Part of why (the real estate industry is) predicting that we’re still going to have such a strong 2024 is because South Carolina is still, year over year, one of the highest migrated to places in the entire country. Myrtle Beach by itself had just over double the amount of move-ins to move-outs last year than any other area in the state,” Bender said. “That’s also why we feel pretty confident that we’re still going to be experiencing that growth next year and seeing these sellers come back on the market now that things have calmed down slightly.”

Bender added that she expects second homeowners, who might have avoided selling in 2023, to begin putting their homes on the market in 2024, which should help address the lack of supply along with continued new home development. Forman also said he doesn’t believe the downturn in 2023 is a sign of trouble in the future.

“I definitely still see the Myrtle Beach downtown area marketplace is somewhere that has plenty of room to grow,” he said. “Especially considering outside of our bubble of Myrtle Beach what every other market is doing. There are very few that are super, super struggling.”

Recent trends of people moving to the Grand Strand have also begun to emerge.

As the Myrtle Beach area grows, people moving from Florida are helping spur that growth. WBTW reported in 2020 that Florida had the sixth-highest average number of people relocating to Myrtle Beach each year. CCAR also reported that more than 14,000 Floridians have moved to South Carolina. In 2023, more than 90,000 people moved to the Palmetto State, The State reported in December 2023.

While the trend is not new, Bender said that South Carolina has an appeal for Floridians because of proximity to family and cost.

“It doesn’t take as long to get to South Carolina as it does to Florida. So they have the opportunity to be closer to family and have a little bit more temperate climate. But we still have a lot of clients that are still keeping their Florida properties and additionally getting one in South Carolina as well,” She added. “As far as affordability for Florida, I would say owning a property there myself; taxes are probably twice as much where we’re at ... Same thing with insurance. Florida’s having the same issues as South Carolina as with insurance availability and being able to have access to affordable insurance companies.”

Real estate agents like Forman said part of this movement is due to Florida’s ongoing insurance crisis, partly due to the effects of climate change.

“I just helped a family move from Florida simply because of the insurance,” he said. “Especially in condos, the insurance has crept up a little bit (in Myrtle Beach), but it’s not anywhere near where the Florida market is. So now the people that migrated down to Florida, they’re looking at options in North and South Carolina.”

While Bender said she hadn’t seen a specific example of someone moving due to insurance costs, weather is a factor for some homeowners looking to move from Florida.

“The last two big hurricanes we had that hit the Florida Gulf Coast side pretty hard, which hasn’t been hit in a long time, and I think it did, make some people reevaluate their living positions and whether they would want to be in that same situation again if another storm came through,” she added. “I think we’re really fortunate in Myrtle Beach that, knock on wood, we haven’t been affected by a big hurricane in a while. We’ve been pretty fortunate that we’re pretty protected.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2024, 5:00 AM.

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Exciting new experiences await those traveling to The Beach this year

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- South Carolina's Grand Strand is ringing in the new year with a host of all-new activities, experiences and culinary delights. With over 60 miles of stunning beaches and 14 unique communities, the Myrtle Beach area invites travelers of all ages to try something new and exciting at The Beach this year.

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"Our ever-evolving destination continues to see exponential growth, innovation and advancement in terms of diverse offerings and experiences for all," said Karen Riordan, president and CEO of Visit Myrtle Beach. "We look forward to welcoming visitors to The Beach who are looking for year-round relaxation and adventure paired with sunny skies and Southern hospitality."

New developments in Myrtle Beach include:

Events & Attractions

Food & Drink

Lodging & Transportation

For more information on what's new in Myrtle Beach, visit www.visitmyrtlebeach.com.

Editor's Note: Images and renderings related to the 2024 new developments and events in Myrtle Beach can be found HERE (credit: Visit Myrtle Beach).

About Myrtle Beach, S.C.Myrtle Beach isn't just a beach. It's The Beach. Popularly known as the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach is one destination made up of 14 unique communities that stretch 60 miles along the northeast coast of South Carolina. Families, couples and those in search of a warm welcome will find more than just a day at The Beach when they come together to connect and enjoy vibrant entertainment and family attractions, including world-class golf, shopping and fresh coastal Carolina cuisine. From the moment you arrive, you'll find you belong at The Beach – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For additional information on tourism offerings in the Myrtle Beach area, go to visitmyrtlebeach.com or call (888) Myrtle-1.

SOURCE Visit Myrtle Beach