Life long Gulf Shores resident and entrepreneur Clyde Weir and his daughter Andrea Weir Franklin, owners of the Souvenir City shops in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, have just donated a large tract of land to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. The donation will allow the Zoo and park to relocate to an area less likely to be affected by inclement weather such as that which forced the zoo's evacuation last year.
The property is 25 acres in northern Gulf Shores. It will be a welcome change from the low-lying plot near the Gulf of Mexico where the zoo had been located.
Gulf Shores has certainly been good to us and in return we want to do something for the community.
As expected, Alabama's Gulf Shores beaches were busy and crowded over the extended Fourth of July weekend. Business owners had been anticipating a flood of visitors and vacationers to Gulf Shores establishments. And business was indeed brisk and heavy, but not quite up to full capacity.
Tourists line beaches, but not businesses
A beach umbrella shading them from the hot noon Independence Day sun, David and Toni Benoit of New Orleans watched their two sons, Stefan and Corey, ride skim boards up and down the Baldwin shore.
New Orleans residents who moved back to their home in January for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29, the Benoits took advantage of the holiday and a condo in Gulf Shores to escape to a quiet spot on Orange Beach, near the Flora-Bama Lounge.
The headline pretty much says it all. What's left to say is about how long Alabama's Gulf Coast beaches have been so, well, so beautiful.
The truth is that nobody really knows. Since 1999 when testing first began, Alabama's Gulf Coast beaches have never been closed for pollution.
State's beaches pass pollution tests, among the nation's cleanest
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — There have been no days this summer when swimmers were advised against entering the waters of Alabama's Gulf beaches, which officials say are among the nation's cleanest.
The City of Gulf Shores will celebrate the Fourth of July with a display of fireworks, beginning at 9 tonight. Thundering blossoms, crackling chrysanthemums, and twinkling stars full of gold and glitter are a few of the specialty shell fireworks that will be included in the show.
Sunny 105.7 radio will play music to coincide with the show. In the case of delay or cancellation, Sunny 105.7 will broadcast that information immediately.
The fireworks may be seen from any Gulf Shores-area beach. The display will be launched from a barge in the Gulf of Mexico, south of the point where Gulf Shores Parkway (Alabama 59) meets the Gulf. Authorized fireworks watercraft will be located on site at approximately 3 p.m. As a safety measure, no boats or personal watercraft will be permitted in the surrounding area.
With only 21 of 80 units yet to be reserved in the Gulf Shores Golf Club's condo development project the success of phase one of the club's renovation plan is virtually assured.
The club's condo offering has a lot going for it. The condos are being built in a prime location and they are being offered at very attractive prices - about half the cost per square foot of comparable condo properties on the Gulf Shores beach front.
It would appear that sanity has returned to the Gulf Coast condo market. New projects opening up are selling well, but fewer condo sales are to investors looking to make a quick buck by immediately selling the property to other investors, a practice known as flipping.
The $43.4 million Lighthouse condominium development is ready to open for occupancy. The 18 stories tall, 251 two and three bedroom unit development sold out within hours of going on the market in 2003.
Now it's time for Lighthouse condo owners to close on their properties, and real estate professionals are watching for indications the market might once again become frothy. So far, if closings on the Lighthouse condo development are a good indicator, there are few signs of this exuberance. Owners are closing on their properties for occupancy and not the quick sale.
Gulf Shores condo prices appear to be stabilizing and appreciating at a healthy pace.