Orange Beach May Purchase Wolf Bay Tract

Land would be used for southern landing of proposed span
Thursday, July 20, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- Mayor Pete Blalock has been given the go-ahead to negotiate a purchase of about 2½ acres near the terminus of Alabama 161, property that would be the southern landing of a long-sought bridge over Wolf Bay.

No price parameters were set by the City Council when members voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the mayor to go after the tract. Instead, Blalock said, an appraisal of the waterfront property will be ordered and negotiations with the sellers -- out-of-town investors -- will begin from there.

Baldwin County Probate Court records indicate that the land owner is Baldwin County Development LLC and that the company bought the property in April 2004 for $3.5 million.

City Administrator Jeff Moon said that another man has a contract to buy the property and that is who the mayor will negotiate with, not the firm. Once the mayor and seller agree to a price, the council would then have to vote to approve the deal.

"The council can say, if it's too high, We can't afford it,'" he said.

Plans for a bridge over the western point of Wolf Bay landing at Sapling Point were first developed by the state in the mid-1990s, but the Alabama Department of Transportation backed off what was then estimated as a $40 million project when the Foley Beach Express toll bridge opened in 2000 and provided a span into the city.

Since then city officials have sought federal funding and explored public-private partnerships to build the bridge, which would link water-surrounded Orange Beach to vast tracts of undeveloped land to the north.

The landing property, currently vacant, was once slated to be developed with condominiums, but those plans have expired, Blalock said. Should the city obtain the tract, the mayor said, the waterfront area beneath the planned bridge would be used as a public boat launch and parking area.

The property is comprised of five lots that sit behind Doc's Seafood Shack & Oyster Bar restaurant.

"We would still have to address Doc's, which we will," Blalock said.

In the meantime, Figg Engineering, a firm hired by the city in February, is continuing its study of such a bridge's economic feasibility and environmental impact as well as updating the decades-old plans and working on the various permits the city will need, Blalock said.

Among the questions being pondered by the engineering firm is how far north the route to the bridge would have to reach -- to U.S. 98, Interstate-10 or I-65 -- to attract enough users, the mayor said. Also, the firm is researching funding options and studying whether making it a toll bridge could help pay for it, Blalock said.

Moon said that he anticipates the Figg report sometime later this year.

Figg will likely build the span, Blalock said, but the city is still interested in a private sector partner to help finance the project. Prior to Blalock taking over as mayor in January, former Mayor Steve Russo had talked to representatives of various firms, including the Australian company, Macquarie Bank, which bought the Foley Beach Express toll bridge earlier this year.

Blalock said talks with Macquarie are still "preliminary" but because of the Australian investment giant's partnership on the Foley Beach Express span, "They have shown a willingness to work with us on that project."