Orange Beach Council Approves The Water Club

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- In a 4-2 vote Tuesday night, the City Council approved a high-rise hotel proposal by developer Ken Wall and his partner, Jim Brown, who was indicted last month on state charges that he bribed then-Mayor Steve Russo.

Called The Water Club, the proposal features two 32-story, Gulf-front towers containing a total of 494 units. Each unit will be managed like hotel rooms but owned individually like condominiums, according to the plans.

Brown is accused by state prosecutors of giving Russo money to buy a BMW automobile and giving him a one-third interest in a multimillion real estate deal in Gulf Shores.

Russo, who resigned last month after being indicted by the state on charges of soliciting and accepting the bribes, also faces federal charges for allegedly hiding $33,000 in campaign funds and spending it on vacations and luxury goods as well as illegally billing the city for more than $2,000 in personal expenses that he incurred on an official trip to New York.

Orange Beach City Attorney Larry Sutley, who was granted an indefinite leave of absence earlier this month, is also charged by the state, which alleges that he received another one-third share of the Gulf Shores real estate venture and helped facilitate the mayor's involvement.

Among the indictments and affidavits unsealed by prosecutors, The Water Club is not mentioned. Brown did not attend Tuesday evening's vote or a public hearing held earlier this month.

Wall, who declined to comment after the vote, said he wasn't sure when construction would begin and that he had yet to sell The Water Club to investors.

Voting for the project were Mayor Pete Blalock and council members Tracy Holiday, Larry Alexander and Jeff Silvers, citing a need for the meeting space and waterfront restaurants the designs promise.

Council members Joni Blalock, who is the mayor's sister-in-law, and Ed Carroll voted no, pointing to the large number of residents they said had urged them to do so.

The approval is contingent on a city-hired appraiser's assessment of 4.35 acres across Alabama 182 from the project site that the developers are giving to the city as their "public benefit" offering, which is required when requesting planned unit development zoning.

Such developments allow the city to approve projects that may not meet certain zoning requirements -- in The Water Club's case it was building height -- but are deemed the best use of property.