Posted Apr 11, 2009, 11:59 AM
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Ceremony marks groundbreaking for GulfQuest, city's new maritime museum
Friday, April 10, 2009
By DAN MURTAUGHStaff Reporter
The proposed maritime museum in downtown Mobile will represent a tipping point in the city's tourism economy, Gov. Bob Riley said at a groundbreaking for the facility Thursday.
"This is going to give Mobile and the southern part of Alabama critical mass when it comes to tourism," Riley said. "People will be able to stay here two or three days and be entertained in a way they could not before."
Officials also unveiled a new name for the museum: GulfQuest.
It had been known as the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico. But Tony Zodrow, the museum's director, said the shorter, snappier name will be a better draw for out-of-town visitors.
Several officials, including U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby and U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, were on hand for the museum's groundbreaking Thursday morning at the waterfront site between the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center and the Alabama Cruise Terminal.
Site preparation for the museum will begin soon, and construction should start this summer, said Stephanie Bradford, campaign coordinator for the museum. Officials are hoping the attraction will open for business in the spring of 2011.
That would be about 20 years after a maritime museum was first recommended in a downtown development plan put together by LDR International Inc. in 1991.
The museum was part of former Mayor Mike Dow's "String of Pearls" plan to redevelop downtown Mobile, said City Council President Reggie Copeland.
"Mobile will now have a signature attraction," Copeland said.
The museum will include interactive exhibits, such as:
Remote-controlled tugboats that can guide ships into port.
A simulator that will allow visitors to navigate vessels through a virtual Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay.
A hurricane simulator that will let visitors issue warnings based on changing weather information.
Ross Peterson, who runs the tourism firm Bay City Convention and Tours, said GulfQuest could become the centerpiece for educational tours of the unique blend of marine and land life that exists in Mobile.
"Students already visit Montgomery because it's the capital," he said. "This is a great way to get every school kid in Alabama to come to Mobile."
Funding for the museum is being split between the city of Mobile, which will construct and own the building, and the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico board, which will operate the facility.
GulfQuest's price tag was a source of contention Thursday. Museum officials said the total cost, including exhibits, would be about $36 million. Of that, $14 million is coming from the board. The board has received $4 million in federal funding and raised $7.6 million more in private donations. Its private donation goal is $10 million, Bradford said.
City Chief of Staff Al Stokes said that figure is premature because the city has not even gotten cost estimates on construction of the building yet. It is set to be bid out this summer, Stokes said.
The city has received about $15 million in federal funding for the museum, some of which has already been spent on bulkheads and drainage work at the site and on engineering for the building.
The federal funding was contingent upon the city using the facility for public transportation. The museum will include ticket booths and a terminal to launch a ferry across the bay to Baldwin County locations, Bradford said.
The city of Mobile will not operate the ferry service, Stokes said.
But Mobile and cities in Baldwin County could lease terminals to a private operator that would use its own vessel to run ferries, he said.
Alternatively, the cities could create a regional transportation organization and seek federal funds to purchase the boats, he said.
"We have crossed the line of departure," Stokes said. "There will be a ferry terminal, there will be a maritime museum, and there will be ferries on the bay. I can already see them in my mind's eye."
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