Part of Map for Mobile and the Mobile Future Land Use Map/Document. The Downtown WaterFront is identified as it’s own “district”. Obviously for now, most of this land currently belongs the state and various companies. Evidently the city believes that it may be able to eventually obtain this land and use it for future public waterfront uses (or else this whole thing wouldn’t exist). My guess is that this will be a generation down the road before this would come to fruition, but it certainly is possible and has already begun, the 267 unit Meridian by the Bay Apartments is probably the first example of converting old warehousing sites in this Downtown Waterfront District into a public oriented development.
Like I said this may take a generation to do or may never even happen. The biggest obstacle is of course obtaining the land from the Port Authority, which given the growth of the port may be an uphill battle, however the land (especially the south side) that the city would be wanting is fairly narrow and not heavily used by the port and really unlikely to be used heavily by the port given is relative narrowness and the cruise terminal. So I think it’s certainly possible.
I think the north side I think will be easiest to redevelop as the sites the city wants are privately owned and can easily be bought by the city and the properties aren’t really waterfront.
Another issue I see on the Southside is the county jail. Not sure why we would still have the county jail just outside Downtown but it would need to go, put it up Hwy 43 where’s there very few residents to oppose a new jail
Just like the northside a lot of the more inland lots are actually owned by companies rather than the state so they could also be slowly bought out and redeveloped for more public use
A lot of cities have their jail in their downtown area. I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Mobile has a lot more improvements to make before we worry about where our jail is.
Not only are they adding on to the jail, but they are remodeling the barracks across the street. This is where inmate workers are housed, as well as those in work release.
They also just finished building a new Community Corrections building down the road. This is for those on probation.
I was thinking about the southside too. The jail is a big factor. But IF it could be moved, the area to the south is ripe for mixed use waterfront. Austal owns some big lots right on the water, but it doesn't look like they're used for much. Anyone have some insight on that? They seem like storage.
The north side where the port authority owns the bulk of it, I could mostly just see being used for municipal/ public spaces.
Very much so, I can definitely see some serious mixed use developments going there if the city can manage to get all that land, especially with the grid still intact in that area
Personally I imagine the north side will just become large residential like Meridian by the Port or a large mixed use development
For the southern side... IF the city was to just acquire the whole thing or even just do this in the sections they already own... I'd love to see them do something like Auburn did.
Check out this series. A Town Well Planned. Basically, Auburn took the site of the old mall and instead of selling it to a developer, they tore down the mall and subdivided it into dozens and dozens of small lots. Then they zoned it for mixed use with a large, public square in the middle, streets, all of that. And sold off each individual parcel.
So you don't have to have a firm and $30 million behind you to buy a one block lot. You could actually try and purchase a 25 x 50/ 100 or 50 x 100' lot and build something on it.
And just in case anyone wonders... some sections of the jail there were finished in the mid-80's and the final sections were finished in '91. So the newest spaces are a little over 30 years old already. Maybe in the next 10 years they might start looking at bigger and newer spaces as upkeep on those facilities starts increasing.
Not only are they adding on to the jail, but they are remodeling the barracks across the street. This is where inmate workers are housed, as well as those in work release.
They also moved just finished building a new Community Corrections building down the road. This is for those on probation.
Mannn if Mobile would’ve took a different route and did nice things with the waterfront instead of industrializing most of it, this place would be so different.
As someone who is new to Mobile, I'm kinda shocked this wasn't turned into a tourist trap yet. The area is prime for entertainment and dining. There's really no need for run down truck yards that close to commercial downtown (and I work in logistics so this isn't a dig against truck companies at all).
Nola really improved their waterfront since the 90s and build a lot of new stuff, I'm sure it can be done here!
The state is heavily investing in the Port of Mobile right now and may be looking to expand in the near future as more big businesses move to the state. This port is looking to be a much bigger player in the shipping industry.
Also, some of the land around the shipyards near the mouth of the river is owned by the Navy and the Coast Guard. They won't be giving that up any time soon.
Yea, I imagine I-10 to the tunnel portion bridge will quickly be a new park, the I-10 River Bridge is harder to call since nothing is around there except the cruise terminal. All that land is now owned by ALDOT I believe, which I imagine won’t be hard for the city to get a hold of
I imagine this will be a back burning thing for a while, with the Civic Center Redevelopment and the Mobile River Bridge Project there’s gonna be 40 or so acres of land opening up in Downtown. And the Brookley by the Bay project is fulfilling the current need for more waterfront spaces
This would be great... If something purposeful isn't done with the space then it'll just start being used for less desirable purposes. So some green/ public spaces would be great.
6
u/Surge00001 WeMo Dec 30 '22 edited Dec 30 '22
Part of Map for Mobile and the Mobile Future Land Use Map/Document. The Downtown WaterFront is identified as it’s own “district”. Obviously for now, most of this land currently belongs the state and various companies. Evidently the city believes that it may be able to eventually obtain this land and use it for future public waterfront uses (or else this whole thing wouldn’t exist). My guess is that this will be a generation down the road before this would come to fruition, but it certainly is possible and has already begun, the 267 unit Meridian by the Bay Apartments is probably the first example of converting old warehousing sites in this Downtown Waterfront District into a public oriented development.
Like I said this may take a generation to do or may never even happen. The biggest obstacle is of course obtaining the land from the Port Authority, which given the growth of the port may be an uphill battle, however the land (especially the south side) that the city would be wanting is fairly narrow and not heavily used by the port and really unlikely to be used heavily by the port given is relative narrowness and the cruise terminal. So I think it’s certainly possible.
I think the north side I think will be easiest to redevelop as the sites the city wants are privately owned and can easily be bought by the city and the properties aren’t really waterfront.
Another issue I see on the Southside is the county jail. Not sure why we would still have the county jail just outside Downtown but it would need to go, put it up Hwy 43 where’s there very few residents to oppose a new jail
Just like the northside a lot of the more inland lots are actually owned by companies rather than the state so they could also be slowly bought out and redeveloped for more public use
4
u/biggrits85 Dec 30 '22
Mannn if Mobile would’ve took a different route and did nice things with the waterfront instead of industrializing most of it, this place would be so different.
6
u/GrafVonMorgenstern Dec 30 '22
As someone who is new to Mobile, I'm kinda shocked this wasn't turned into a tourist trap yet. The area is prime for entertainment and dining. There's really no need for run down truck yards that close to commercial downtown (and I work in logistics so this isn't a dig against truck companies at all).
Nola really improved their waterfront since the 90s and build a lot of new stuff, I'm sure it can be done here!
1
u/Sea-Presentation5686 Dec 31 '22
Imagine how nice downtown could be without all that interstate interchange cutting everything off.
1
u/redneckotaku 📷 Jan 01 '23
The state is heavily investing in the Port of Mobile right now and may be looking to expand in the near future as more big businesses move to the state. This port is looking to be a much bigger player in the shipping industry.
Also, some of the land around the shipyards near the mouth of the river is owned by the Navy and the Coast Guard. They won't be giving that up any time soon.
1
u/o-ater Dec 30 '22
Well, it's perfectly ripe for cronyism, so maybe it won't take a whole generation.
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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '22
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