Montgomery development news

[thoraudio]

Article on the opening... I'm going to try to make it if possible.

April 24, 2007
Downtown lunch trolley, roundabout open today

Getting around downtown Montgomery for lunch -- with a car or without -- gets easier today as the city launches a lunchtime trolley route and opens a traffic circle at Court Square at 10:30 a.m. today.

Two of the city's three tourist trolleys get new routes during the lunch rush. The trolleys will serve almost three dozen restaurants in downtown Montgomery.

The city spent almost $1.3 million turning Court Square into the city's centerpiece intersection. It features a fountain and a traffic circle designed to keep traffic moving through the area.

The new roundabout will feature a Belgium cobblestone base, the traffic circle, additional on-street parking and a pedestrian-friendly environment.

Mayor Bobby Bright said the projects are a sign that downtown Montgomery is rebounding .

"I think this reverses the trend," he said. "We have hit the bottom, and we are on our way back up, now."

The lunch trolley is the brainchild of a group of Montgomery restaurateurs, and the eatery owners were well pleased with a trial run Monday.

Larry "Boomer" Strichik, owner of Boomer T's Bar-B-Q, said it will breathe new life into some restaurants.

"I am amazed," he said. "The ride is great and everything is just beautiful. We are part of it, and we are excited about being part of it."

Strichik said his business, which specializes in getting the customer fed and out the door quickly, will especially benefit from trolley riders who have to be back at work in an hour.

Montgomery's traffic circle should be easy for drivers to navigate, said Ken Groves of the city engineers department.

"It is real easy, keep the fountain on your left," he said.

City employees will give a demonstration of the circle during today's grand opening and the first lunch trolley will leave Court Square at the end of the ceremony.

Bright also will announce the creation of a free wireless Internet access area downtown. Free Wifi service will be available in an area about 100 yards in each direction from Court Square.

In addition, Bright also is expected to launch a façade improvement program designed for business owners to apply for grants to restore historic storefronts.

Today's opening will conclude with a 1-mile run/walk at Court Square starting at 6 p.m.

and the pics from the article.

[thoraudio]

another article on The Waters, from CABJ.

The Waters ‘feels like a vacation home’

By David Zaslawsky

PIKE ROAD – When you turn onto the Avenue of The Waters, you quickly realize this is no ordinary real estate development.

The posted speed limit on the road just wide enough for one vehicle is 18 mph. When you come to the first houses, there is no mistake: This project is unique. The houses look different than the typical subdivision. No cookie-cutter sameness.
Inside the sales office at The Waters, framed messages greet visitors:

“Trust begins here”
“Beauty begins here”
“Safety begins here”
“Convenience begins here”
“Value begins here”
“Choice begins here.”

What also begins at The Waters may be the Montgomery area’s second-home market.

“Right now, no comes to the Montgomery area looking for a second home,” said Nathan Norris, director of marketing and design at The Waters.

“Based on experiences of places elsewhere if you go ahead and create a place that is this beautiful and this tranquil, there are going to be people who say, ‘That’s where I want to go for the weekend to get away.’ We actually use that in our marketing: ‘It’s no vacation home, it just feels like one.’ ”

The 1,250-acre development does have the feel of a vacation resort and just as many amenities:

Seven lakes, including the 200-acre Lake Cameron, which is stocked with bass
600 acres of undeveloped park space, including rambles or miniparks behind homes where there are no cars.

Fishing
Marina with access to kayaks, canoes, paddle boats, sailboat, pontoon and fishing boats
Salt-water pool with zero entry and infinity edge
Tennis courts
Beach
Five-mile shoreline trail
Outdoor community kitchen with a gas grill
Pool house with locker room, showers and bathrooms
A chapel/civic building that will be the site of a wedding in late July.

At The Waters, details are everything from steel reinforced drilled piers to spray foam insulation to underground utilities to extra-wide sidewalks to porches with a minimum 8-foot depth to homes wired for fiber optics.

The painstakingly planned $1 billion community will have about 2,400 units over a 20-year period, Norris said and 5,000-6,000 people will live at The Waters.
Those residents will be living in one of 11 types of units and a price range to meet nearly all budgets from $158,000 to $1 million-plus mansions on lots ranging from $40,000-$300,000.

“We are hoping to get a rich social mix of different aged folks – different generations of the same family living in the same development,” Norris said. “Because we have a wide range of building sizes, we have attracted (people) in every stage of their lives.”

The least expensive unit is 780 square feet – a one-bedroom home with a loft space and one bathroom. And then there is the 6,000-square-foot home, which including the garage and porches has 8,000 square feet under the roof.

Seventy-five families live at The Waters in the first of eight hamlets, called Lucas Point. Construction at the second hamlet – Welch Cove – will begin this year.

Norris said about 75 percent of the available lots at Lucas Point have been sold, but construction is slowed by the process of buyers selecting a plan and working with designers and builders and having those plans reviewed by a Miami-based architect.

“We are trying to calibrate the most-loved places,” Norris said, referring to Charleston, S.C., New Orleans and Santa Fe, N.M. “The most-loved places have an amazing amount of variety within a narrow band.”

There are battery homes, live/work units, townhouses, brownstones, courtyard houses, carriage houses, cottages, sideyard houses, large houses and mansions.
Lucas Point also features a town square with retail units and residential units. Norris said there are plans for 30-35 retail units, including:

Real estate company
Attorney
Interior designer
Mail facility
Builder
New South Federal Mortgage office
Community Bank & Trust
Bridge Street Market, which is a convenience store/restaurant/deli.

Norris said The Waters’ sales office has moved to the town square, the YMCA is operational and a dental office was expected to open in mid-March. He anticipates a bed & breakfast coming to the development.

“We’ve been waiting to recruit a bed & breakfast operator until we have the chapel up,” Norris said. “It will support the weekend traffic.”

There is also room for a school, Norris said.

He expects the retail area to be completed within two years and said most of the units will be offices.

Welch Cove will also have some commercial development, Norris said. He expects the Carter’s Grove hamlet to have about 10 office units.

But the most dense retail area is 10-15 years away – in The Oaks hamlet, which is within a mile of Interstate 85 on the northwest region of the development.

Norris envisions an “EastChase-type’’ of shopping center with national retailers, but is quick to point out it could be built on The Waters’ property or adjacent to it. He said the development could support a supermarket at that time.

Norris describes the shopping center as an “urban setting where the stores are all the way up to the street and you have residences above.”

Although the development is not geared for any particular demographic, The Waters is building what it calls a “Baby Boomer Idea House,” but as Norris said, “It’s not going to look like an old folks’ home.”
Norris said he hopes that AARP’s magazine will feature the house.

“It’s geared toward retiring baby boomers who are more active and more green oriented – they will continue to dabble in their work,” Norris said.

[thoraudio]

another article from the CABJ on the Hotel.

Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa vows to wow locals, visitors, tourists

Ray Ezelle is the area director of sales & marketing for Alabama’s Resort Collection on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and Mike Eveleth is general manager of Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center.

Central Alabama Business Journal: When will the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa and the convention center open?

Ezelle: February 2008.

CABJ: I heard a soft grand opening is planning for November or December.

Ezelle: We will probably have a soft opening right after the first of the year. We have our first group Feb. 11.

CABJ: What group is that?

Ezelle: United Negro College Fund.

CABJ: Are there other bookings for February?

Ezelle: We have a few bookings for February.

CABJ: Are you more aggressively booking for March ’08?

Ezelle: Absolutely. We are aggressively selling the hotel and convention center as we speak. This is the pre-opening sales phase.

CABJ: What size staff do you have?

Ezelle: From the pre-opening sales perspective, we have the director of sales. I have two more sales managers coming onboard April 1. I also have our Team Alabama sales people, who actually sell to all eight of our properties.

CABJ: I compared the Renaissance Montgomery Convention Center Hotel & Spa to some of the properties on the golf trail. Why is there so much more exhibit/meeting space in Montgomery?

Ezelle: This is a convention hotel. We have the opportunity to brand Montgomery as the convention destination in the South. That’s what our strategy is. There will not be another convention hotel in the South that can compare with what we will have in Montgomery.

CABJ: Compared to existing facilities, aren’t we talking about the wow factor?

Ezelle: This is a complete (paradigm) shift for what Montgomery has been in the past.

CABJ: What are the initial responses to the new hotel and convention center?

Ezelle: Extremely positive. For second- and third-tier cities in the South, there are tremendous amount of meeting planners that have not had a facility like this to go to. This will be the most unbelievable convention hotel that most of our meeting planners have ever gone to.

CABJ: What size conventions can you hold? A 1,000-person convention?

Ezelle: Our goal is to go after citywide conventions. We want to go after 1,000-people nights to 1,500 night conventions. Where we would be the host hotel – the meetings would be held at the convention center – and every hotel in Montgomery would benefit. My responsibility is to create demand for Montgomery – create demand that has never been there before and that’s what is exciting because it will benefit the other hotels; benefit other restaurants. It is really geared toward increasing the tax base into Montgomery.

CABJ: Is the total exhibition space 103,000 square feet?

Ezelle: Yes, 103,000 square feet of meeting space and exhibit space.

CABJ: Will the Performing Arts Center open the same time as the hotel and convention center?

Ezelle: It is also scheduled to open in February.

CABJ: Is there an event scheduled for the Performing Arts Center?

Ezelle: We have the general manager onboard. That’s what his primary responsibility will be to develop events. He was the general manager of the Sanger Theatre in Mobile. We anticipate concerts, some unbelievable touring groups from Off-Broadway.

CABJ: How many seats does the Performing Arts Center hold?

Ezelle: It will hold 1,800 seats. It’s a level-one Performing Arts Center.

CABJ: What does that mean?

Ezelle: It’s really very comparable to a Broadway theater.

CABJ: Could the Performing Arts Center be used for local events such as high school graduation ceremonies?

Ezelle: It will be available for us to sell to outside groups for short-term bookings.

CABJ: Would you please describe the hotel’s amenities?

Ezelle: We will have 346 guest rooms, including 26 suites. We have four-fixture bathrooms, which means the shower and tub are separate. We have high-speed Internet, state-of-the-art workstation, 32-inch high definition LCD TV. We will have an upscale restaurant. The Renaissance philosophy is to have an upscale, street-level restaurant. We will have a lobby bar as well as a main hotel lounge.

CABJ: Will the restaurant be accessible from the street?

Ezelle: Absolutely.

CABJ: What are some other amenities?

Ezelle: On top of the garage also accessed from the hotel – we will have a signature outdoor pool with zero entry; we will have a large pool deck with cascading fountain. You will have a restaurant and cabana in the pool area. And also we have a 9,000-square-foot European spa.

CABJ: Will the upscale restaurant be comparable to Brock’s gourmet menu at the

Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa in Birmingham?

Ezelle: Yes, very comparable. We are still working through the menu and haven’t hired an executive chef. Based on the strengths of the executive chef is how you determine what you will feature. You don’t say you are going to be a steaks and chops restaurant and then you hire someone whose expertise and reputation is something else.

CABJ: Will the hotel also have a coffee shop?

Ezelle: We will have the lobby bar and other places where you can eat.?????????

CABJ: Will there be a cigar bar?

Ezelle: I don’t know if that’s been determined yet. We still have a little bit of time to finalize the plans.

CABJ: Will the European spa be comparable to Ross Bridge where treatments range from 60-90 minutes and cost $110-$170?

Ezelle: We are not sure what the prices will be, but the treatments will be very similar. Marriott is the No. 1 supplier of spas in the world and PCH Hotels has three of the top five spas within the Marriott system when you look at the Renaissance Ross Bridge, Marriott Grand at Point Clear and the Marriott Shoals. All three of those spas are very well respected.

CABJ: Ross Bridge has a 12,000-square-foot European spa and the Grand Hotel Marriott at Point Clear has a 20,000-square-foot European spa. Why the differences in sizes?

Ezelle: Nine thousand square feet is a good-sized spa.

CABJ: The Renaissance Montgomery has a lot more meeting/exhibition space than the other properties. Is there a different target audience?

Ezelle: Part of it is the space ratio.

CABJ: Will the European spa be open to the public?

Ezelle: Yes, it will be open to the public. I would anticipate that at least 50 percent of the spa business will come from the local walk-ins.

CABJ: What will the price range be for the guest rooms and suites?

Ezelle: We are working through those issues. It will be the best value in the South for a hotel with this quality. There are too many variables to carte blanche say this is our hotel rate.

CABJ: Could you describe the suites and luxury suites?

Ezelle: The largest suite will be approximately 3,000 square feet. It will have a type of parlor room, a dining area and a sitting area – much more upscale in every aspect – the furnishings, the amenity items, full bar.

Eveleth: The Presidential Suite will be on the 12th floor, where the ceilings will be 11 feet. The Presidential will have a balcony and huge dining area. It is a four-bay suite.

CABJ: What does a four-bay suite mean?

Eveleth: Each room is considered a bay. The Presidential is the size of four rooms.

CABJ: What are some of the amenities in the Presidential Suite?

Eveleth: Literally there is a waterfall that comes down from the ceiling to fill the tub. It’s very dramatic. This one is further over the top than the Ross Bridge Presidential
Suite. The Presidential Suite is really set up for the president.

CABJ: How many Presidential Suites are there?

Eveleth: There is one Presidential Suite and two Governor’s Suites. There is a Governor’s Suite on the 10th floor and another on the ninth.

CABJ: Will Dr. Bronner, the chief executive officer of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which funded the hotel and convention center along with the city, stay in the Presidential Suite on opening night?
Eveleth: I guess so. One thing about Dr. Bronner – he will be wherever he wants to be.

CABJ: How many employees will the hotel/convention center have?

Ezelle: I believe about 400 employees. We will start the hiring process later in the year and that will give us a good training period.

CABJ: The Renaissance Montgomery Convention Center Hotel & Spa is billed as the city’s new front porch. Could you elaborate?

Ezelle: We want to welcome visitors to Montgomery. We look at ourselves as changing the perception of Montgomery to visitors, vacationers and meeting planners alike.

CABJ: Change the image to what?

Ezelle: We want to change people’s perception to make Montgomery the convention destination in the South. I can’t stress how excited we are to have the opportunity to be here in Montgomery and have this type of product. When you think about 347 hotel rooms, 103,000 square feet of meeting space, an 1,800-seat Performing Arts Center, a 9,000-square-foot spa, a 600-car parking garage, running track, exercise room – all under one roof – it gives us a unique selling advantage against any other second- or third-tier cities in the South and quite possibly in the country. Our opportunity is to get people here for the first time and we know once we get them here and visit the showroom and give them a tour of exactly what we will have within the convention center and hotel, we feel very confident we will get a substantial number of visitors.

[kevinlpugh]

The scheduled fall opening of a new Compass Bank at the corner of Vaughn and Taylor Roads will mark the first Compass branch east of Bell Road.
Bruce Crawford, president of Compass Bank in Montgomery, said the company is simply mirroring the city's growth.

"The eastward movement of the city has caused us to follow," Crawford said.

The eighth Compass bank in the city will occupy about 3,500 square feet, Crawford said. The branch will offer retail and investment services and will employ about 10 people, offer four drive-through lanes and an ATM lane, Crawford said.

Crawford said a media and direct mail campaign will help introduce the bank to potential customers in east Montgomery.

-- Paul W. Sullivan

[thoraudio]

Pics I took from the ribbon cutting.

















The guy in the middle of the above picture was vocally protesting the 'lack of handicap access'. The crossings and sidewalk transitions are sloped, but steep. I don't know if it meets the ADA requirements or not (or if is supposed to). The fountain in the middle does not have any sloped access... He was quietly escorted away prior to the mayor's speech.





I actually drove up this section of Court Street today... weird. It's the first time it's been open in my lifetime.

This is what it looked like just last year.

[thoraudio]

Originally Posted by bystander1

^^ I think the new feel of the square itself could foster new retail and other growth on both Court St. and Dexter Ave.

I ate at Boomer T's bbq after the ribbon cutting today, and he said he was moving from Commerce St. up to the old Dexter Ave. Deli location on lower Dexter.

[Brown Duckz]

Originally Posted by thoraudio

I ate at Boomer T's bbq after the ribbon cutting today, and he said he was moving from Commerce St. up to the old Dexter Ave. Deli location on lower Dexter.

He's a man of his word, too.

[kevinlpugh]

Montgomery's Eastside is Growing Again

April 23, 2007 10:51 PM


It's not much now, but the empty land on Ray Thorington Road will one day be home for hundreds of Montgomery families. "It will be a great residential community," says Jim Wilson and Associates Marketing Director Kay Yarbrough.

Yarbrough says phase one of the new subdivision called New Park includes 190 lots. Developers have already started work on the infrastructure. It's not just homes. New Park will also house a new YMCA and an elementary school. Yarbrough says, "This will provide a full service YMCA. The school will be great for people in surrounding areas and New Park."

New Park includes amenities like walking trails and multiple lakes. Yarbrough says the special touches that build a community. She says,"The potential not only in the beauty of the surrounding area, but also where the people are moving that can just be a great community."

This is the first residential development for Jim Wilson and Associates since it built Wynlakes. Homes at New Park are expected to cost less than Wynlakes houses, but Yarbrough says expect the same quality. Lots will be up for sale in about a year. It's estimated to take more than ten years to complete the entire community.

[Brown Duckz]

Roundabout opens with much praise


Pedestrians admire the new roundabout Monday in downtown Montgomery. The roundabout at the Court Square fountain opened Tuesday.


Vintage cars rumbled through Court Square Tuesday, announcing traffic’s return to the heart of downtown Montgomery.

The restored square, with its Belgium cobblestone and centerpiece fountain, greeted motorists after a group of drivers with restored autos gave a demonstration of its traffic patterns.
Traffic moves in a roundabout fashion past the fountain and through the square.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright called Thursday’s opening a first step to a renewed downtown.

[bystander1]

Great pics, thoraudio!
...I remember when my camera use to take pictures like that...

[bystander1]

Originally Posted by thoraudio

I ate at Boomer T's bbq after the ribbon cutting today, and he said he was moving from Commerce St. up to the old Dexter Ave. Deli location on lower Dexter.

See! It's working already.

[kevinlpugh]

By Cosby Woodruff


Montgomery Mall is getting a new owner, the city confirmed Tuesday.

The word came from Mayor Bobby Bright after the mall's current owner, Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust, announced it will update the status of the property today.

Bright refused to identify the mall's buyer but expects to meet with the new owner within days.

Glimcher purchased the retail center in 1998 for $70 million. Almost a year ago, Glimcher put Montgomery Mall and four other properties on the market. It estimated the cost of the package at $250 million to $270 million.

"Aggressively selling non-core assets is a central part of our strategy to upgrade the overall quality of our real estate," said Michael P. Glimcher, president and CEO.

Bright criticized Glimcher after it announced that the mall was for sale.

"I welcome the opportunity to get another owner who is willing to invest in Montgomery, Alabama," Bright said at the time. "I'm tired of this company milking this property for everything it's worth. This company has been nothing but a thorn in the city's side since they've been here."

A few months ago, Glimcher said it expected the 726,883-square-foot property to sell in the first half of this year.

Opened in 1968, the mall expanded during its early life but has steadily lost tenants over the last couple of years. It was 95 percent occupied when Glimcher bought it; the company won't break out figures by location, but a 2006 third-quarter report showed the five properties for sale had an average occupancy rate of 75 percent.

The center's anchor is Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which occupies only one level of its space. Other anchors have long since gone. Dillard's department store moved to The Shoppes at EastChase in 2003. JC Penney left in the first quarter of 2005; a year ago March, Saks-owned Parisian closed.

Other major national retailers that have left are American Eagle Outfitters and Victoria's Secret. Many of the secondary shops are boarded up.

A list of stores on the mall's Web site shows a sprinkling of nail salons, jewelry outlets, sporting goods stores and novelty gift shops.

[kevinlpugh]

By Cosby Woodruff


Vintage cars rumbled through Court Square on Tuesday, announcing the return of traffic to the heart of downtown Montgomery.

The restored square, with its Belgium cobblestone and centerpiece fountain, was opened to motorists after a group of drivers in restored antique automobiles demonstrated the way traffic should flow around the roundabout.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright called it a first step to a renewed downtown.

"This is just the beginning of what we can have in our Capital City," Bright said. "This is our core, this is our heartbeat, this is our nucleus."

Bright praised the new roundabout for both its function and its appearance.

"This really is wonderful today," he said.

Traffic filled the square only moments after the ribbon cutting and ceremonial demonstration.

The only traffic control signs in the square are a sign instructing drivers to keep to the right and a four-way stop. Otherwise, drivers must rely on common sense and common courtesy by giving cars in the roundabout the right-of-way and keeping the fountain to the left.

Historian Mary Ann Neeley was on hand Tuesday to explain how the city grew up around Court Square. She pointed to a copy of the oldest known photograph of Montgomery, taken in 1849 from Court Square, and said many of the buildings in that photo along Dexter Avenue stand today.

Work began on the plaza project in September and cost about $1.3 million. The city wanted to highlight the 122-year-old fountain, but workers found even more history buried in the square.

A section of trolley line, from an electric trolley service that served Montgomery beginning in 1886, was unearthed. The project preserved a section of the old track, and it soon will have a marker noting its significance.

Michael Briddell, the mayor's executive assistant, predicted the project will jump start downtown.

"What is old is new again," he said.

[kevinlpugh]

This sign denotes the wireless hot spots in downtown Montgomery Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at the opening of the route and the downtown roundabout. (Montgomery Advertiser, Karen S. Doerr)


The Lunchtime Trolley sits at its stop on the roundabout in downtown Montgomery Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at the opening of the route and the roundabout. (Montgomery Advertiser, Karen S. Doerr)


The Lunchtime Trolley sits at its stop on the roundabout in downtown Montgomery Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at the opening of the route and the roundabout. (Montgomery Advertiser, Karen S. Doerr)


The renovated historic city bus makes its way around the roundabout in downtown Montgomery Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at the opening of the roundabout. (Montgomery Advertiser, Karen S. Doerr)


Vintage cars make their way around the roundabout in downtown Montgomery Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at the opening of the roundabout. (Montgomery Advertiser, Karen S. Doerr)


Don McCanless, left, Director of Information for the City of Montgomery, and Brandon Taylor, also with Technology for Montgomery, work on laptops during a wireless demonstration as part of opening ceremonies of Court Square Roundabout in downtown Montgomery, Ala. on Tuesday, April 24, 2007.


One of the old images of Court Square Fountain, looking up Madison Avenue towards the Alabama Capitol, as displayed during opening ceremonies of the new Court Square Roundabout in downtown Montgomery, Ala. on Tuesday, April 24, 2007.

[Brown Duckz]

It really looks great, I tell you..... all the people who oppose Bright's spending Downtown should just step back and observe, but keep their mouth shut. Every project has a purpose and reason behind it, and each are small steps towards creating a vibrant Downtown Montgomery. Each project is spurring it's own type of development. The remodeled Court Square is bringing foot traffic and what looks to be potential retail/restraunt growth in every direction surrounding the Square. It's obvious what the hotel/convention center is setting out to do.... but in reality, most of the projects are designed to bring people Downtown, and do something. If you get them to come and do something, they will likely hang out and spend money [as long as there is some form of entertainment]. Having shops, restraunts, and residential is 100% vital to making the plan work. Bright needs to start lobbying private investors so that Downtown Montgomery gets things that make it unique. A jazz club here, a sports bar there, 4-star restraunt or two, and the like...... what's everyone else's opinion?

[kevinlpugh]

Here's where the city could have really helped. I think the city should have helped the Mcilwains by assisting them in getting one of the buildings downtown.

Think about it, Fun Zone was always packed, and it would have been great to have that traffic downtown.

It was a favorite spot for children of all ages here in montgomery. More than five months ago a tornado wiped out the Fun Zone. The owners vowed to rebuild, but now it appears the Fun zone in Montgomery is gone forever.

Rocky and Lisa Mcilwain were able to salvage a few things and a lot of good memories.

Lisa says everybody in Montgomery was great, "the kids would come by here with their parents and stop and tell us how much they miss the place."

November 15, 2006 a tornado destroyed the building and the Mcilwains began work immediately.

"We started the rebuilding process cleaned up. 30 days we had it cleaned up," Rocky Mcilwain says.

After months of going back and forth they to settle with their insurance company. Then they applied for an SBA loan but were turned down.

"They said the building new construction cost wouldn't be justified, so Rrocky said no problem we're not building the preschool back. We're cutting the building down," explained Lisa.

No Fun Zone meant no income for the Mcilwains. They needed to get back to work so, for far less than what it cost to rebuild the Fun Zone in Montgomery, they bought the Playground in Dothan. The Mcilwains will rename it the Fun Zone.

The Mcilwains are happy to be back to work, but say nothing will ever replace the original Fun Zone.

Lisa says, "I think what's the hardest part here is after this happened such an outpouring of appreciation by the kids by the parents. We really realized how much the fun zone meant being here."

They hope to have the Dothan location open by June. They have closed the business right now because they are remodeling and adding new attractions.

[thoraudio]

Unfortunately the city doesn't own those buildings downtown, and most (specifically the ones on Dexter) are hugely overpriced for their condition.

[kevinlpugh]

http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/mgmbr-...-hotel-and-spa-at-the-convention-center/


Lobby


Guest Room


Restaurant


Alabama Room

[Brown Duckz]

More pictures.

[thoraudio]

Nice.

I'm glad to know I'll be able to play at these two fine golf courses close by.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill-Senater

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill-Legislater