The Stirling Properties office in Mobile recently announced several new commercial real estate moves in the area.

• Daphne Commons in Daphne has been announced as a signature development on the Eastern Shore in Baldwin County. The new shopping center will cover approximately 27,000 square feet, with construction anticipated to start early this year. The initial phase of the center will feature two buildings, plus expansion space and an out parcel. National tenants are expected to occupy the site, plans for public announcements are in the works.

• Located along Foley Beach Expressway at County Highway 8, Wahoo Plaza will be Alabama’s first plaza-type development. Infrastructure and underground retention is underway with 3.77 acres available for sale or lease. A Shell gas station and convenience store will be included in the development.

• Birmingham-based Oakworth Capital Bank is opening its first Mobile location occupying a 4,700-square-foot space at One St. Louis Centre downtown. The company intends to establish a full-service office, including commercial and private banking, in the near future.

• Stirling Properties was retained to re-evaluate and develop a revised master plan for the 65 acres of undeveloped land at The Wharf, a mixed-use waterfront development in Orange Beach.

• New tenants at The Wharf — including Sea la vie Design, a 5,497-square-foot furniture and design studio; Orange Grove, a 1,597-square-foot gift shop; and Montego’s Caribbean Café and Bar, a 9,301-square-foot waterfront restaurant — are expected to open in February. More announcements are forthcoming regarding other possible large-scale tenants setting up shop at The Wharf.

• Some $275,000 was paid for a 6,000-square-foot property that formerly functioned as a child daycare center, located in West Mobile at 65 Border Circle. The buyers are Camp Bow Wow franchisees, a Broomfield, Colorado-based canine daycare, grooming and training Fortune 500 company. Angela McArthur with Stirling Properties worked for the seller. David Cooper of BHHS Cooper & Co. represented the buyers.     

OTHER TRANSACTIONS
Cameron Weavil, vice president with the Weavil Company, recently sold a 21,000-square-foot lot containing a 5,800-square-foot warehouse and shop building located at 7760 Old Shell Road near the intersection with Schillinger Road. The car dealership next door that purchased the property paid $112,500 in the transaction.

H&R Block recently opened in a 1,200-square-foot office space at McGowin Park. Buff Teague and Allen Garstecki represented the landlord on the deal.

According to Charlie Christmas of Christmas Properties, the former Motormax property located on U.S. Highway 90 in Mobile and sitting on 1.2 acres of land will be leased by Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Starbucks recently signed a lease for a 1,925-square-foot retail location in front of the Publix in Orange Beach, with plans to open this summer. Buff Teague with JLL represented Starbucks.

T-Mobile recently leased a 900-square-foot retail space at McGowin Park. Buff Teague with JLL managed the transaction.

A hotel pad site was recently sold at McGowin Park. Buff Teague with JLL represented the landlord. Charlie Christmas with Christmas Properties worked for the buyer.

According to John Peebles with NAI Mobile, $995,000 was paid by an Atlanta, Georgia-based development company to acquire 8.1 acres and build 120 high-end apartment units in West Mobile on Somerby Drive adjacent to Cody Road. The seller was a Birmingham real estate investment firm.   

Hargrove Controls listed among Top 100   
Hargrove Controls + Automation recently ranked No. 55 on a list of 100 System Integrator Giants, according to the 2015 Global System Integrator Report. Published by Control Engineering and Plant Engineering magazines, this supplement links integrators with their market audience.  

Companies making the top 100 list vary by size and industry, with some assigning more than 1,000 people to system integration functions and others just a handful. The company in the top spot reported total system integration revenue of $160 million, while the company at the bottom of the list had revenues of just over $1 million in 2015.
 
Founded in Mobile in 1995, Hargrove Engineers + Constructors are a full-service EPC, automation, life sciences and technical services firm.

Austal delivers USNS Brunswick
Austal USA recently delivered the nation’s sixth Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel, USNS Brunswick (EPF 6), to the U.S. Navy in January. The delivery marks the sixth EPF ship delivered to the Navy as part of a 10-ship, $1.6 billion block-buy contract.

The Expeditionary Fast Transport program, formerly named the Joint High Speed Vessel program, provides the Navy with a high-speed intratheater transport capability. The Brunswick is a 338-foot aluminum catamaran capable of transporting 600 tons 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots, and is designed to operate in austere ports and waterways, providing added flexibility to U.S. war fighters worldwide. The ship’s flight deck can also support flight operations for a wide variety of aircraft, including a CH-53 Super Stallion.

Upon delivery of USNS Brunswick, there will be three Spearhead-class EPFs under construction at Austal’s Mobile shipyard. The USNS Carson City (EPF 7) was recently christened and launched this month. Modules for the future USNS Yuma (EPF 8) and USNS Bismarck (EPF 9) are under construction in Austal’s module-manufacturing facility, with the construction of Burlington (EPF 10) scheduled to begin in early 2016.