Downtown Mobile’s push to convert historic buildings into housing hit a brief procedural pause this week, as the Mobile City Council delayed a vote on the sale of a long-vacant brownfield site known informally as City Hall North. Under the council’s own rules, the vote on the property at 350 St. Joseph Street was pushed back at least one week before members can take it up again.
If ultimately approved, the sale would send the building — the former Seaman’s Hotel — to developers for $548,000, which city officials say reflects its fair market value. Brad Christensen, the city’s director of asset management, presented the figure to the council as part of the proposed deal.
Developers plan to transform the aging hotel into 67 apartments spread across the building’s four floors, mixing one-bedroom studios with larger two-bedroom units, according to historic preservation consultant Steve McNair. Plans also call for a rooftop patio, a stand-alone coffee shop and a dog park, general contractor Michael Coumanis told the council.
Before any renovation work can begin, McNair said the site will first need environmental remediation to address its brownfield status. The project’s developers are expected to compete for both federal and state historic tax credits in early 2018, financing that would help offset the cost of restoring the aging structure.
The proposal is one of several downtown Mobile housing projects moving through the pipeline. Roughly a week after this council meeting, developers behind Meridian At The Port — another new residential complex — are scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony downtown. Separately, developers have also announced Merchants Plaza, a mixed retail, commercial and residential project anchored by the renovation of the historic Merchants National Bank building.
In other business, the council approved an extension of the city’s contract with Carnival Cruise Line, keeping Mobile as a port of call for the company’s Carnival Fantasy ship through December 2018 — a deal that keeps the cruise line’s presence, and the tourism dollars that come with it, anchored at the Alabama Cruise Terminal for at least another year.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson also used the meeting to announce a new partnership with Auburn University that will bring 15 to 17 industrial and graphic design students into a city-owned downtown building known as the Fuse Factory. Randall Bartlett, a Mobile native and post-baccalaureate program chair at Auburn, said students will initially work part-time in the space over the next two semesters, collaborating with local businesses on real design projects, with hopes of expanding the arrangement into a full-time program within the year.
“We like Mobile because of the recent progressive attitude that exists in the city, and we believe our design students can bring innovative solutions, which will bolster the forward thinking to an even greater level,” Bartlett said. “Our plan is to offer a unique educational experience by immersing our students in the culture that surrounds a particular problem and design a solution that fulfills a need.”
Together, the council actions reflect a broader wave of downtown Mobile investment — from historic-building housing conversions to design partnerships aimed at keeping young talent engaged with the city’s urban core.