I first met developer Stewart Speed at a Young Presidents Organization (YPO) meeting in New Orleans. At some point I told him, "You ought to come to Mobile and do a deal." Eventually, he did.
Stewart had developed a successful multifamily project in Jackson, Mississippi, and initially thought a similar project in Mobile belonged near Dauphin Street. I wasn't convinced. Mobile's historic blocks are small, which gives downtown much of its charm but makes assembling enough land for a large residential development difficult. I kept looking toward the river.
One day Stewart and I explored an old industrial building near the port and made our way onto the roof. From there, the Mobile River was alive — ships in the channel, tugboats working, cranes moving cargo, trains passing nearby. It wasn't polished. It was raw, industrial and fascinating. Years earlier, on a Chamber trip to Hamburg, Germany, I had seen a city embrace its working waterfront rather than hide it. Standing above the Mobile River, I saw the same opportunity here: one of our city's greatest assets was sitting in plain sight.
We found roughly four acres at the former Delchamps property just east of Water Street. The City's 2009 Master Plan already envisioned mixed-use and residential development there. When Stewart and I met with Mayor Sandy Stimpson, he stopped at a planning map hanging outside his office. On the exact property we were considering was a large star labeled "Opportunity Site." The vision was right. The economics were harder.
Bankers called Meridian a "pioneering project" — which was another way of saying there were no comparable developments proving it would work. Ultimately, private capital, Bristol Development, a willing lender, the City, the County and approximately $5 million in TIF funding all had to align to make the project possible.
Completed in 2020, Meridian at the Port became a 264-unit, approximately $51 million development — the largest downtown residential project Mobile had seen since the 1950s. Its lesson is one I have carried into many projects since: transformational projects rarely happen because of one person, one source of money or one good idea. They happen through alignment. Meridian required a developer willing to take a risk, a city willing to believe, lenders willing to step forward, and partners willing to work together. No one could have done it alone.
