Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jan. 27 -- Add a former diamond dealer and an automobile salesman/orthodontist to the mystery associated with the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
Santee Cooper's surprise announcement Monday that it will sell 902 acres of base land to Greenville, N.C., businessmen Ed Burrell and Ledyard Ross is the latest chapter in a six-year saga that has linked an eclectic bunch of names -- such as Michael Jackson, a billionaire Saudi Arabian prince and a consortium of Japanese bankers -- to the property.
Since the base closed in March 1993, a proposed theme park on the property has gone belly-up, dozens of small-time investors have lost millions of dollars and little redevelopment is evident.
About the only sure thing at the base has been mystery.
The latest chapter in that mystery is being written this week, with no one outside of Santee Cooper's office in Moncks Corner claiming to ever hear of Burrell and Ross before Monday's announcement. And Burrell isn't saying what, if anything, his company -- WBLC -- plans to do with the base land, which was purchased for $20.1 million.
"I have no idea who they are," said Myrtle Beach City Councilman Wayne Gray.
Gray's comment was the norm Tuesday, one day after Santee Cooper chose WBLC over a New Jersey developer and Myrtle Beach-based Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. as the property's new owners.
"Their names haven't been mentioned around City Hall," said Jack Walker, planning director for Myrtle Beach. "I don't have a clue who they are."
Neither did Ashby Ward, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
"I was very surprised," Ward said of Santee Cooper's announcement. "I didn't even know those guys were in the running."
Burrell has been doing the talking for WBLC, but he hasn't been saying much.
"I don't mean to sound smart, but I really can't comment on it until the deal is final," he said Tuesday.
The conditions in WBLC's sales contract with Santee Cooper give the company four months to complete the deal.
Burrell, the former diamond salesman, said he and his partners have a plan for the property, but they are not ready to discuss it publicly.
"We have a dream for it," Burrell said.
He dismissed the notion raised by some Tuesday that WBLC bought the property just to hold it for a while and then sell it later. While selling the land is always a possibility, Burrell said, that's "not what we have planned."
Burrell said there are several partners behind WBLC, adding all of them, to his knowledge, are out-of-state residents.
He declined to identify his partners other than Ross -- a retired orthodontist, car salesman and automobile loan specialist who co-founded Regional Acceptance Corp., which made high-interest loans to people with bad credit. Southern National Corp. -- now BB&T bank -- bought Regional Acceptance in a stock transaction worth about $167 million in 1996.
Papers on file at the S.C Secretary of State's office and the state's Department of Revenue provide few clues about who is behind WBLC. The papers only list a Greenville, S.C., attorney as the registered agent. That attorney has declined to comment on the deal.
One clue to the puzzle might involve a Myrtle Beach-area business known as Environmental Evolutions Inc., located on 48th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach.
Bob Evans, president of Environmental Evolutions, said Tuesday his partner in the company also is a partner with Burrell in WBLC. Evans declined to name the partner, but said Burrell uses his 48th Avenue North office.
Evans said Environmental Evolutions has developed a process to purify water for institutional use, such as in hospitals and restaurants. Evans' company isn't related to Houston-based Environmental Evolutions Inc., which does environmental remediation work nationally, and an Internet search of newspapers and business publications nationwide turned up no information on the Myrtle Beach company.
While Burrell wouldn't disclose what WBLC is going to do with the land, neither would he rule out if there are plans for a theme park.
"My dream includes a lot of things," he said.
Theme park rumors swirled along the Grand Strand six months ago after Burrell's group backed out of presentation it was to make to the City Council during a workshop meeting. That was the first -- and last -- time Burrell's group came close to meeting with city officials, but that mysterious appearance sparked rumors that he was being backed by a national theme park company.
Every major theme park operator from Anheuser-Busch to Paramount has since denied being interested in a Myrtle Beach project.
After that aborted city meeting, Burrell's group continued to work behind the scenes to get the base land but their intentions to buy the property weren't made public until Monday.
A theme park was the dream for Timberland Properties Inc., which originally bought the base land from Santee Cooper in 1995. TPI planned to build a theme park called Isle of America and solicited money from dozens of small investors. Although TPI executives paid themselves six-figure salaries, they never raised enough money for the theme park. In June 1997, TPI filed for bankruptcy protection and the base land became entangled in court proceedings.
As part of its agreement with the bankruptcy court, Santee Cooper will use $2 million from the sale to WBLC to pay off some of TPI's old debts, but it is doubtful any of TPI's investors will get their money back.
During TPI's two-year tenure, company executives started several rumors about who was backing them, including names such as Michael Jackson and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd.
While some local experts think a theme park could work in Myrtle Beach, city officials say that isn't what they would like to see at the base.
"I don't think that would be the best use," said Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride.
The base property lies within city limits and Myrtle Beach would have control over the zoning. Burrell reiterated he wants to work with city and county officials to develop a feasible project.
Santee Cooper was put in charge of marketing the base land in 1993 after the state initiated a land swap with the Air Force, that gave the military land adjacent to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter. In return, the state received about 1,500 acres of land at the Myrtle Beach base.
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