The Real Deal

By Sharman Egan Lagniappe columnist

Geez oh Pete, things sure do move sloooow around here sometimes. I don’t know if it’s the sultry weather, all the fried food and carbs we eat or just the whole Southern schtick but sometimes it seems like nothing’s ever going to happen. Then just when you’ve given up all hope – BAM! – someone calls a news conference, and you find out Mobile’s Energizer Bunnies have been working their little bunny tails off, making things happen behind the scenes.

Take Mobile Landing for example. That’s the section of downtown along the waterfront that includes the Mobile Convention Center, Cooper Riverside Park and the Alabama Cruise Terminal. It’s been a long time in development: the convention center opened in 1993, the park opened almost a decade later in 2002 and the cruise terminal followed in 2004.

The original plan for Mobile Landing also included a Maritime Center with a museum – dubbed the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico – plus a visitors’ center and ferry terminal. There’s also been talk of a NOAA hurricane center in the complex. Until a couple of weeks ago, it seemed these additions were nothing more than talk. Then – BAM! – the Museum Board announced they had already raised $6 million out of a goal of $10 million. Not bad considering their fundraising has been in stealth mode until this month.

The visitors’ center has been scrapped (it will remain at Fort Conde) and the NOAA center looks to be a long shot. The feds say it is likely to be destroyed by a hurricane. I guess they want to put it in Iowa or someplace safe like that. But the museum is on track to open in 2009, and I’m told the city is moving ahead with plans for the ferry although I haven’t been able to confirm that with city officials.

The museum and ferry will increase access to Mobile’s waterfront but, let’s face it, what we really want is a waterfront park and one that, unlike Cooper Riverside Park, is large enough and accessible enough to provide true public access to Mobile’s waterfront. If you’re 70-something or older, you may remember that up until the 1940s, Mobile had a grand park on the water – Monroe Park – that was a center of social life. It had a zoo, carousel, arcade and a baseball field (where I am told, Babe Ruth once hit a home run with virtually every citizen of Mobile looking on).

But those days are long gone. Monroe Park is now a big ol’ pile of dirt owned by the Alabama State Docks. Our waterfront is lined with boat sheds, a container terminal, golf course (at least it’s a public one) and public housing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…but let’s face it, that may not be the “highest and best use” (as the real estate appraisers like to put it) of waterfront property right smack dab in the middle of a good-size city like Mobile.

There’s been talk of a public park on a 41-acre site at Arlington Point just south of the Coast Guard base in the Brookley Field complex. Will it ever happen? It turns out the folks at the Alabama State Port Authority (ASPA) are required to provide public waterfront access as part of the environmental impact agreement for the Choctaw Point Terminal, and the park at Arlington Point will fulfill that requirement. The conceptual plan for the park shows a boardwalk, picnic areas, bike trails and canoe/kayak access, among other amenities. There hasn’t been much visible activity on the project since April 2005. James K. Lyons, Director and CEO of ASPA, says there have been delays in acquiring the property which is currently owned by the Mobile Airport Authority. He expects those issues to be resolved in the next several months, and construction to start in the summer or fall.

What about actually living on the water in downtown Mobile? The best hope of that has been Water Street Landing, the condo/retail project at the foot of Government Street. That project has been in the works for the last several years but, sadly, it ain’t gonna happen. According to James Ellis, president of MDi media group, the marketing firm that represents the developers, “There are no plans on the table to move that project forward.”

Ellis said a number of things have changed the scope and viability of the project including changes in the market, higher construction costs and the death of the lead partner. He says it’s uncertain whether the owners of the land will sell the property, sit on it or develop it under a different concept. But the original Water Street Landing condo/retail project has “no viability whatsoever,” according to Ellis.

There’s not much any of us can do to change the plans for Water Street Landing but you can make a difference on the Maritime Museum with a donation. And don’t think they only want your money if it comes in four-figure denominations or higher. When I spoke to Mary Lee Conwell, the museum’s development officer, she was tickled pink about an anonymous $100 donation that showed up in the mail shortly after the fundraising campaign kickoff on June 7.

To make a donation, call 251-436-8901 or e-mail mlconwell@nationalmaritime.us . For more information on the museum, go to the Mobile Landing Web site at www.mobilelanding.com (some of the information is out of date; a museum Web site is in the works).

Sharman Egan is Lagniappe lagniappe columnist. Contact her at Sharman@SharmanEgan.com.

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