The Wharf reels in tenants

About 20 area businesses have leased space at Intracoastal Waterway development, and a dozen national stores wait in the wings

Sunday, August 28, 2005
By KATHY JUMPER
Real Estate Editor

About 20 local and regional businesses have leased space at The Wharf on the Intracoastal Waterway in Orange Beach, and a dozen national tenants will be named this fall, developers said.

"We have leased about 200,000 square feet of space and have about 150,000 square feet in the wings," said Jeff Rouzie, leasing manager for AIG Baker's The Wharf, a mixed-use development on 200 acres on the south side of the waterway.

"We're extremely excited with the response," he said. "We have some great restaurants coming in. We are negotiating with 12 to 14 national tenants and are actually past the toughest part and are at the final letter-of-intent stage."

The Wharf tenants include Sand Dollar Shoes; H.L. Hood; Tootie Green's Yellow Broom; Galati Yacht Sales; Private Gallery; Go Fish, a clothing and jewelry shop; Twin Palms, a gift shop; Shades; Bungalows; Just Off The Beach, a gift shop; Michelle's Beach House, a home furnishings store; Ooh La La; Tickled Pink, a retro gift shop; Unique Jewelry N' Things; Pensacola Blues, a blue jean and denim store; Regards from the Beach, a gift shop based in Tuscaloosa; Diamond Jewelers; Little Things, a children's clothing store; Top Nails and Tan; and Live Bait Food & Spirits restaurant.

Frontier Grill, a Mexican restaurant, will open there and the Anniston-based owner also plans to open a Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar, but he has not yet named the eatery.

The retailers and restaurants should open by May, along with a 70,000-square-foot Rave theater and a 200-slip marina, according to Rouzie. The project also includes 741 condominium units.

The retailers understand where the money is when they see the number of visitors we have from Perdido Key to Fort Morgan, Rouzie said. "The visitors have spendable income; they go out to eat and spend money and it's new money every week."

An estimated 6.7 million people visited the Gulf Coast in 2004, including Escambia County and Perdido Key, according to infor mation compiled by The Wharf.

The competition for those visitors' dollars is fierce, especially among new projects under way on or near the wa terway in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

The Riverwalk at Orange Beach on the Intracoastal Waterway will release the names of its tenants later this fall, according to Jimmy Boyd, general manager of the project. Riverwalk will include Gulf World Marine Park and more than 1,000 condo units.

Some of the local tenants signed by The Wharf were tenants that Riverwalk initially lined up last year. Boyd said he expects some of the locals to open stores in both projects.

"We're working together to create a synergy for Orange Beach," Boyd said.

Colonial Pinnacle at Craft Farms, at Alabama 59 and Baldwin County 4 in Gulf Shores, opened a 14-screen Cobb Theatre earlier this month, and there are plans to build a Target store. The remaining tenant list will not be released until the deals are signed, according to center officials.

For outlet shoppers, Tanger Factory Outlets on Alabama 59 in Foley remains a retail choice, according to Marla Warner, assistant general manager at Tanger. "If they want top-of-the-line, they are going to pay retail and boutique prices, and they wouldn't be outlet shopping anyway. In the long term, it won't hurt us."

Signing the popular local tenants is key to the development, according to Rouzie of The Wharf. "If you live in Atlanta, Huntsville or Birmingham, they have got the national stores, but they don't have Live Bait or H.L. Hood."

The Wharf's national and regional tenants will include many of the same stores that have leased space at the Eastern Shore Centre at Alabama 181 and Interstate 10 in Spanish Fort, according to Rouzie said.

Birmingham-based AIG Baker developed the 350,000-square-foot Jubilee Square in Daphne and is also developing Blackwater Plantation, a 3,300-acre resort community two miles north of the Lillian Bridge in Lillian and Seminole.

A world-class destination spa, the 15th in the world, will soon be announced at The Wharf, Rouzie said. "It's something Destin doesn't have or anybody on the Gulf Coast."

"We can create a good atmosphere for the off season and we haven't had that up until now," he said. "The area is starving for retail, restaurants and things to do."

Source: Mobile Register