Stirling Properties Announces Recent Activity In South Alabama
Alabama’s 1st plaza development & new area tenants
Stirling Properties is excited to announce recent activity in the South Alabama areas of Daphne, Gulf Shores, Mobile and Orange Beach. For more information, please contact Jeff Barnes, listing broker with Stirling Properties in Mobile.
DAPHNE COMMONS (Daphne)
- Daphne Commons will be a signature development on the Eastern Shore of Baldwin County. The new shopping center will consist of approximately 27,000 square feet and construction is anticipated to start in early 2016. The initial phase of the center will feature 2 buildings. Expansion space and an out parcel will also exist.
- National tenants are in the works and will be announced soon!
WAHOO PLAZA (Gulf Shores)
- Located along Foley Beach Expressway at Highway 8, Wahoo Plaza will be Alabama’s first plaza-type development! Infrastructure and underground retention is under way with 3.77 acres available for sale/lease.
- A Shell gas station and convenience store will be included in the development.
ONE ST. LOUIS CENTRE (Mobile)
- Birmingham-based Oakworth Capital Bank is opening its first Mobile location occupying 4,700 square feet at One St. Louis Centre. The company intends to establish a full-service office, including commercial and private banking in the near future.
THE WHARF (Orange Beach)
- Stirling Properties was retained to re-evaluate and develop a revised master plan for the 65 acres of undeveloped land at The Wharf, a mixed-use waterfront development in Orange Beach.
- Stirling Properties is excited to announce new tenants to The Wharf, including Sea la vie Design, a 5,497-square-foot furniture and design studio, Orange Grove, a 1,597-square-foot gift shop and Montego’s Caribbean Cafe’ and Bar, a 9,301-square-foot waterfront restaurant, expected to open in February 2016.
- Several significant new tenant leases will be announced in the coming weeks!
Stirling Properties is located in One St. Louis Centre, 1 St. Louis Street, Suite 4100 in Mobile. For more information regarding our services, please visit us at www.stirlingproperties.com.
2015: What a year for Mobile
With all the various ranking and awards Alabama received throughout 2015, it’s no surprise Mobile, Alabama had an amazing year!
As Stirling Properties’ Vice President & Regional Manager for Alabama/Florida, a member of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Chamber’s Board of Advisors, I was thrilled with all that Mobile accomplished this past year. Here are just a few of the more notable moments from 2015.
Airbus’s U.S. Manufacturing Facility at Mobile Aeroplex opened its first U.S. manufacturing facility on September 14, 2015. By 2018, the facility will produce between 40 and 50 single-aisle aircrafts per year.
GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico opened on September 26, 2015 and provided a huge impact to the area’s tourism economy.
The Alabama Department of Transportation awarded the I-10 Mobile River Bridge design/engineering contract to Thompson Engineering. This will increase the capacity of I-10 and meet the existing and predicted future traffic volumes.
The Manufacturing Communities Grant was implemented and Mobile was named one of only 12 federally-designated manufacturing communities in 2015. Over the past 5 years, manufacturing jobs in Mobile have increased by 38%, with a 22.9% increase in manufacturing wages.
1702, a group of chief executive officers and business leaders, was established to create an entrepreneurial community that showcases Mobile as one of the best cities for groundbreaking companies. The St. Louis street innovative corridor for tech savvy startups is becoming a reality.
The city executed a 13 month contract for the return of Carnival Cruise Lines starting in November 2016. This promises a huge economic impact to the city.
Mobile Chamber of Commerce surveyed their Partners for Growth Investors. The results showed that between January 2014 and June 2015 2,148 new jobs were created and during that time $936 million was invested in capital.
Stirling Properties is committed to serving Alabama and the Gulf South and we are proud to be one of Mobile’s top commercial real estate firms. We are excited about the great things to come in 2016 to Mobile!
Stirling Properties Announces Most Recent Transactions from our Alabama and Florida Offices
Below is a list of Stirling Properties’ most recent closed transactions by Brokers in our Alabama and Florida offices. For more information on the individual transaction, please contact the Agent associated with that transaction.
ALABAMA
- The Legacy Village Shopping Center in Mobile, Alabama was sold to a group of local investors. The 82,000 square-foot center features tenants such as Talbots, Jos. A. Bank, Zoes and Alabama Outdoors. Nathan Handmacher with Stirling Properties handled the sale.
- The 146,000 square-foot, former Coastal Door and Window Warehouse in Mobile was leased to regional trucking and warehousing company BR Williams Trucking, LLC. Nathan Handmacher with Stirling Properties handled the lease.
- IMC – Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, PC leased 8,259 SF at Airport and Azalea. Nathan Handmacher with Stirling Properties handled the lease.
- Cricket Wireless has leased the former Radio Shack space in front of Walmart in Saraland, Alabama. Andrew Dickman with Stirling Properties handled the lease.
LOUISIANA
- Dirt Cheap has leased 60,000 square-feet at 1000 Roma Avenue in Hammond, Louisiana and plans to open Dirt Cheap and Dirt Cheap Building Supplies. Construction is currently underway and the stores will open around Thanksgiving on 2015. Andrew Dickman of Stirling Properties handled the lease.
Stirling Properties is located in One St. Louis Centre, 1 St. Louis Street, Suite 4100 in Mobile, Alabama and at 220 W. Garden Street, Suite 802 in Pensacola, Florida. For more information regarding our services, please visit us at www.stirlingproperties.com.
Stirling Properties’ Will Barrois Joins Board of Advisors of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce
Stirling Properties is pleased to announce that Will Barrois, Vice President/Regional Manager of Alabama and Florida, is now a member of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors.
The Board of Advisors provides company executives an avenue for valuable input on critical Chamber and community issues, facilitates peer-to-peer interaction and provides a high level of recognition. The Board meets three times a year at various locations to listen to business and governmental leaders and other speakers address pertinent issues.
Mobile Office Market Survey
John Toomey III, CPM® is a Broker and Mobile New Business Development Coordinator in our Mobile, Alabama, office with over 30 years’ experience in the commercial real estate industry. He recently completed an Office Market Survey of the West Mobile and Mobile CBD markets, with plans to periodically update the survey to track trends and establish absorption rates.
Here’s an excerpt from John’s Market Assessment:
Our office market has seen challenging times the last five years. Some buildings have fared better than others in terms of occupancy. The good news is while the Mobile Office Market vacancy rate has been relatively stagnant, it has recently started to improve. The Downtown Mobile Alliance and the City of Mobile were successful in creating a statewide Historic Tax Credit in October 2013. After going into effect, this tax credit has been instrumental in spurring office redevelopment. Many historic, but vacant, buildings were revitalized using these tax credits and put back into commerce. One such example is the RSA Van Antwerp Building located in the CBD. This roughly 60,000 SF building has taken over 2 years to renovate and will open summer of 2015 with Phelps Dunbar and BBVA Compass Bank occupying most of the building, essentially pre-leasing nearly the entire building before it comes online.
We have seen a fair amount of leasing activity in our office market the last 12 to 18 months. Unfortunately, a lot of space was subleased, which does not have the desired effect on our rental rates and absorption rates. The Trustmark sublease at RSA Trustmark Building is an example. Newly restored buildings like RSA Van Antwerp Building add more inventory to the market. It is a positive step to see these buildings restored, but it remains to be seen how this will affect future rental and absorption rates.
In summary, we expect the office market to see leisurely positive growth in the future.
Please click here to view and download the PDF of the Mobile Office Market Survey. This survey provides a good summary of the Mobile office market and my hope is that it becomes a valuable resource in the market.
Stirling Properties Announces Most Recent Transactions in Alabama
Below is a list of Stirling Properties’ most recent closed transactions in the Alabama area. For more information on the individual transaction, please contact the Agent associated with that transaction.
MOBILE, ALABAMA
- The building formerly utilized as El Chico Restaurant, located at 830 I-65 W. Service Road, has been leased to La Cocina Mexican Restaurant. La Cocina plans to open its second Mobile location in the 5,800 square-foot building this fall. Jeff Barnes of Stirling Properties handled the lease.
- Amedisys Home Health of Mobile has recently relocated and expanded their offices at Mobile Office Park. They are now located in Suite 204 in Building 2, and occupy over 5,200 square-feet. Jill Meeks of Stirling Properties handled the relocation and expansion.
Stirling Properties is located in One St. Louis Centre, 1 St. Louis Street, Suite 4100 in Mobile. For more information regarding our services, please visit us at www.stirlingproperties.com.
