If you've driven past Whispering Pines Golf Course on Harrelson Boulevard sometime in the last year, you may have caught the renderings floating around online: a glassy 35,000-square-foot building tucked between the first and fourth tee boxes, twelve climate-controlled indoor courts, outdoor courts under cover, a pro shop and a snack bar. The PicklePort was supposed to be the answer to a question a lot of Grand Strand pickleball players have been asking for two years: where do we play when it's ninety degrees or pouring rain?
As of this month, the answer is nowhere near Whispering Pines. The project was canceled in early August, as The Post and Courier reported, and the six wooded acres next to the golf course sit exactly as they did before the announcements started. If you've only seen the "opening fall 2026" mentions still circulating on vacation-planning sites, you're working from information that's a few weeks out of date. Here's a look at the project's cancellation and the steps it had taken along the way.
The Project's Approval Process
The PicklePort had advanced through several approval steps. Myrtle Beach City Council signed a nonbinding letter of intent with developer Dwight Hunsicker in January 2025. Through the year, the company cleared the city's due diligence requirements, including approval from the National Park Service, a step required because the parcel came to the city when the old Myrtle Beach Air Force Base closed and carries a federal deed restriction limiting it to public recreation. By September 2025, council had approved the first reading of an ordinance authorizing a 20-year concession agreement. Hunsicker stood in front of council with renderings and described the approval process as "an 800-meter-hurdle-race," as The Post and Courier reported, a nod to how many steps it had already cleared.
The financial terms were specific enough to sound settled: a $5 million private investment, rent starting at $17,500 a year for the first two years, rising to $35,000 through year five, then adjusted for inflation after that. At the $35,000 annual rate, the effective per-acre rent across the six acres was close to $5,833. The facility was scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2026.
What none of those signals included was an executed lease. The ordinance readings, the National Park Service sign-off, the renderings shown to council all happened before the one document that would have made the project binding. That gap is the whole story.
Why Hunsicker Walked Away
In early August, Hunsicker told the Post and Courier that a fresh market assessment shifted the expected return on the project to a level that no longer worked for the company or its investors. Rising front-end infrastructure costs on the site pushed the numbers further out of reach. He was blunt about how he weighed the decision:
"Just from a pure dollars and cents financial analysis perspective, it was like, 'Well, wait a minute. This isn't making good financial sense.'"
He didn't describe the choice as a change of heart about pickleball. He described it as underwriting that no longer penciled out, and said he's watching for a different site or a different deal structure that might work better. His own framing was direct: "We're in a pause mode, an opportunistic mode. Just kind of watching and waiting and seeing how things play out was the right financial decision."
The company's own website reflects the same posture. It no longer describes an opening date. It describes a pause, an open invitation for ideas about what else the six-acre tract next to Whispering Pines might become.
The City's Side of the Ledger
For Myrtle Beach, the cancellation carried none of the financial exposure it might have. Because the lease was never executed, the city has no signed obligation to unwind and no rent it was counting on. City Communications Director Meredith Denari put it plainly when WMBF News asked about the fallout: the lease was never executed, so there's no revenue loss, and the land goes back to being available for whatever comes next. The golf course keeps operating under its existing management agreement with Atlantic Golf Management, unaffected by any of it.
That's a useful distinction for anyone trying to gauge how seriously to take the next big amenity announcement that comes through city council. A letter of intent, a rendering, even an ordinance reading, none of those are the same as a signed lease. The key distinction for future proposals is whether a lease has actually been signed.
A Separate Grande Dunes Tennis Club Change
The PicklePort news came at the same time as public discussion of a separate development: the planned closure of the Grande Dunes Tennis Club, which is expected to be converted into residential lots. The PicklePort was canceled before construction, while the tennis club is expected to close as part of the conversion.
The two developments also came up in discussion at Myrtle Beach City Council. Councilwoman Debbie Conner used the moment to argue for public investment rather than waiting on private developers again. As The Post and Courier reported, she said, "You've got a lot of people wanting to play pickleball and tennis. Racket sports are something that people of all ages could play." City staff have started calculating cost estimates for a municipally built racket sports complex, though those discussions are still early and nothing has been approved.
If a city-built complex does move forward, it will be worth watching how its timeline moves from announcement to construction.
What You Can Actually Play On Right Now
None of this means Grand Strand pickleball players are stuck waiting. A few real options exist today, and one large one is still genuinely under construction:
- Dink District, at 200 Ronald McNair Boulevard in Carolina Forest, is building out 14 pro-grade indoor courts across 40,000 square feet, led by Dr. Ron K. Reynolds and his son Kerry Reynolds, a certified Level 2 IPTPA instructor. Construction is underway, with a 2026 opening still projected, though no exact date has been confirmed.
- Pin Point Indoor Pickleball & Golf opened in early 2026 in Little River, inside a 47,000-square-foot former Sports Zone building off S.C. Highway 90. It has nine indoor courts plus golf simulators and a chipping and putting area, and it's open seven days a week.
- Bistro B on North Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach has three free outdoor courts, no facility fee required.
- The J. Bryan Floyd Community Center in North Myrtle Beach offers indoor pickleball daily, and the city broke ground in October 2025 on a $6.5 million Central Park Pickleball Complex nearby, adding 15 courts including a covered championship court.
None of these fill the exact role the PicklePort was pitched to fill, a large indoor facility positioned right in central Myrtle Beach near the airport. But they cover the gap well enough that the sport isn't waiting on Whispering Pines to keep growing here.
The Real Lesson Here
The PicklePort didn't fail because Myrtle Beach doesn't want more pickleball courts. It failed because a fully public approval process and a fully private financing decision are two different tracks, and a project can travel a long way down the first one without ever locking in the second. Letters of intent get signed. Ordinances get first readings. Renderings get shared at council meetings and picked up by press releases. None of it means concrete has been poured or ever will be.
That's a pattern worth remembering the next time a big amenity gets announced along the Grand Strand, whether it's a sports complex, a new restaurant row, or anything else that shows up in a city press release months before a shovel touches the ground. The renderings tell you what someone hopes to build. The signed lease tells you what's actually happening.
Whether it's a canceled pickleball complex or the next big rendering that shows up in a city press release, getting the current, on-the-ground version of what's actually happening in Myrtle Beach rather than what's still circulating from a January announcement is the kind of digging Alexandria Bevier does every day. Let's connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
