The Real Deal

By Sharman Egan Lagniappe columnist

It’s been a year since I took over the real estate/biz beat at the Lag-nappie (woo-wee), and they haven’t fired me yet. I thought we should celebrate that by looking back at some of my favorite stories from the last year and seeing where things stand now.

DASH for the ‘Dale – Last October I reported a non-profit development company, DASH for the Gulf Coast, was planning to revitalize the once-vibrant Hillsdale neighborhood in West Mobile. An aggressive goal, to say the least.

Lo and behold, 10 months later, you wouldn’t recognize Hillsdale. DASH has completed three houses with 16 more under construction. Some of the homes are new construction; some are major renovations of existing homes. Three houses are under contract.

Prices for three bedroom/two bath homes range from $89,900-$139,900. If you haven’t visited Hillsdale recently, you gotta go! Right now! Three furnished models are open from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday – Saturday. For more information, go to www.dashgulfcoast.org.

Condos on Cottage Hill? – In January I wrote about a proposed development, Snowden Place, on the current site of the family home of Jim Busby (founder of QMS and Centralite Systems). The site is on the north side of Cottage Hill Road between Knollwood and Hillcrest, just west of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. The developer was planning to tear down the “Busby mansion,” as neighbors call it, and build 15 single-family homes and 36 condominiums.

At that time, the project had not yet been approved by the Mobile Planning Commission. Although the project was approved in March, the developer recently decided to add garages to about half the condo units, requiring a visit back to the planning commission. Developer Reid Cummings says if everything goes according to plan, the first building will be completed in early spring. He expects the 2400-square-foot homes to be priced in the $400Ks.

Crescent Theatre – Can you imagine a theatre downtown, screening independent films at reasonable prices, even for the popcorn? Last March a Real Deal column reported on a couple of developers, Max Morey and John Switzer, who were planning to deliver just that with the redevelopment of the Crescent Theatre at 208 Dauphin St. Their plans included the theatre on the street level and two high-end lofts on the second and third levels.

They were also planning two new homes on Government Street at Bayou Street, which would be their personal residences. These projects are still in the works, plus they’ve added one more. Switzer has purchased the former Monsoon’s building at 210 Dauphin St., next door to the theatre. He is working with Morey to redevelop that building, with a state-of-the-art banquet hall downstairs and two corporate entertainment suites upstairs.

Morey expects the theatre to be in operation by February of 2008 and the other three projects to be complete within a year. Stay tuned for updates on the theatre as we get closer – these guys have some pretty innovative plans there.

Mobile and Eastern Shore real estate market – In May, I wrote two columns with statistics on residential real estate sales for select markets in Mobile and on the Eastern Shore, using data from the Mobile and Baldwin County multiple listing services. Since then, the nice folks at USA’s Center for Real Estate Studies have launched a new Web site that puts this type of information at your fingertips.

The site includes Mobile Market Watch and Baldwin Market Watch, providing detailed data on the counties’ economies and residential and commercial (industrial, office, retail) real estate markets. Information is provided in downloadable files that can be saved. To access the databases, go to http://cres.southalabama.edu/. The information might even help you with future property tax appeals.

Water Street Landing – This proposed condo tower has long been our best (well, really, our only) hope for waterfront living downtown. For the last three years, a Los Angeles-based developer, Millennium Pacific Icon Group LLC, has been touting plans to build 240 or so units at the foot of Government Street. They even tore down the old CSX building last March. The project has been off and on so many times, who can keep track?

Back in June, I reported it wasn’t going to happen, based on information from James Ellis, president of MDi media group, the marketing firm representing the developer. A few weeks later on July 22, the Press-Register reported the project was still on track, quoting the lead partner, James Bostick. Well, I wouldn’t start packing yet.

According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, Millennium Pacific Icon Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 6, 2007, over two weeks before the story in the Press-Register. So just where are they planning to get the $80 million (up from $60 million, 1 1/2 years ago) to develop this project? I couldn’t reach James Bostick or anyone else with the company for a comment.

Of course, this is all just a drop in the bucket on the changes we’re likely to see in the next year. There are more new lofts under development downtown than you can throw a MoonPie at. The folks at the Winn-Dixie on N. Catherine Street are still promising we’ll see a major remodeling in the foreseeable future. Bring Back Broad is still in the works, although I couldn’t reach anyone with the city for the latest status.

Stay tuned…I’ll keep you updated over the next year.

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

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