Mobile Development Thread

[BamaGrad04]

Airport passenger counts down
Decline at Mobile Regional much steeper than neighboring airports
Tuesday, July 22, 2008By JEFF AMYBusiness Reporter

Passenger traffic at Mobile Regional Airport fell nearly 15 percent in June compared with the same month in 2007 and is off 7.5 percent for the first six months of the year, a much steeper decline than nationwide or at neighboring airports.

The drop came as airlines added more flights and larger planes in June, meaning some carriers saw their Mobile-bound planes only half-full on average. Airlines have announced that they will cut three weekday round-trips to Mobile after Labor Day, but officials warned Monday at a Mobile Airport Authority meeting that at least one more daily round-trip could be in jeopardy.

"Fuel prices increased, fares increased and passengers are really looking for the best value," Aviation Director Thomas Hughes said.

American Eagle, which added a fifth flight to and from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as of June 1, has now warned that its planes are too empty to turn a profit, Hughes said. The airline's planes to and from Mobile, including a once-daily round trip to Chicago that will end after Labor Day, were 67 percent full in June, according to airport figures.

"The fifth flight to Dallas is not as strong as it needs to be right now," Hughes said.

The Air Transport Association says that with the current high price of jet fuel, the average plane needed to be 83.5 percent full to make a profit in the first quarter of 2008. Nationwide, the average plane was 77.2 percent full during that period.

American Eagle had 21.3 percent of Mobile passengers in June. A subsidiary of AMR Corp., based in Fort Worth, Texas, the American Airlines regional carrier said last month that it would cut flights between Chicago and almost all Gulf Coast airports, part of a company-wide cost-cutting drive.

Delta has said it will cut the number of round trips to Atlanta from seven to six after Labor Day and reduce its seat total on Mobile-Atlanta planes by 21 percent. Most of those seats were added at the start of summer.

Mark Sixel, an airline consultant, said disappearing passengers are being driven away by high prices as airlines try to raise enough money to stay solvent

"It's a fare issue at this point," said Sixel, president of the Sixel Consulting Group, based in Eugene, Ore. "As fares go up, you tend to make flying a less attractive alternative."

Sixel said that business-oriented markets such as Mobile have seen the greatest fare increases. Markets that have discount carriers or and cater to leisure travelers, such as Gulfport and Pensacola, benefit because airlines "have to be much less aggressive or that traffic will disappear," he said.

Traffic has fallen much less at Pensacola Regional Airport, 0.4 percent so far this year, while the number of fliers to and from Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport has risen 18.6 percent in the first six months of 2008.
Worldwide, passengers on U.S. airlines rose 0.4 percent in the first five months of 2008, the Air Transport Association said, thanks to a 5.4 percent growth of international travelers. Domestic traffic fell 0.3 percent.

[NitekKetin]

Originally Posted by (Tim)

I saw that, but ESC is a burb deal. They did not want to be in the city.

At any rate, Bel Air has done much better over the years handling its vacancy problems than ESC. Have you seen a copy of ESC's leasing plan? Several retailers apparently backed out of that mall.

[MobileLSUboy2005]

Originally Posted by NitekKetin

Well, Bel Air Mall has proven to be much more healthier than ESC or Legacy Village. I mean, when inline tenant space is usually quickly leased by a quality national retailer. For instance, 22,000 square feet is be redeveloped as the first Forever21 store outside B'ham. The former Bombay space is transforming into Journeys Kids.

i think all the gadzook's are being converted into forever 21's, they are doing the same in Baton Rouge too. Hell, all the gadzooks carried more forever 21 line clothes than their own haha.

[10101000]

I love Bel- Air, but they have so many people robbing stores at night there. Two weeks ago when I was there someone robbed the store next to Bama fever Tiger pride. It was bad! I thought I was about to die.

[NitekKetin]

As Spanish Fort grows, its two EIFS-cladded disasters will have their share of various crimes too. Recently, the Best Buy store at Eastern Shore Plaza was robbed of nearly $11k in merchandise.

[10101000]

Sure, most people cannot afford to live on the eastern shore though.

[Bogue]

On a positive note.

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1216718179230060.xml&coll=3

Another venue to view the bay.

[Port_of_Bama]

Originally Posted by Bogue

On a positive note.

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1216718179230060.xml&coll=3

Another venue to view the bay.

Sounds good to me, now where is our theme park !

Has anyone heared anything about the Saltiaire development lately, from all of the retail talk that has been on this thread as of lately. The last I reda on the renderings of the developmet it suppose to have a retail town Contre included in the plans.

[MobiMan]

Bel Aire Mall has gotten bad to me, i use to love shopping there and walking around, but now we have all the rif-raft hanging out and not buying anything
shoplifting has gotten bad,

i avoid weekends and go mondays and tue during the day

[Bogue]

I proposed this earlier but it got sort of buried & I think the idea of a new public community college needs to be revisited. Bishop State has a terrible reputation and is in an awkward location relative to the population of the city (and to areas experiencing more rapid population & economic growth).

I would like to see something similar to that of Shelton State outside Tuscaloosa go up in town.

http://www.tuscaloosachamber.com/images/jpg/SSCC%20exterior1.jpg

I think such a building would look good in Mobile. My personal preference on location would be just south of the Loop where DIP & I-10 intersect. That area needs revitalizing, already has a local population endeavoring to better the area (the Loop Business folk), has a major police presence nearby, and it would be especially convenient for students in Midtown/Downtown, the Eastern Shore, & in the Tillman's Corner/Theodore area. An alternate site might also be somewhere along I-65 south of Saraland, but I would suspect most of the land in those areas might be more expensive to condemn/purchase. Putting it near the Loop would make it easier to extend public transport to it. It would also make it convenient to the Brookley area and the new industries **cough** EADS **cough** we hope to see locating there.... to say nothing of increasing the aesthetic value of that part of town & plopping a couple thousand new customers (faculty/staff/students) right down onto the laps of the businesses in the Loop.

The land where BSCC currently is located could then be opened for new development or sold to a private college.

...on paying for it... Alabama gets significant amounts of pork (even w/ the change from red to blue in Congress) and this is one "pork" project that would be of significant, lasting value.

[Bogue]

I am also curious about how things are going in the Saltaire development. It looked really cool to me. Anyone have any of the renderings? (or a link to them)

On the theme park: be careful what you wish for... you might get Visionla-...errrr... Alabama Adventure

Although I wouldn't mind a water park being in town.

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Bogue

On the theme park: be careful what you wish for... you might get Visionla-...errrr... Alabama Adventure

What's wrong with Alabama Adventure? My family has fun on day trips there... it's not overwhelming like Six Flags or Disney

[Bogue]

What's wrong with Alabama Adventure?

It was a money pit for most of a decade, mainly. The waterpark is what saved it.

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Bogue

It was a money pit for most of a decade, mainly. The waterpark is what saved it.

I think it's fun... they're planning on expanding it.

Do Mobile people venture over to Gulf Shores often for fun/theme park fun??? I've been so many times I'm sick of it. Only been to Mobile twice.

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Bogue

Give Mobile B'ham's massively bloated MSA (it covers 12 counties, many of them large ones) and it's already around 1.3-1.5 million.

Birmingham MSA is 7 counties - not 12.

Bibb
Blount
Walker
Shelby
Jefferson
St Clair
Chilton

The CSA includes one additional:
Cullman

[Port_of_Bama]

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

I think it's fun... they're planning on expanding it.

Do Mobile people venture over to Gulf Shores often for fun/theme park fun??? I've been so many times I'm sick of it. Only been to Mobile twice.

Yeap ,Destin , Fl and Blue Bayou( Baton Rouge, La) we want to change that and keep the money in Mobile. A water park would be nice !!

[Del]

Bravo, I took a couple of pictures of the Joe Cain "torches" today with my phone, but I have no idea how to insert them here (in fact, I'm having a little trouble getting them off of the phone). They do look a little disproportional but it's a fun & "funky" look. Unfortunately the city has planted a tree that totally obscures one of the torches - not sure which was there first, but I'm thinking probably the tree.

[NitekKetin]

Del, once you retrieve your photos from your phone, you can upload them via the Photobucket photo hosting site. Photobucket even generates the necessary tags around the URL of each photo, allowing for easy insertion into your posts.

[| BRAVO |]

Oh good.
Yeah, they came out of the shop looking much different than I drew them. I was a little disappointed. I heard about the tree The architect didn't tell us about that one. The tree was definately first and has the right of way in my opinion.

I'll be glad to post the pics if you want to e-mail them to me. I'll PM you now.

[MobiMan]

these are really cool check them out
but where in Mobile would you wanna see one of these