The Wharf planned as 1-stop destination

Proposed Orange Beach development envisioned as place where residents can live, play and go to work -- by boat

Sunday, May 23, 2004

By KATHY JUMPER

Real Estate Editor

Developer Alex Baker hopes to turn 200 acres on the Intracoastal Waterway in Orange Beach into a destination hotspot where folks can live, play and go to work, all by boat.

Birmingham-based AIG Baker plans to build The Wharf, a mixed-use development featuring condominium units, a marina, retail stores, restaurants, hotels, an amphitheater for outdoor concerts and a 66,000-square-foot Rave movie theater. A mile-long boardwalk on the waterfront would connect all the venues. An estimated 330 condo units are proposed for the project.

AIG Baker has the site on the south side of the Intracoastal Waterway , near the Foley Beach Express bridge, under contract. The land stretches more than 4,000 front feet on the waterway and includes property on the east and west sides of the expressway bridge.

The Rave theater owners would like to open the development's 3,200 stadium-seat theater by June 2005.

"That means everything has got to click," Baker said. He has been meeting with city officials in Orange Beach and will soon seek approvals for a Planned Unit Development. The land is zoned general business.

AIG Baker plans to purchase the land by the end of the year, he said. The project would be built in phases over five to seven years, with the first phase to include condo units which would be stacked or built above the retail spaces, Baker said.

About 100,000 square feet has been reserved by small retailers, and the developers expect to sign national, big-box retailers once the project gets under way.

"When we come here to relax as a family, we park our car and go on the waterfront and we don't have to go in our car again," said Baker, who has owned a vacation home in Orange Beach for many years. He wants owners and visitors to view The Wharf as a one- stop destination. Folks could ski, fish, go to the beach, go to dinner, buy their groceries or shop for a swimsuit, all within the development.

Other amenities include a five-story Ferris wheel, a health club, swimming pools, a nightlife plaza and tennis courts.

The company is banking on the current demand for waterfront property from investors and second-home buyers to spur the development.

The Wharf "will have strong appeal to the boating community due to its deepwater access," said Herb Malone, president of the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We have a tremendous amount of yacht traffic that passes through town, and this would be an off-ramp for that traffic to stop," Malone said. "This is the kind of place that people will seek out, drive to and spend an entire afternoon or day there. We're excited about it."

When waterfront on the Intracoastal Waterway starts selling, a boom in development in the area can be expected, according to Richard Cobb, who developed The Fish Camp condominiums and cottages off Canal Road in Orange Beach more than two years ago.

"We see the area as being just like Destin," in the future, Cobb said. "The majority of the people that live in our units like the slower pace, and they are boaters who don't care about being on the beach."

Cobb's 11 condo units on Wolf Bay are sold; he has sold seven single-family cottages in the $300,000s range, has six cottages under contract and plans to build 20 more.

"We've anticipated, as we've watched other beach communities grow that are ahead of us in the development curve, that our off-beach growth would begin to occur," Malone said. "We've had it for quite awhile in Foley with the Tanger outlet mall."

The Wharf project is expected to complement the Orange Beach RiverWalk, a multi-use development planned on 144 city-owned acres at the Foley Beach Express toll bridge's northern landing, according to Malone. The RiverWalk would include a Gulf World marine park, retail space, water park, hotel and a theater. Its site is almost directly across the Intracoastal Waterway from the Baker project. Baker said he would like to provide boat transportation back and forth between the developments when they are both complete.

RTKL Associates, an international architectural firm based in Baltimore , will serve as consultant on the conceptual design for The Wharf, according to Lewis Communications in Mobile , which is marketing the project.

"What makes this project unique is the 4,000 front feet on the water and the boardwalk," that will meander along the water for visitors and residents to enjoy, according to Baker.

AIG Baker has developed retail centers in 17 states and leases and manages centers nationwide. It developed the 350,000-square-foot Jubilee Square in Daphne and is also developing Blackwater Plantation, a 3,300-acre resort community two miles north of the Lillian Bridge in Lillian and Seminole. Sales on single-family home sites there start in June, according to Stan Farrell of Pinnacle Communities, which is part of AIG Baker. The lots will start at $80,000. The development has more than 15 miles of waterfront on the Perdido and Blackwater rivers.