Mobile Development Thread

[Exodus]

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[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Bama_75

I went downtown walking Monday. I couldn't believe how much renovation is going on. Nearly every building I walked by was being worked on or has already been redone.

I was down there last night for Mardi Gras, and it IS looking good down there. It has come a long way since the first time I visited the city back in 92. BTW, The RSA Tower was looking really nice in its Mardi Gras colors. That had it changing back and forth between purple, green, and gold.

I caught this last night.

[hiijakd]

hey Mobile folks,
we are dealing with our own issue of a developer not following our smart code or master plan except that our developer is RSA and the won't even sit down at a meeting to discuss other options. glad to see yall were successful. we would love some help up here to get this building stopped. any letters, emails, or other correspondence you could send to the governor, the Montgomery Advertiser, or Mayor Bobby Bright would be appreciated. The building is a giant 12 story office complex just outside the state capital grounds that will destroy the view from the bottom of Dexter Avenue. check out the montgomery thread for more details.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by hiijakd

hey Mobile folks,
we are dealing with our own issue of a developer not following our smart code or master plan except that our developer is RSA and the won't even sit down at a meeting to discuss other options. glad to see yall were successful. we would love some help up here to get this building stopped. any letters, emails, or other correspondence you could send to the governor, the Montgomery Advertiser, or Mayor Bobby Bright would be appreciated. The building is a giant 12 story office complex just outside the state capital grounds that will destroy the view from the bottom of Dexter Avenue. check out the montgomery thread for more details.

That will destroy the postcard view. Why can't they find a better location ?

[hiijakd]

that's my question. we have asked numerous times for them to sit and talk with us to come up with a better plan for their building but they have been unwilling to listen. part of the reason for the site is there is a building there that RSA was asked to "save" so they decided to save it by building a 12 story building on top of it and encasing it in glass. they are not willing to listen to smart code building ideas that would actually help everyone, including myself, who have property downtown. if they would look at building something that had more street interaction, something smaller, or even just make a few changes to the existing plan it would be great but we are being stone walled. absolute power corrupts absolutely as they say. RSA feels invincible.

[bayou15]

We'll take her. With all this bad press maybe Bonner will have second thoughts. Would look good in that old abandon parking lot next to the soup kitchen

[hiijakd]

and you can have her. so far none of the RSA investments made in here have contributed to a revitalized downtown, unless you consider a 9-5 office park part of that solution.

[SouthSky]

Originally Posted by hiijakd

hey Mobile folks,
we are dealing with our own issue of a developer not following our smart code or master plan except that our developer is RSA and the won't even sit down at a meeting to discuss other options. glad to see yall were successful. we would love some help up here to get this building stopped. any letters, emails, or other correspondence you could send to the governor, the Montgomery Advertiser, or Mayor Bobby Bright would be appreciated. The building is a giant 12 story office complex just outside the state capital grounds that will destroy the view from the bottom of Dexter Avenue. check out the montgomery thread for more details.

I feel your pain. Mobile suffered through some bad decision making in the years prior to Mayor Dow's arrival. Thankfully we have found a better way in doing things. As far as this new RSA development in Montgomery, I will try to educate myself more intimately on this subject as decisions like this make or break a city's collective heart. Is there any mixed ground level development in connection to this, or is purely a business park?

[hiijakd]

it is following the same pattern as all of RSA's investments in downtown montgomery, suburban building in an urban setting. the consolation is a small park to one side but as i look at the plans it is mostly concrete and will be fully landscaped as a garden more than a true greenspace. the problems with the building are numerous but the greatest is the height and footprint on Dexter avenue. the building exceeds our unanimously adopted master plan height restriction by 6 stories. the facade on dexter avenue is an all glass wall encasing the judicial building built in 1926. on monroe street it is a 30 foot high concrete wall with one penetration for the entrance to the parking. as most of their buildings down here, i am sure it will have its own cafeteria on the inside and therefore will not require the employees working there to ever have to leave to interact with the street and with no services on the street level it will most likely not draw anyone into the building from the street. i have lived in montgomery for 5 years and i have only been into an RSA building one time and that was only because i was invited to the capital city club at the top of the tower.
There are numerous other problems out there as well. many of them can be found in the montgomery thread on here and numerous other sites like dailysprawl.blogspot.com.
we need some help with this problem. this isn't just our street, but i truly feel this is the most important street in Montgomery and we don't need to sell out because RSA has lots of money. thanks for your interest. feel free to message me with any more questions, i will try to keep updated on here as well.

[nimsjus]

According to todays PR, the Kress Building has been sold, but there was no mention about future plans for the building. The building has multiple entrances, two of which are on Dauphin and Royal streets. Hopefully we will here about some plans soon.

[CottonCity251]

Check out the website for the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico....http://www.nationalmaritime.us/

[nimsjus]

Originally Posted by CottonCity251

Check out the website for the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico....http://www.nationalmaritime.us/

Their website is really great. I was actually a little dissapointed about this project because a museum about container ships sounded pretty boring to me, but the website got me excited about this thing. It looks like it will be a nice facility and if nothing else it provides citizens with more access to the waterfront.

[nimsjus]

Also another cool article about a dveloper who bought and renovated some historic Victorian homes in the Leinkauf Historic District. He bought one for 100k and it is now listed for around 400k. Mobilians need to make it a priority to save as many of these historic homes as possible.
http://www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/business/1201447189243530.xml&coll=3&thispage=2

[Del]

delurking to say - more power to him, but I can't imagine him getting $400K for that house on Eslava. The surrounding neighborhood is still pretty rough.

[Port-City_J]

are their any good mardi gras balls/partys going on, on the 1st or 2nd??? I'm bringing some of my friends from Troy University.

[pkp]

Originally Posted by Port-City_J

are their any good mardi gras balls/partys going on, on the 1st or 2nd??? I'm bringing some of my friends from Troy University.

MOTs Saturday!

Make em stay Sunday for Joe Cain!

[BamaGrad04]

Originally Posted by Port-City_J

are their any good mardi gras balls/partys going on, on the 1st or 2nd??? I'm bringing some of my friends from Troy University.

Oh yeah, but you can't get into the balls without an invitation from a member. But the parades are still a helluva time.

[nimsjus]

Mobile Regional Airport is finally in Mobile. The city annexed it yesterday. Not only does it extend police/fire jurisdiction and planning authority, but it also brings in revenue. All buisnesses on airport property (food vendors, rental cars, etc) pay the full 9% and people in the exteneded fire/polic area pay into it now also.
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1201688235113470.xml&coll=3
...and Village of Springhill begins trying to talk the city into their needed zonings and requirements. The city council is concerned about traffic and parking problems. They basically say in the article," Well if you don't give people plenty of parkink spaces everywhere then you are just going to decrease business which will take away from city revenue." I don't think they get it. Im pretty sure downtown Homewood, Downtown Auburn, and the Mountain Brook Villages do not have any problem with business because there is on limted on street parking and the businesses abut the sidewalk. This concept they are trying to create conveys a very trendy atmosphere, and it draws people, regardless of traffic/parking. I already get the feeling that this will not be done as well as it could be. Hopefully the council will come around. Maybe the council needs to be taken to some places that have these walkable neighborhoods and see just how popular/profitable they are.
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1201688252113470.xml&coll=3

[SouthSky]

Change of subject:

An article in Forbes Magazine published today cites a source that states the Mobile GMP (gross metropolitan product) will grow by 34% between now and 2012. The largest growth in the nation out of all metros.

"It's no secret that the Southeast and Western United States are booming. The costs of living and doing business there are often cheaper there than in big coastal cities. But where and how much those cities are thriving might surprise you. Take Alabama. The state has some of the fastest growing metro areas in the country, including Mobile, which is projected to have the greatest change in "gross metropolitan product (GMP)," 34% between 2007-2012, according to research forecasts done for us by Moody's Economy.com."

Link: http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/01/30/economy-cities-alabama-biz-cx_bw_0130econcities.html

[bayou15]

southsky that was a great read!