Daphne’s commercial growth continued this week as the city’s Planning Commission signed off on three new development projects, including a second Dunkin’ Donuts location and a new Volkswagen and Kia dealership. The approvals add to a stretch of steady building along the Eastern Shore’s principal commercial corridors, where retail, banking and auto dealerships have followed the area’s residential expansion. Together, the projects represent several million dollars in planned construction across two of Daphne’s busiest thoroughfares.
At its regular meeting, the commission approved plans from Gunther Family Holdings LLC to build a roughly 29,600-square-foot dealership on Frederick Boulevard, between Halls Motorsports and Chris Myers Nissan. The new building will house Team Gunther Volkswagen and Kia, consolidating operations currently split between other locations. Placing the dealership alongside existing auto brands on Frederick Boulevard continues that road’s evolution into one of the Eastern Shore’s premier automotive rows, where buyers can comparison shop among multiple franchises within a few hundred yards.
Team Gunther Kia currently operates out of the former Tameron Honda Eastern Shore building nearby, after Honda relocated to Frederick Boulevard several years ago. The consolidation onto a single purpose-built campus gives the dealership room to display both brands together and to streamline service operations that are now divided between aging, adapted spaces. Auto dealerships of this size typically employ dozens of workers across sales, service, parts and administration, making them anchor tenants for a commercial corridor.
A Second Dunkin’ for Daphne
Separately, Trustmark National Bank and developer H. Ray Hix Jr. of Hix and Snedeker Companies received approval for a roughly 6,000-square-foot multi-tenant building north of Daphne Urgent Care, along the service road parallel to Alabama 181. Plans call for two of three tenant spaces to be filled by a drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts and a C-Spire Wireless store, while the identity of the third, smaller storefront had not been disclosed in planning documents. Trustmark’s involvement as a landholder underscores the bank’s growing retail footprint across Baldwin County.
The new Dunkin’ Donuts would become the chain’s second location in Daphne, following one that opened on U.S. 98 near Interstate 10 in November 2013. A drive-through format is a natural fit for the Alabama 181 corridor, where commuter traffic between Daphne, Spanish Fort and the job centers of Mobile flows steadily through the morning and evening rushes. C-Spire, the Mississippi-based wireless and fiber provider, has been expanding its retail presence along the Gulf Coast in recent years, and a Daphne store extends that reach into one of coastal Alabama’s fastest-growing markets.
The Malbis Setting
The proposed building sits within the Historic Malbis subdivision near the intersection of U.S. 90 and Alabama 181, a mixed residential and commercial development. The Malbis area carries a long history in Daphne, anchored for generations by the landmark Malbis Memorial Church and its surrounding Greek-American community, and its recent redevelopment has blended subdivisions, offices and retail along both highways. That mix makes buffer design between commercial lots and homes a recurring issue for city planners.
If ultimately built, the structure would include a rear brick buffer wall matching the neighboring urgent care center and a nearby Zaxby’s, shielding the subdivision’s homes from the commercial side of the property. The wall requirement mirrors conditions the city has applied to other projects along the corridor, reflecting Daphne’s effort to let commercial growth proceed without degrading adjacent residential neighborhoods. Landscape buffers, setbacks and architectural screening have become standard asks as subdivisions press against the 181 corridor’s retail strip.
Part of a Broader Eastern Shore Boom
The approvals reflect Daphne’s continued push to fill out commercial corridors along Alabama 181 and U.S. 98, corridors that have seen steady retail and auto dealership growth as the Eastern Shore’s population has expanded in recent years. Baldwin County has ranked among Alabama’s fastest-growing counties for the better part of two decades, and much of that growth has concentrated along the I-10 corridor from Spanish Fort through Daphne toward Fairhope. Each new rooftop along that path generates demand for coffee shops, banks, wireless stores and the service businesses that follow them.
Daphne sits at the center of that expansion. The city’s position between Mobile Bay and the bedroom communities farther east has made it a draw for commuters who work in Mobile but want Baldwin County schools and housing, and the daytime population along its commercial corridors swells further with traffic from Spanish Fort’s shopping centers and Fairhope to the south. Corridor planning along 181 and 98 has accordingly become one of the city government’s most consistent preoccupations.
The Frederick Boulevard dealership project also fits a pattern of automotive clustering. When one franchise relocates or expands on a corridor, adjacent brands often follow, since shoppers habitually visit multiple lots in a single trip. Halls Motorsports and Chris Myers Nissan already bracket the Gunther site, and the completed project would put three high-visibility operations within a short stretch of the boulevard.
What Happens Next
City planners did not set specific construction timelines for either project, and approvals from the Planning Commission represent the go-ahead on site and design plans rather than a guaranteed start date. Developers now move through permitting, site preparation and construction scheduling, and commercial timelines can shift with financing, tenant negotiations and contractor availability. Residents along the Malbis area can expect to see the buffer wall and site work before any vertical construction becomes visible from U.S. 90.
For the multi-tenant building, the undisclosed third tenant leaves a modest open question in the plans. Small inline spaces in projects like this one commonly go to service uses such as salons, insurance offices or quick-service food, and leasing often continues while the shell is built. The drive-through Dunkin’ and the C-Spire store, meanwhile, anchor traffic that benefits whatever eventually occupies the remaining space.
The projects land amid broader commercial momentum on the Eastern Shore. The completion of Interstate 10 improvements and the steady buildout of the Spanish Fort and Daphne retail base have kept the area on the radar of regional developers, and national chains continue to add Baldwin County locations at a pace that outstrips most of the rest of Alabama. Daphne’s planning staff has balanced that interest against residential concerns, which is why buffer walls and traffic studies now routinely accompany corridor approvals.
Neither approval changes the residential character the city has worked to protect east of the corridors, but both add to the tax base that funds schools, roads and public safety in one of coastal Alabama’s fastest-growing cities. Residents can track construction progress through the city’s building permit process, and the dealership consolidation in particular will be visible from Frederick Boulevard well before it opens its doors.
Why Dealership Projects Move the Needle
A 29,600-square-foot dealership is a substantial building by any measure, comparable to a large grocery store, and its construction phase alone funnels work to local site contractors, concrete firms and electricians. Once open, dealerships are among the corridor’s largest single-site sales tax generators, since every vehicle sold registers its sales tax in the city where the transaction occurs. For Daphne, consolidating two franchises on one campus concentrates that revenue rather than splitting it across adapted buildings.
The Volkswagen and Kia brands have both expanded their Gulf Coast followings in recent years, aided by Kia’s strong sedan and SUV lineup and Volkswagen’s continued appeal to commuters seeking fuel economy. Eastern Shore drivers currently cross the bay or travel toward Pensacola for some brand service options, so a consolidated local campus keeps service revenue and its jobs inside the city limits.
The Gunther name itself is well established in Daphne. The family’s dealership operations have served the Eastern Shore for decades, and their move to build a dedicated two-brand facility signals long-term confidence in the corridor rather than a short-term lease play. Dealership families of that longevity typically reinvest locally, from sponsoring youth sports to participating in chamber economic development efforts.
The Corridor Context Along Alabama 181
Alabama 181 has transformed over the past fifteen years from a two-lane bypass into one of Baldwin County’s primary commercial spines. The highway links U.S. 98 at its Daphne end down through the Malbis area toward Fairhope, with grocery anchors, medical offices, restaurants and urgent care clinics now strung along its length. The service road layout that the new multi-tenant building fronts was designed precisely to keep curb cuts off the main highway, improving traffic flow as parcel-by-parcel development fills in.
Daphne Urgent Care, north of the new site, represents the kind of medical-adjacent retail that has proven durable along the corridor, and the urgent care’s own brick buffer established the aesthetic precedent the new project will match. Zaxby’s, the Georgia-based chicken chain with a location nearby, drew strong drive-through volume from the outset, a demand signal that plausibly encouraged the Dunkin’ Donuts siting decision just down the service road.
For commuters, the additions are practical: a drive-through coffee option on the 181 service road catches traffic heading toward the Causeway and Mobile before it reaches the heavier congestion near I-10. For the Historic Malbis subdivision, the brick wall and the completed commercial buildout finally put a defined edge between backyards and the parking fields that have crept closer with each successive project.
Planning in a Growing City
The Planning Commission’s regular meetings are where Daphne’s growth debates play out parcel by parcel, with staff reports covering traffic access, drainage, buffers and landscaping before any project reaches the construction stage. The three approvals this week passed through that process, and residents who follow the commission’s docket will recognize the standard conditions: shared access points, rear screening and stormwater handling sized for the corridor’s clay soils and heavy rains.
As Baldwin County’s population continues to climb, the competition between commercial expansion and neighborhood protection that shaped this week’s votes will only intensify along 181, U.S. 98 and the streets between them. The two projects approved this week — a consolidated dealership campus and a buffered multi-tenant building with a second Dunkin’ — offer a snapshot of how the city is trying to manage that balance, one site plan at a time.