Historic SC resort’s unlikely hero turns back developer

DAVID M. PICKETT

Atlantic Beach, South Carolina, homeowner Porterissia McNeill outmaneuvered the developer of a parking deck and hotel project by purchasing a plot near her beachfront property in the historically Black town.

When Porterissia McNeill saw an opportunity to beat a developer to a prime oceanside spot in Atlantic Beach, South Carolina, she took it.

McNeill, who owns a Mediterranean-style home in the historically Black town, outmaneuvered a New York-based company that intended to build a 21-story hotel and 11-story parking garage near her property.

Morant Properties LLC didn’t own the 22,000 square foot parcel but planned to incorporate it into the development after the town council changed its rules earlier this year to allow non-owners to build.

McNeill’s acquisition made the development moot – and turned her into an unlikely hero along the mostly-Black community in Horry County near Myrtle Beach. Atlantic Beach is a strip of land that’s part of the Grand Strand tourist region and has a population of 283 as of 2022.

“There will not be an 11-story parking garage on that lot if I can help it,” McNeill said. “I built here in 1993 and never expected that a large condo/hotel would be sharing the oceanfront a few doors from me. The new residential growth and change in the character of Atlantic Beach that’s occurring is tremendous, it’s refreshing, and I want to see it continue. I expected that the residential deed restrictions would protect me, and I hope the judge rules to enforce them.”

Atlantic Beach, which became known as “The Black Pearl,” was developed in 1934, when George Tyson, a Black business owner, bought 47 acres of beachfront property to build a beachside resort for Black vacationers during a period of racial segregation by law and custom in the South.

Tyson, who bought more property in 1949, included residential deed restrictions that required “there shall be but one residence on each lot and there shall be no business houses” on the oceanfront parcels.

For more than 40 years, Atlantic Beach was a premier resort location for Black vacationers and entertainers, which included some of the finest jazz, blues and soul musicians.

Following the Atlantic Beach council’s decision to fast-track zoning changes, Supporters of the Tyson Ancestral Restrictions on the Deeds, a coalition of property owners opposed to high-rise development, filed a motion for injunction with the Horry County Court of Common Pleas.

The plaintiffs want the court to enforce long-standing deed restrictions that limit construction to residential properties.

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