Garden City hotel closed, evacuated over structural concerns, official says

GARDEN CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — A hotel in Garden City was evacuated Thursday after an engineer had structural concerns, an Horry County spokesperson said.

The Kingfisher Inn was closed and evacuated after the property owner’s engineer, who’s overseen exterior projects for the building since 2021-2022, expressed concerns about its structure after a recent inspection. When the county was notified, it initiated standard evacuation protocols.

The hotel will be closed through April 11 while the building is fully assessed, according to a Facebook post. Management, the association’s engineer and Horry County are set to meet Monday to discuss the next steps.

A News13 reporter took photos of a letter on the hotel’s door from Horry County’s Code Enforcement.

One family staying at the Kingfisher Inn, but declined to go on camera, told News13 they were told to leave without any explanation around 5 p.m. Thursday.

They were supposed to be staying there until Saturday. They say they now have nowhere to go.

Joshua Riedy is a Garden City resident and came to see what happened. He said he’s not surprised the building had structural issues.

“I feel like a lot of the buildings around here have structural damage to them and they just kind of get by with code a lot of the times,” Riedy said. “I know a lot of the buildings down here have been rebuilt on a lot of floors because of structural damages.”

The family said they saw people surveying just a few hours before the evacuation.

Timothy Connelly is visiting from Rhode Island. He said as a visitor, he’d expect the hotel to offer some kind of refund.

“It’s unforeseen circumstances and any good business owner would probably make sure to take care of their guests or customers,” Connelly said.

The family said they were told they needed to contact the hotel owner if they wanted a refund.

Another visitor from Tennessee said he’d be very upset if it was him and his family in that situation.

“We’ve been coming here for the last 40 years and it’s a great place, great place to visit, you know, a lot of people come from different cities all over the southeast and it’s a shame that they have to put up with this situation,” John Hieronymus said.

All occupants were safely removed, the spokesperson said. No other information was immediately available.

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News13 has sent a public records request for more information. Count on us for updates.

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Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

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Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter. You can also read more of her work, here.

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