The Real Deal

By Sharman Egan Lagniappe columnist

Hot time in the old town

Woo-ee baby, it’s hot, hot, hot in Mobile. And I’m not just talking about the tanker brouhaha or even the sultry August weather. I’m talking about some real progress on several of the projects I’ve been writing about for the last two years. Two of them, the Crescent Theater and the Bellingrath Carriage House, are private development projects. The other two, Bring Back Broad and Arlington Park, are public projects. All are significant to the city of Mobile.

Crescent Theater- The long-awaited art house theater at 208 Dauphin St. downtown is scheduled to open Aug. 15 with “The Order of Myths,” a documentary about Mardi Gras in Mobile that has played on the international film festival circuit. The film premiered in Mobile July 31 with a single showing at the Saenger Theatre. According to Max Morey, developer and manager of the theater, The Crescent will have three screenings a day.

When I spoke to Morey Aug. 6, he wasn’t sure about the Aug. 15 date. “It will be right down to the wire,” said Morey, “but we’re still aiming for the fifteenth.” He has been dealing with several last minute glitches, including one particularly…ahem…sticky one.

In re-developing the historic Crescent Theater Morey is using recycled vintage materials from other old buildings whenever possible. When we spoke he had received the seats for the theater a few days earlier only to discover they had come from a XXX theater in Baltimore. Morey took one look at the seats and shipped them back. More are on order but the schedule is tight.

Morey and business partner John Switzer are also making progress on their other projects downtown, which include two high-end lofts on the second and third levels of the Crescent building, two new homes on Government Street at Bayou Street and development of the former Monsoon’s building next door to the theater. Morey said these projects have taken a back seat to the theater, but progress should speed up once the theater opens.

Bellingrath Carriage House- Last December I reported the sordid tale of woe surrounding the historical building at 1114 Government St. At that time the property was on the market for $115,000. Sounds like a bargain for a nice lot on Government in the Oakleigh Garden Historic District, plus a building that was once the carriage house for the Bellingrath family home on S. Ann Street.

But thanks to Hurricanes Dennis and Cindy, the building is really nothing more than a shell, and it needs at least several hundred thousand dollars worth of renovation. At that time the future of the building looked bleak.

I’m happy to report the property was purchased recently for $60,000 by Mobilian Robert Williams. According to realtor Joe Burkholder, Williams’ plans for the building will make historic preservationists happy. “He plans to completely overhaul the building inside and out and bring it back to its original glory. It will be a showplace and an asset to the community,” Burkholder said.

Bring Back Broad- I don’t know about you, but I was starting to wonder if the Bring Back Broad project would ever become a reality. It’s been in the planning stages for years – it was funded in 2005 and no telling how long it took to get it to that point.

So I was relieved when construction finally started in late May. According to city spokesman Adam Buck, the project is scheduled for completion within two to three months. The stretch of S. Broad Street between Canal Street and Virginia Street will be narrowed from five lanes to three lanes with a median. It will have new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping. The $2 million project is funded by federal grants from the Federal Highway Administration and the Small Business Administration.

Arlington Park- The improved Broad Street will soon lead to a new bayfront park at the Brookley Field Industrial Complex. Like Bring Back Broad, this project has been in the works for so long you had to wonder whether it would ever happen.

The park was first proposed by the Alabama State Port Authority in 2003. It’s a complicated story with chapters that include two high-profile economic development projects: the Choctaw Point container terminal and the Northrop Grumman tanker assembly plant.

The container terminal was built on the former site of Monroe Park, a grand bayfront park that was a center of Mobile social life up until the 1940s. When the terminal construction destroyed wetlands at the site, the Authority reached an environmental impact agreement with the feds to create a 61-acre public park at Brookley that would include new wetlands.

In the ensuing five years the park has shrunk by about 21 acres. Sixteen acres known as Arlington Point were lost when that land was included in the incentive package for the tanker assembly plant. It would have provided direct bay access, something the new park will not have. No telling what happened to the other five acres.

The new park finally became a done deal in late July when the Mobile City Council agreed to accept responsibility for maintaining the park after it’s built. The Authority is spending $6.4 million to create the 40-acre park. Public amenities will include walking trails, gazebos, kayak launches and a pier over about 20 acres of wetlands. The park is scheduled to be completed late this year or early next year.

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

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