Amazing. When so many new gulf shores condos and vacation homes are popping up like mushrooms here is a development abandoned, ready and waiting to be knocked down, yet the state hasn't bothered to move ahead. All the more reason the private sector is the right place for real estate development and management.
GULF SHORES -- In their quest to get rid of buildings damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Ivan, city officials have sent letters to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources -- which runs the Gulf State Park Hotel and Resort -- urging it to demolish the park's hollowed surfside structures.
Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley said that he has tried since shortly after Ivan to tear down the buildings, but the state's insurance carriers contend that the resort isn't a total loss. The city's letters urging demolition give his argument more weight, he said.
Some of the resort's structures, which were decaying even before the September 2004 storm, were loosened from their foundations in the hurricane, and the first floors of each of the hotel buildings are blown out. In the larger main building there is other structural damage, including crumbling concrete. But in researching the situation, city officials found that municipal laws that allow the city to tear down damaged structures deemed safety hazards don't apply to state property.