Bon Secour developers say village is more than just another waterfront project
Sunday, June 13, 2004
By KATHY JUMPER
Real Estate Editor
Bon Secour Village will be a town, not just another waterfront project on the Intracoastal Canal in Gulf Shores. That's according to the project owners, who have dubbed themselves town founders rather than developers of the 1,000-acre site.
The estimated price tag: half a billion dollars. That investment would be spread over 15 to 20 years, or however long it takes to complete a project which includes a 68-slip marina and an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.
"This is a long, many-generational, life-spanning project," said Rick Skelton of Atlanta, one of the developers.
The site off Baldwin County 4, just west of Alabama 59 near the Holmes Bridge into Gulf Shores, includes one mile of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway. It has 150 acres on the waterway side and 850 acres across the street.
The owners hired Andres Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., who planned the coastal towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, Fla. Duany has proposed a "new urbanism" design that features a compact, walkable resort town.
"For two or three weeks out of the year, people want to live a more perfect life and are looking to go to resorts," for their vacation, Duany said. "But resorts don't work unless you give people a better lifestyle than they have during the rest of the year."
Bon Secour will be a living and working village with a mix of residential, offices, retail, restaurants, boating and golf, according to the developers.
"We're creating a sustainable lifestyle community," Skelton said. It will be a little different from Seaside and Rosemary Beach where all the activity is contained within the development, he said. Bon Secour will include the Gulf Coast and the region.
The project will be done in phases. The first will include the marina and high-rise condominiums at the marina. That project will be modeled after European marinas where the buildings are at the water's edge, according to the developers.
In the second phase, a city village with shops and restaurants will be built around the marina project.
"The demand will drive how quickly we build things," Skelton said.
The condo towers will range from 10 to 15 stories around the marina and the city village, according to developers. Estate-sized homes are planned around the golf course. There is no exact number of condo and townhome units, or single-family homes, but estimates are that several thousand units will be in place when the project is built out.
The Intracoastal Canal has been the focus of recent major development announcements, in part because of the scarcity and price of beachfront land, Realtors say.
"It will change the dynamics of this area, and I think the timing is right for it," said Chuck Norwood of REMAX of Gulf Shores. "With the development of Lulu's and Baker's Wharf project, we're going to see a lot more intracoastal development. It's close in, and you can have your boat in protected waters."
Lucy Buffett, the sister of singer Jimmy Buffett, opened Lulu's restaurant in March on a 27-acre site on the other side of the Holmes Bridge off Alabama 59. The investors who own the land plan to build Homeport Marina and 30 condo units there, as well.
Dredging for Homeport's 60 boat slips will begin this week and should be complete by December, according to Ken Carter, project manager for the marina.
The Bon Secour Village project will bring more people to the waterway, Carter said. "I think it will be great."
Another project planned for the Intracoastal Waterway is The Wharf, a 200-acre site in Orange Beach where Birmingham-based AIG Baker plans to build 330 condo units, a marina, retail stores, restaurants, hotels and a 66,000-square-foot Rave movie theater. A mile-long boardwalk on the waterfront would connect all the venues.
The Wharf project is across the waterway from RiverWalk, a multi-use development planned on 144 city-owned acres at the Foley Beach Express toll bridge's northern landing. The RiverWalk would include a Gulf World marine park, retail space, water park, hotel and a theater.
Bon Secour developers welcome projects such as AIG Baker's. "It gives our people more things to do, and our project gives his people more places to go," Skelton said.
The Bon Secour plan is flexible, he said. "We're working on a 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year plan. We've also got the ability to plan for success. If residential goes great, we can add to it."
The golf course will be built in the project's last phase, and with the infrastructure required for a PGA course, Skelton said.
The owners also are talking with Faulkner University, which has a campus adjacent to some of the Bon Secour property. The plan is to provide high-end waterfront housing as well as homes that students could afford, according to Skelton.
"We want to design it for a diverse group of people, from monied to people with little money," architect Duany said.
The developeowners include Clint Guthrie of Guthrie Development in Birmingham and Eddie and Josh Canaday of Midnight Properties based in Cullman.
The project consultants include Volkert Engineering in Mobile; landscape architect Rick Conant of Foster Conant in Orlando, Fla.; landscape illumination specialist John Watson of Dallas; and architects Gary Coursey of Atlanta and Doug Dale of Jackson, Miss.
Source: Mobile Register