The City of Myrtle Beach hired Monteith Construction for the work on the CCU Theatre which the university leased to use. City taxpayers are paying for all construction and land purchase costs.
The CCU theater will utilize three neighboring locations on Main Street – 807, 809, and 811. These addresses, totaling approximately 7,500 square feet according to Horry County land records, consist of three historic storefronts constructed in 1938. The plan involves renovating these storefronts into a unified CCU Theatre venue.
CCU THEATRE ARTICLE AS BROADCASTED
All in, the restoration work of the CCU Theatre will cost city taxpayers $1,977.72 per square foot. An article we published in July 2024, indicates city taxpayers have raised few issues about paying the $22.3 million total taxpayer cost for the CCU Theatre.
According to the American Society for Theater Consultants: Cost per square foot to build a theater allowance can vary widely depending on quality assumptions and local and regional construction indexes. Overall project per square foot costs can easily range from around $200 per gross square foot to more than $400 per gross square foot, depending on the quality aspirations of the owner and the project designers.
Project costs are also affected by the amount of support space included in a performing arts facility. The lobby, auditorium, and stage carry by far the most expensive construction costs, while support spaces such as dressing rooms and storage rooms represent relatively low construction costs. Therefore, projects with minimal support space will likely have higher construction costs on a total per-square-foot basis.
Upon receipt of our FOIA request by the city, Merideth Danari, the Public Information Officer for Myrtle Beach, provided the following information to clarify the matter:
Your FOIA requested documents regarding the theater will be sent over to you today. However, I do want to provide some context and information for journalistic purposes as you read through them.
Four contractors answered the city’s May 2023 Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for contractors with experience in historical renovation and theater work. Throughout the process, it was very important to ensure that the selected contractor(s) from the RFQs was experienced in the meticulous specialty of historical renovations and theater work. In your received FOIA documents, you’ll find detailed project examples from each company that were given to the five-member panel of qualified city employees to judge.
Two of the four contractors who submitted RFQs were selected as “qualified” by the five-member panel. In 2024, the city solicited bids from those two qualified contractors to be considered for the historical renovation and theater work. However, only one contractor ended up submitting a bid to the city. Given this contractor was qualified for the project and their cost was within the city’s established project budget, they were awarded the project. All City of Myrtle Beach procurement ordinances and rules were followed. There are no regulations requiring a specific number of bids be submitted per project for a contractor to be selected that’s within budget.
CCU THEATRE QUOTE TO CITY
2023.06.14 CoMB Theater x MCC by MyrtleBeachSC news
MONTHEITH QUOTE – COST BREAKDOWN
CCU Theatre City of Myrtle … by MyrtleBeachSC news
