Bama Bayou to sell bonds in hopes of finishing its Gulf World Marine Park

ORANGE BEACH -- Bama Bayou's developers will be able to sell $5 million worth of bonds to help finance completion of their Gulf World Marine Park through an improvement district that was created by the City Council on Tuesday.

The council voted unanimously to establish the district on a portion of Bama Bayou's 144 acres. Improvement district status will also allow the developers to skirt some sales taxes on materials they need to build things like roads, street lights and sewers, which the bonds will finance.

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Settlement reached in Orange Beach foreclosure suit

Development company ordered to pay primary lender $13.2 million; no plans now for Gulf-front property

Thursday, April 03, 2008

By RYAN DEZEMBER

Staff Reporter

Developers of the defunct Mandalay Beach Resort in Orange Beach have reached a legal settlement with Checkers restaurant co-founder and Mobile native Jim Mattei, who sued them for defaulting on a $45 million loan used to buy Gulf-front property, records show.

Two of the developers, John Case and Rick Phillips, along with OB Development -- the company they started to build what would have been Orange Beach's tallest towers -- have been ordered to pay $13.2 million to Mattei's company, Oxford Investments.

Paul Kirkland and Robert Williams, two other developers involved in the project, settled with Oxford under separate agreements last week. Mobile County Circuit Judge Robert Smith dismissed the case Tuesday, according to court records.

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Turquoise Place benefits being renegotiated

Keen on fire station being built, officials propose dropping other public amenities

Friday, March 28, 2008
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- City officials are negotiating with Turquoise Place developer Larry Wireman to restructure the package of park land and capital improvements that will be given to the public when his pair of condo towers is complete.

Wireman received approval to build four Gulf-front towers, but amid the condo market downturn has decided to only construct two. As such, the public benefits package he offered as part of his full plans will be reduced.

At the time Wireman's designs were approved, municipal law required developers to provide public benefits -- things like sidewalks, beach access, parks, street lights -- to justify projects that strayed from city zoning ordinances. The towers of Turquoise Place far exceeded what was then Orange Beach's building height limit.

For the first two towers Wireman agreed to give the city a 90-foot-wide public beach access with rest rooms, dune walkovers and parking spaces along with about 6 acres on Cotton Bayou on which he would build bathrooms and a fishing pier. He also pledged up to $300,000 toward a fire station on the Cotton Bayou property, which sits across Alabama 182 from his high-rises.

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Lessons learned in condo market

Monday, February 25, 2008
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES -- The past four years on Alabama's beaches have provided plenty of learning experiences for condo owners.

There's been a duo of destructive hurricanes and subsequent increases in insurance rates, a boom and then a bust in the resort real estate market, a glut of inventory and falling prices, and the now the foreclosure-filled fallout.

What owners of the 13,604 condominiums on Baldwin's beaches should have taken from those times, and what they should look for going forward -- be it with their insurance policies, building construction or delinquent association members -- were the focus of Condo Owner Magazine's third educational symposium held Friday at Fort Morgan's Beach Club resort.

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Beach towers will stop at two

Sunday, February 24, 2008

By RYAN DEZEMBER

Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- After battling for three years to clear mid-century land restrictions that blocked construction of two high-rises, developer Larry Wireman has canceled the third and fourth towers of his luxury condo project Turquoise Place.

Amid a sluggish resort real estate market, Wireman said last week that he declined to finalize deals with nine property owners with whom he contracted in 2004 to buy lots for a reported $55,000 per Gulf-front foot.

Each owner stood to collect about $5.5 million had the sales gone through.

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Hopeful Realtors watch condo market

Sunday, February 10, 2008

By KATHY JUMPER

Real Estate Editor

Larry Wireman's 173-unit Turquoise Place condominium tower in Orange Beach will be finished this spring, and he said he's optimistic that the million-dollar-plus units will close.

"We have a very special product," he said. "But the fact of the matter is, we never know until we get to the closing table" whether the buyers who bought the units as presales will show up. The units average $1.5 million, he said.

The 24-story Turquoise Place on Alabama 182 is one of the few new condo complexes that will open this year at the Gulf, with some Realtors viewing the luxury units as a barometer for future sales.

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High court upholds Turquoise Place ruling

Third and fourth towers clear legal challenge

Saturday, January 19, 2008

By RYAN DEZEMBER

Staff Reporter

The Alabama Supreme Court has let stand a lower court's decision that gave developer Larry Wireman the green light to build the third and fourth towers of his Turquoise Place project in Orange Beach.

The high court offered no written reason, only noting in its Jan. 11 release of decisions that it would not consider the matter.

The owners of an adjacent hotel and the estate of former landowners brought the appeal, challenging last year's decision by the Court of Civil Appeals to side with a Baldwin County judge in favor of Wireman.

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Perdido Key building cap lifted

Residents planning lawsuit to challenge county's decision
December 14, 2007
Michael Stewart

Escambia County commissioners on Thursday voted unanimously to lift the building cap on Perdido Key.

Residents have vowed to appeal that decision to the state Department of Administrative Hearings.

Several Perdido Key residents contend lifting the cap will lead to uncontrolled development.

"What lifting the building cap will do is put millions of dollars in the pockets of developers," Perdido Key Association Vice President Kelly Robertson said.

However, Larry Newsom, manager of traffic, engineering and operations for Escambia County, said 70 percent of the island is comprised of park lands.

"You're not going to have an Orange Beach (Ala.) out there," he said.

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Worker dies in fall at construction site

Thursday, October 11, 2007
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- A construction worker fell to his death Wednesday afternoon while setting a reference line for carpenters on the 10th floor of the Phoenix West II condominiums, authorities said.

Michael Long, 45, of Carthage, Miss., was pronounced dead at the scene, Baldwin County Coroner Jim Small said.

Orange Beach firefighters and paramedics were called to the Gulf-front scene at about 2:30 p.m. to respond to a man who had fallen several stories and was not breathing.

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Ruling allowing condos upheld

Sunday, September 30, 2007
By RYAN DEZEMBER, Mobile Press-Register Staff Reporter

The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals has upheld a Baldwin County judge's 2006 ruling that allows Orange Beach developer Larry Wireman to build the eastern half of his four-tower luxury resort, Turquoise Place.

A hotel and the estate of former landowners challenged the trial court's ruling, claiming that they own restrictive covenants -- limiting development to single-family homes -- on nine Gulf-front lots where Wireman plans to build a pair of 300-foot-plus towers.

Click here to see Birdseye-view of property from Microsoft Live Maps.

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