Aging state park has beach appeal
DAVID WHITE
Birmingham News staff writer
07/02/2000
GULF SHORES - Roy and Nancy Kichler, health insurance administrators from Greenwood, Ind., say the sunny views
of the beach keep them coming back to the Gulf State Park Resort Hotel, despite the hotel's tired, worn-out rooms.
On vacation in late June, they said the sliding glass door in their room didn't work properly and the furniture
looked like it hasn't been changed since the hotel opened in 1974.
"The modeling is like it's from the '60s. It's old, old, old," Mrs. Kichler said.
But the wide-open views of the beach have brought them back almost every year since 1993.
"It's just not up-to-date. But we like it because it has a south view. It's got good sun all day," Kichler
said.
Others staying at the hotel recently agreed the hotel needs a facelift.
"The quality over the past 10 years has gone downhill, in terms of the shape of the furniture," said
Mary Cooper, a nurse from Snellville, Ga. "Some carpet has been here for 10 years. The sliding glass doors
do leak."
State conservation commissioner Riley Boykin Smith said he knows the hotel rooms need work. "They're in terrible
shape," he said. So is the ho tel's tennis court, which has been unplayable for more than a year.
Smith plans to spend more than $20 million over the next two or three years to revive the park, with the money
coming from $104 million the state plans to borrow for its parks by selling bonds. Voters approved the borrowing
plan in 1998, and lawmakers this spring set up oversight boards to spend the money.
Moneymaker
Gulf State Park will get more of the money than most of Alabama's 24 state parks because it's popular, it needs
the repairs and it's one of the few parks that makes money.
The 6,150-acre park, which boasts two and a half miles of Gulf beaches and attracts 2 million visitors a year,
makes a profit of about $1.5 million a year, said park Superintendent Hugh Branyon.
Most of the profits are taken from the park to support smaller parks, not reinvested for repairs and renovations,
he said.
Smith said plans are far from final, but the hotel at Gulf State Park could be renovated top-to-bottom and expanded
from 144 to 250 rooms.
The hotel has 12 two-story concrete structures that each contain 12 rooms. Each 12-room pod stands alone. They're
not connected to the central lobby area, which includes a restaurant, meeting rooms, bar and swimming pool.
Smith said the four pods closest to the lobby could be razed and replaced with a threeor four story structure connected
to the lobby. The other 96 rooms could be stripped bare and rebuilt almost from scratch.
"We're going to take them down to the skin and bones, pretty much," Smith said.
Convention center
Smith said he also would like to add a convention center that could seat 1,500 to 2,000 people.
The hotel can comfortably handle 500 people at a convention, Branyon said, but the Gulf Shores area boasts 20,000
hotel and motel rooms and needs a bigger convention center.
He said Gulf Shores could compete with Destin, Fla., or anywhere else on the Gulf, for conventions. "I think
we'd be making a mistake if we didn't do it," Smith said. "Gulf Shores is an upscale, beautiful area.
"We're still studying these concepts," he said. Even if a new convention center gets built, Smith said
he wants to preserve the long stretches of open beach beside the hotel.
"We don't want to get outside the existing footprint" of buildings, he said, noting that many beaches
in Alabama and Florida are crowded with hotels, motels and condos. "When you get down there, all you see is
concrete," he said.
On the fairway
Gulf State Park also needs a new irrigation system at its 18-hole golf course, and work on some of the greens and
sand traps, Smith said. The grid of aluminum-covered wires that brings power to the park's 468 campground lots
needs to be replaced, too, he said.
But the 17 lakeside cabins recently were remodeled, at a cost of almost $1 million. They're in high demand, he
said.
Visitors to the park praise the cabins that face Lake Shelby, a mile-wide, spring-fed lake just a quarter mile
or so from the beach. Long piers by the cabins reach into the lake, a gazebo perched toward the end of each. Signs
by the water warn, "Caution. Do not feed or molest alligators."
Each lakeside cabin sits on pilings, 12 feet above the ground. Most have two bedrooms and a bath, and all have
a kitchen, living room and screened porch. A two-bedroom unit costs $111 a night, including tax.
"It's the best place I've ever stayed at, bar none," said attorney Richard Dugger, who hauled his 25-foot
boat from Shelbyville, Tenn. "Everything's furnished. The only thing you have to bring is food."
"I hate for you to write about them, because everybody will know about them," Dugger said.
Campground revenue
Jerry Fields, a baker from Orlando, Fla., relaxed under a gazebo with his wife, children and grandchildren. He
said he likes to fish and trap blue crabs, but mostly he likes to "sit on the pier and let the breeze blow
on me."
The campground, located north of Middle Lake, offers swing sets, hiking trails, a nature center, tennis courts,
towering pines and a barbecue grill and picnic table at every lot. Kids throw footballs and ride bicycles. Their
parents sit under trees or the shade of their tents, traveling trailers or motor homes.
"You've got a lot of nice shady lots. It's family oriented. That's the main thing. A lot of kids ride bicycles
around here," said Reggie Swindeall, a machinist from Pell City.
Last year, the campground made a bigger profit than the motel: $595,000 versus $501,000, state records show. A
motel room for one or two people costs $118.77, including tax. A campground lot costs $18 a night, with electric,
water and sewage hookups.
Golfers at the park course said it's worth the cost: $36 on weekdays or $40 on weekends for 18 holes.
"For the cost, it's an excellent course. The difficulty on it is pretty good, too. It's got water hazards
and plenty of sand traps," said John Jones, a mason from Sparta, Tenn. "It's real green. The grass is
not real patchy."
The course is lined with magnolias, live oaks and pines. A banana tree grows near the clubhouse grill.
Branyon, superintendent of the park for 25 years, said fixing the hotel is the most pressing need, but almost everything
needs an overhaul.
"I'd like to see everything renovated," he said. "We're not in the shape that people can't come
and enjoy it. It's just that we need to provide much better than we're providing right now. We have a sure-enough
super park. We just need to fix it."
Branyon said he wants the forests and wetlands, home to gators, cranes, herons, turtles, rabbits, deer, bobcats
and lots more wildlife, left untouched.
He wants the park's open beaches left alone, too.
"I want my great-grandchildren to be able to come down here and see the beach instead of a concrete building,"
Branyon said. "We have a lot of area where you can walk and there's nothing there but the natural dunes and
the creatures that live in them."
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