Flotte’s Notes on
An Unofficial Encyclopaedia
of Mobile & Baldwin Counties
Promoting local history, culture,
outdoors, businesses, attractions, food, people, and places
Please submit all comments,
additions, and corrections to: admin@flotte2.com
Flotte’s Notes
on Mobile are now being updated on Mod Mobilian: (www.modmobilian.com)
Sources:
Mobile Chamber of Commerce: Business View, AN ECONOMIC
OVERVIEW OF THE MOBILE BAY REGION
University of South Alabama Mitchell
College of Business Center for Real Estate Studies
Competitive
Strategies Group September 2005 Report
Mobile’s Economy
·
See Jeff Amy, PR 10/28/07, 1/13/08, 4/12/08
·
Through
the 1980s, the central business district became a ghost town. In the 1990s, the
·
o
o One private firm ranked
·
The
post-Katrina boom represented a
remarkable turnaround for
o
The
population of Mobile County surged by about 10,000 in the three months
following Katrina, according to Semoon Chang; the
county, meanwhile, gained some 4,700 new jobs. More than 2,200 new
homes were built.
o Before Hurricane Katrina,
rising industrial vacancy rates were a serious concern. After Katrina,
these dropped to near zero.
o
·
o Global Insight, a private firm based
near
o
·
Don
Epley with the University of South
Alabama Center for Real Estate Studies (CRES) computes the CRES indexes to show the change in
gross metropolitan product for
o
o CRES figures indicate that
o CRES projected that
·
·
·
Mobile
County will have the fastest growing economy over the next five years among all
363 American metropolitan areas as measured by gross metropolitan product
(GMP), growing 34.31 percent from 2007 through 2012 according to a forecast by
Moody's Economy.com which was published Forbes
Magazine. – PR 2/1/08
·
Moodyseconomy.com,
said
·
Forbes
Magazine ranked Mobile 118 of 150
communities as the best place for
business. Inc. Magazine ranked Mobile 44
of 90 cites as an ideal location
for business.
·
Southern
Light, LLC and Hargrove & Associates, Inc. returned
·
Mobile
County, according to figures released last year by the U.S. Bureau of Economic
Analysis, had a total economy of $11.2 billion in 2005, the most recent year
available.
·
The
median income of Mobile County households was $37,391, the 10th-lowest among
U.S. counties of more than 250,000 people. Baldwin County's median household
income was $49,119, fifth-highest among the 21 large counties in the state. In
Mobile County, 21.1 percent of all people lived below the poverty line in 2007,
the 10th highest rate among counties with more than 250,000 people. Baldwin
County's rate was 10.3 percent.
Mobile
·
Employment Base: Services - 27%; Wholesale & Retail
Trade - 27%; Government - 15%; Manufacturing - 12%; Construction & Mining -
8%; Transportation & Public Utilities - 6%; Finance, Insurance & Real
Estate - 4%.
·
The
average wage in
·
Local
leaders like Bay Haas, executive director of the Mobile Airport Authority, have
expressed worry over having a qualified work force for anticipated aerospace
jobs. Bender has reported that it must
often look outside the country to find qualified welders.
- Bill Pfister,
Austal's vice president of government programs,
said his company is hopeful that Alabama
Industrial Development Training will continue to work with
·
The
rate of unionization
in Mobile is higher than the
southeast - 14% in Mobile versus 5%
in the southeast according to the Competitive Strategies
Group report.
- According
to the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, the percentage of unionized manufacturing
plants in the
- According
to www.unionstats.com, the
overall rate of unionization in 2006 was about 10%, 5% of private
employees and 30% of public employees.
- The
Mobile Chamber of Commerce lists union coverage by
company
·
Mobile Works Inc..
is a partnership of business, education, labor and
community leaders, providing businesses and people with training, leadership,
labor market information and employment programs. Since its inception in 2000,
Mobile Works has invested more than $19 million to fund job and educational
programs.
·
53%
of
·
The
Mobile Chamber of Commerce was the
first in the state, chartered by the Alabama Legislature in 1854.
o Mobile Chamber of
·
Envision Coastal Alabama is a
regional development organization started in 1998.
·
·
The
Mobile County Commission implemented a tobacco
tax with a portion used for economic
development purposes. This tax totals about $950,000
annually
·
The
Small Business Administration has
announced it will be opening an office in
·
University of South Alabama
Small Business Development Center
·
The
two key public business parks are the
Mobile Commerce Park,
which has seen limited growth over
its fifteen-year history, and USA’s Technology Park.
·
The
Mobile
Innovation Center is the
community’s small business incubator
·
Society
Mobile-La Habana
·
Low
cost
of living is an asset to
·
Come Back Home to Mobile is an
effort to attract young, educated Mobilians back to
·
Mobile Area Young Professionals Association
(MAYPA)
·
The
City of Mobile Industrial Development Board (IDB)
is granted the power by the State Legislature to give tax exemptions to recruit
businesses to move to or expand operations in
o
o This requirement for board ownership of
industrial property ended with
o The 1992 act also states that educational taxes cannot be abated, and
business must contribute to the schools.
o In 1962, the city of
o The
Mobile Industrial Development Board is a 13-member commission appointed by the
mayor of
o While a
tremendous tool for economic growth, critics charge that the IDB courts
energy-intensive and polluting industries, such as chemical plants, paper
mills, and incinerators, because the heads of the electricity and gas utilities
hold positions on the board. Since the
board's creation, its members have consisted exclusively of prominent
businesspeople, including the presidents of utility companies, banks, and the
Chamber of Commerce. See here
for environmental concerns and the IDB. - Harbinger
·
·
The
Gulf Opportunity (GO)-ZONE Act of
2005 establishes tax incentives and bond provisions to support rebuilding the
areas of
Competitive Strategies Group September
2005 Report:
·
Strategies
for job creation placed greater emphasis
of retention of existing business instead
of diversification of industries from 1985 to1995,
when existing industries were closing
or reducing its work force considerably.
Mobile Chamber’s Partners for Growth
capital campaign has a 5 year budget
of $7 million of which $3.7 million
is allocated for existing businesses and
$2.6 million for new development
o The Chamber’s vice
president of economic development is quoted
in the May 19, 2003 Mobile
Register as saying, “The days of
the hunter-gatherer approach to economic
development are gone. While bringing in
new business is important, he said,
the majority of his time must be
spent helping existing companies prosper.”
·
The
Mobile County Commission contributes over
$400,000 a year to different organizations
for economic development, including the
Chamber, the Business Information Center,
the Forestry Commission, Mobile United,
Women’s Business Assistance Center and
others. The County does not conduct
an annual audit of these organizations.
·
The
Chamber’s economic development capital campaign “Partners
for Growth” has a target goal of
1,100 new jobs per year or 5,500
over five years. This compares to
similar campaigns in Chattanooga, with a
goal of 20,000 jobs and Macon, GA
with 8,400 jobs.
·
In
the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina
and Rita, office and industrial space
has gone from 17% vacancy rates to
near zero. The challenge to the
County leadership will be to install
sound economic policies and structure that
will sustain this growth after a
three-year period when many of these
leases will expire.
·
“We
applaud the University’s investment into
cancer research and in a research and
technology park, but these two product
improvements initiatives will not necessarily
be a panacea to Mobile’s economic
success… Biotech is limited to a
select few cities: San Diego, Research
Triangle Park, NC, Boston and in
emerging cities such as Houston, Austin
and Baltimore. Florida will become more
predominant in biotech research and
commercial applications once the Scripps
facility comes on line. There is
limited growth opportunity for this to
be a significant cluster in Mobile”.
·
“Nearly
all of our survey respondents said
that the City of Mobile’s permitting
processes and customer service was a
hindrance to growth in the City. The
County of Mobile has fewer permitting
and regulatory restrictions than the City
and as a result, receives higher
marks for its business climate and
ease of doing business in the County.”
·
“High
Speed Internet access is in limited
areas geographically of the County.
Investment needs to be made to expand
high-speed access throughout Mobile County
if the County is to be successful
in attracting “Mobile Entrepreneurs”. Further,
Mobile should consider creating WI-FI
locations downtown, and in all public
buildings.”
·
“Many of the economic development
allies familiar with Mobile commented that
even though some in the business and
government leadership within the community
like to say that there is a
team approach for economic development in
Mobile, it’s hard to see. In many
instances, these allies and consultants
observed territorial boundaries, run away
egos, or weak leadership as a result
of no one defined lead organization
for economic development.”.
·
Jay Garner, who wrote the study for CSG, was director of economic
development for the Mobile Chamber of Commerce during 1985-1994
·
Among
·
Business
with headquarters in Mobile include:
International Shipholding, Ball
Healthcare Services (nursing homes and assisted living facilities); BancTrust Financial Group; Big 10 Tire Stores; Integrity Media; The Mitchell
Company; Shoe Station; and Volkert &
Associates.
o Mobile has three publically traded
companies: International Shipholding
(NYSE: ISH), BancTrust Financial
Group (Nasdaq: BTFG),
and Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:
CPSI). Mobile has tentatively lost Energysouth (ENSI)
in a sale to California-based Sempra Energy.
o Mobile suffered the loss of corporate
headquarters in the 1990s, including Delchamps,
Ruby Tuesday’s/Morrison’s Restaurants, and Gayfer’s.
·
The
heaviest concentration of large firms in the
o Although the chemical industry remains
a strong player, the area has diversified its economy away from its traditional
paper and chemical industry core. During the last 15 years, the oil and gas, tourism, and
aerospace industries have expanded significantly.
Manufacturing
·
The
Alabama Industrial Directory for 1999-2000 includes 78 Mobile area
manufacturing firms with over 100 employees (compared to 156 in
o
23.1
percent of
·
·
Proximity
to port facilities makes the
o
Foreign
investment is also pronounced in
Lumber and Pulp
·
In the post-war period, the pulp and paper industry
became a major industry. Between the
1920s and the 1990s, Scott Paper Company and International Paper combined to
have one of the area's largest workforces. However, the industry declined in
the 1990, with International Paper closing its mill in 2000, and Kimberly-Clark
closing its pulp mill in 1999.
·
International
Paper, started
in
o IP closed
the mill in 2000. Eight hundred workers lost some of the best-paying jobs
available in the
o The Alabama State Port Authority
purchased the International Paper mill for $1.6 million in 2005.
·
Kimberly-Clark’s
o Kimberly-Clark closed its pulp
mill in
o 1939: Maine-based Hollingsworth & Whitney complete construction of its
o 1954: Hollingsworth & Whitney merges
with Scott Paper Co., founded
in 1879 in
o 1994: Scott sells its S.D. Warren coated
paper portion of the mill, and the energy complex is sold to SAPPI. 2001: SAPPI
closes the
o 1995: Scott Paper merges with
Kimberly-Clark, founded in 1872 in
Chemicals
·
The
chemical industry is the
region’s largest industry sector with more than 3,600 employees.
·
Degussa
Corp. is the largest chemical company, followed by Ciba Specialty Chemicals,
UOP, DuPont Agricultural Products, Olin Chemicals, Akzo
Nobel, Syngenta, Arkema
Inc., Ineos Phenols, US Amines, Occidental Chemicals,
Praxair and Mitsubishi Polysilicon.
·
The Old Mobile site property is owned by
four chemical corporations: Alabama Power, DuPont, Courtaulds,
and Akzo-Nobel.
·
Evonik-Degussa’s
chemical plant employs
680 on a 1,900-acre site in the
o The
o The facility gives more than $100,000
each year to the arts, schools and charitable organizations.
o Evonik Degussa is considering a $65 million
expansion at its Theodore complex to make methyl mercaptan
for chicken feed. Evonik Degussa is currently
expanding two other units in Theodore, including one that will make an
ingredient for biodiesel. – PR 5/9/08
·
.
Ciba’s McIntosh plant is the Swiss-based firm's
largest manufacturing operation. The plant was built in 1952.
o The entire site, along with nearby
o ADEM issued a consent order against
Ciba and proposed a $20,000 fine for failure to monitor numerous pollution
points in the first three months of 2004.
·
Azko was founded in the
o
Azko Nobel’s
chemical plant in Axis makes primarily carbon disulfide.
o
In
1998, Akzo Nobel acquired British fiber-manufacturer Courtaulds, combined the fibers divisions of both
companies, and then demerged them as Acordis Ltd. At
the time Courtalds had rayon and Tencel
synthetic fiber plants in Axis. In 1999, Akzo Nobel
sold Acordis to
o
In
2001 Acordis Cellulosic Fibers closed its Axis rayon
manufacturing facility with its 324 jobs due to pressure from imported fabrics.
In the 1990s the rayon plants was the biggest polluter in
o
Acordis/CVC kept its Tencel facility in Axis, which was built in 1993. While
rayon production produces large amounts of sulfurous waste, Tencel
is made with a "closed loop" chemical process whereby the solvent can
be filtered and reused.
o In 2004 Lenzing AG acquired Acordis’ Tencel plant in Axis from CVC. Lenzing AG, specializing in man-made fibers, is currently held by B & C Holding (an Austrian investment company), its majority owner.
o
Lyocell
is the generic term
for fibers made of pulp (raw material - wood). The fibers are produced by means
of a direct solvent process. With this particularly ecological technology
(closed-loop cycle), cellulose, the natural raw material, is dissolved. The
resulting spinning mass is then spun into fibers. Recently, Lyocell
fibers have experienced major success in markets of the garment industry and
also in the home textile and the nonwovens segments. Lenzing
markets its Lyocell fibers under the brand name
"Lyocell by Lenzing", Tencel is the brand name for Lyocell fibers by the Tencel
group. In the 1980's of the last century, Lenzing AG,
the viscose fiber manufacturer, and the former British company Courtaulds plc had each obtained a license from Akzo, a Dutch company, to further develop the Lyocell technology. In the 1990's, both companies
successfully launched their production of Lyocell
fibers. After patent-law conflicts, Lenzing and Courtaulds signed a settlement in 1998, leading to a
restricted exchange of know-how. The Lyocell fibers
operations set up within the former Courtaulds Group,
later Acordis, now Corsadi,
subsequently underwent several changes of ownership, while developing as an
autonomous business under the name of Tencel. Fiber
produced at the Mobile plant was commonly used in
o
In
2000, the Alabama Supreme Court threw out a $1 million verdict won by Horace
``Buddy'' Long and his wife, Margaret, who sued Courtalds
over the release of millions of pounds of carbon disulfide which they claimed
caused the death of their six horses and caused their Creola
property to depreciate. – PR 9/16/2000
o
Twenty-five
current and former employees sued Courtaulds PLC for
$50 million claiming exposure to dangerously high levels of carbon disulfide, a
chemical Courtaulds uses in the manufacture of rayon.
o
Some
workers at Courtaulds Fibers' rayon plant in north
Mobile County show signs that exposure to an industrial chemical has harmed
their health, according to the head of environmental medicine at Emory
University. Emory has tested 28 Courtaulds employees
and found that most of them suffer from memory loss, personality changes, heart
problems, vision problems or other disorders that can be associated with
exposure to carbon disulfide.
·
Dupont acquired its plant north of Axis in 1986 (it was
originally built for Shell chemical in 1968). The
·
Phenolchemie's
400KT phenol and
acetone plant in the Theodore Industrial area was completed in 2000. Ineos Phenol bought the plant in 2001 from Phenolchemie, a division of Veba
AG, which also was majority owner of Degussa. Ineos is a privately owned British
chemicals company, and the third largest in the world
(after BASF and Dow Chemical). It
has factories in
·
In
2006, Helsinki-based Kemira Group purchased Cytec
Industries' water treatment chemical business, with its 100 worker plant in
Oil and Gas
·
Companies
with oil and gas operations in
·
Houston-based
Gulf Coast Asphalt operates a
storage terminal on the east bank of the
·
Area
pipelines include Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation, Gulfstream
Natural Gas System (which runs to
·
MoBay
Storage Hub Inc., a
subsidiary of Houston-based Falcon Gas Storage, plans to build 50 billion cubic
feet of natural gas storage in south
Mobile area
Refineries:
·
Saraland
Refinery (Shell
Oil,
o The original facility was built and
operated by Louisiana Land &
Exploration Company, starting in 1975 with a single crude unit and
reformer. The site is 914 acres, of which 125 are developed. Shell Chemicals
bought the facility in 1996.
o Mobile County District
Attorney John Tyson investigated pricing practices at Shell Oil Co.'s refinery
in Saraland in 2005 when gas from the Shell refinery in Saraland cost
independent stations up to 70 cents more per gallon than it cost Shell retail
stations.
·
Mobile
Refinery (Gulf Atlantic Operations, Chickasaw, 16,700 bpd,
asphalt).
o
Corpus Christi-based Gulf
Atlantic Operations LLC (GAO) bought the assets, including the refinery, of Trigeant in March 2005. GAO formed under the
name Tripso LLC in February 2005. El Paso Corporation
sold the Chickasaw refinery to Trigeant EP Ltd, in
August 2003.
o
GAO
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2006. The filing states that
Hurricane Emily struck the Mexican coast in 2005, disrupting the delivery of
cured oil from that country's state-owned petroleum company. Then Hurricane
Katrina flooded parts of the Gulf Atlantic refinery and terminals in the
·
The Theodore
Refinery on
Aerospace
·
The
aviation/aerospace industry
is a growing industry sector in the area. The Brookley Complex is a 1,700-acre industrial area with two runways, one long
enough to land the Space Shuttle.
·
o Mobile Aerospace Engineering (MAE),
founded at Brookley in 1991, is
·
Teledyne Continental Motors in
·
EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company), the parent company of Airbus,
built an Airbus Center of Excellence in 2006, creating 200 high-paying
engineering jobs.
·
Northrop Grumman and EADS North
America selected
Mobile as the site of its KC-30
Production Center for the $40 billion contract to
provide 179 aerial refueling tankers to the US Air Force, which it won in
February 2008. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor with EADS as its
principle subcontractor.
o Boeing Co. formally protested the
award to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO upheld Boeings protest
and recommended a new competition in a decision released June 18. The GAO has
no authority to enforce its recommendations, but its opinions are taken into
count in Congress. By law, the Air Force had 60 days to respond to GAO.
o The award was rescinded by Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, who ordered a new contest after the GAO review. The Pentagon issued a revised request for bids
and set an early October deadline for Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. to
turn in fresh proposals.– PR 8/8/08
§ Gates is pushing to settle the contest
by year's end to beat the Jan. 20 deadline when a new Presidential
administration will take office
§ Boeing supporters took a dim view of
the Pentagon's new ground rules for the Air Force tanker competition, as
industry observers said that the company could face long odds. Boeing's
prospects "may have been dashed" by the new criteria, veteran
aerospace reporter James Wallace wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Analysts tended to agree, saying the draft requirements appear to favor the
newer, larger plane offered by Northrop and EADS North America.
§ U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,
called Gates' proposed timeline "unrealistic," and U.S. Rep. Norm
Dicks, D-Wash., called for political intervention. "It's time for Congress to exert greater
control of this process," Dicks said.
§ Boeing Co. said it is inclined to bail
out of its effort to win a $40 billion contract to build aerial refueling
tankers for the U.S. Air Force unless the Pentagon agrees to give it a total of
six months to submit a new bid. – Wall Street Journal, 8/22/08
o More than 1,150 jobs and a $600
million investment are expected to made in the
assembly plant, with a potential $20 billion impact.
o In 2004, Boeing had almost won the
tanker contract through an unusual leasing arrangement with the Air Force. But
Congressional scrutiny of the financial deal, led by Senator John McCain of
Arizona, caused it to be scuttled. The greater oversight uncovered a conflict
of interest scandal that led to the jailing of Boeing’s former chief financial
officer and a former top Air Force official. Those events opened the door for
EADS to become a competitor. – NYT 6/19/2007
o Airbus announced plans to assemble
commercial jets in Mobile, contingent on winning the tanker contract. It would
be the first American production site for Airbus, which currently assembles all
its planes in Europe. The company has struggled financially because of the
euro's rise against the dollar.
o The $175 million A330 freighter, a
cargo version of its A330-200 jet, was introduced in 2007 and Airbus already
has received 66 orders, doubling the total of Boeing's 767-300 freighter, its
closest competitor.
o Airbus tentatively plans to break
ground on its facility in the fourth quarter of this year and begin producing
A330-200 freighters within two years. Airbus will manufacture the initial
freighters in Toulouse while the Mobile plant is constructed. The first
Alabama-made freighter should roll down the Brookley
runway in 2011, and Mobile will become the sole site of A330 freighter
production by 2013. – PR 4/27/08
o The Mobile County Commission and
supporters of EADS created the website www.keepourtanker.com.
U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. And other legislators from Boeing bases in Kansas
and Washington, created a website opposing the
contract.
§ Tiahrt is pushing an amendment to the
Iraq war funding bill that would prohibit the Pentagon from contracting with
any foreign company that receives government subsidies and has litigation
pending before the World Trade Organization.
§ Boeing planned to assemble its tankers
in Everett, Wash., and modify them for military use in Wichita, Kan.,
supporting thousands of jobs in the two states and 44,000 nationwide. Los
Angeles-based Northrop plans to assemble and modify its tankers in Mobile,
creating 1,500 local jobs and 48,000 nationwide.
§ The Northrop-EADS plane is
60 percent American made; Chicago-based Boeing promised an 85 percent
American-made plane. – Seattle P-I, 3/3/08
§ The Alabama delegation points out that
a pair of KC-767 tankers that Boeing delivered earlier this year to Japan were
delivered over a year late and are still not certified for use by Japan's Air
Self-Defense Force. Its KC-767 tankers on order for the Italian Air Force have
not been delivered and are now almost four years late.
§ Northrop Grumman’s
website: www.americasnewtanker.com
§ Mobile-based Alabamians to Build American
Tankers went on the offensive by airing three radio ads in the
Washington, D.C. area highly critical of Boeing. Northrop has distanced itself
from the group's activities, while analyst Scott Hamilton has labeled the ads
on his blog as "a new low" in the tanker competition. President Bryan
Lee is a Mobile firefighter, and others involved in
the nonprofit group who have been identified publicly
include attorney/lobbyist Palmer Hamilton, real estate developer Paul Wesch, and accountant Mike Thompson. The campaign was
designed by Mobile’s Strategy Public Relations – PR 8/7/08
o ABAT
Radio Ad 1 Radio Ad 2&3
o The House and Senate Armed Services
Committees and Appropriation Committees all have potential leverage to affect
the tanker contract
§ U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.,
chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee which has direct oversight of
the defense spending bill, has been ill for much of 
the past year, and has at times ceded
authority to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray is a leading supporter of
Boeing and a harsh critic of the Air Force's decision to award the tanker
contract to -Northrop. – PR 4/18/08
§ The House Armed Services Committee‘s
top Republican, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, is a leading "Buy
American" critic of the tanker deal. – PR 5/8/08
§ U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said
the contract should be allowed to go forward, pending a review by the
Government Accountability Office. – PR 4/22/08
§ U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,
expressed disappointment that Boeing Co. was not selected for the deal. Obama
said it was hard for him to believe "that having an American company that
has been a traditional source of aeronautic excellence would not have done this
job." – PR 3/3/08
§ U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile put
a "hold" on a bill sponsored by U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam
Brownback, both Republicans from Kansas that would bar the military from
spending any money on the tanker contract unless it either gives the work to
Boeing or else holds a new competition under conditions in favor of
Boeing. Under informal Senate
procedures, one lawmaker can keep a bill from moving forward indefinitely.
Although colleagues can theoretically attempt an override, such steps are rare
in practice. U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., sponsored a similar bill in the
House. – PR 6/28/08
§ A Department of Defense spokesman
refuted an online report suggesting that senior Pentagon and Air Force
officials were ready to go ahead and award the tanker contract to Northrop
despite the GAO recommendation. The online trade publication DefenseTech.org,
citing unnamed sources, said John Young, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer,
was drafting a letter to Congress defending the Air Force's selection. A
spokesman for Young's office called the report a "total fabrication."
– PR 6/28/08
§ Via the parliamentary procedure known
as a "hold," U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is blocking Senate
confirmation of Michael Donley as the next Air Force secretary – PR 8/7/08
Maritime Services
·
Maritime services include barge fleeting service,
container repair and leasing, dunnage services,
freight forwarding, guard service and ship watching, heavy lift and salvage,
industrial diving, line handling, marine fumigation services, maritime waste
disposal, ship chandlers, stevedoring, towing and many more.
o Five barge fleeting service companies serve
o There are five shipbuilding and/or repair facilities along the
o The Theodore Ship Channel is host to several other service facilities.
It is well suited to the oil and gas industry, as it is the closest deep water
location to the open Gulf, and is home to
o Two decades ago, Bayou la Batre was known as the "
·
In
2001 Austal USA began
as a partnership between Bender Shipbuilding and the
Australian company Austal to build aluminum
high-speed passenger ferries. It employs over 11150 workers. In 2006 Bender
sold its 30 percent stake in Austal
o
Austal
builds high-speed catamaran ferry ships for passengers and autos.
o In August 2008, Austal
broke ground on a $245 million, 1,200-job, 700,000-square-foot
modular manufacturing facility. Austal bought more
than 100 acres from neighbor Atlantic Marine Holding Co. The U.S. Navy plans to
contribute up to $33 million to the facility. The construction is expected to
be complete in about 12 months. A second phase -- a "mirror image" of
the first -- would complete the $200 million expansion by 2011. – PR 9/13/07,
12/12/07, PR 12/21/07, 8/1/08
o Austal
§ The Navy awarded its $223 million
contract for the first of two planned “Flight O” vessels to prime contractor
Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics company that teamed with Austal USA as the designer and builder of the LCS.
§ Austal and General Dymanics
were vying with a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. for an opportunity to build
55 of the vessels. Each contractor was to build two ships before the Navy made
its decision in 2010. Cost overruns on what was supposed to be a $220 million
vessel plagued both teams, and Lockheed's contract for its second ship was
canceled in April, and General Dynamics in November 2007. Each team now has
only one ship in production, with both slated for delivery next year. The Navy
plans to try out the two vessels in an "operational assessment" in
early 2009, which could lead to a decision on future purchases.
§ The first of the General Dynamics/Austal vessels is about 80 percent complete, and is now
slated for delivery in late 2008. But the ship's expected cost is $507 million,
much higher than its $223 million contract price. – PR 9/12/07, 2/7/08, 8/1/08
§ The Navy announced the cancellation of
the second LCS in November 2007 after it could not reach a deal with the
General Dynamics/Austal team on reworking the LCS
contract to contain rising costs. Despite the cancellation, Austal
§ The Navy now plans to award a contract
for a third LCS this August with two more buys next year via a competition
limited to General Dynamics and Lockheed. Of the three vessels the Navy wants
to build, Congress has so far approved money for only one. The Navy's request
to fund the other two is still under review on Capitol Hill; a final decision
may not come until this fall. – PR 2/7/08, 4/3/08
o Austal
o Austal has completed one Hawaii Superferry,
the Alakai, and a second is under construction.
o The National Labor Relations Board
ruled that Austal broke federal labor laws in alleged
actions linked to a failed 2002 union vote. Union officials said that Austal fired 10 employees because of union activities and
threatened to fire all who signed the cards, or to fire everyone if a union
succeeded. Austal workers voted against unionization
again in 2008 – PR 6/13/2007, 4/10/08
o
Austal
was promised $10 million in city, county and state funds to help pay for a $20
million shed, contingent on creating 600 new jobs. Austal
is now building toward the 1,200 employee mark that would earn it another $5
million from the state.
·
Signal International is a marine construction firm that
builds and repairs ships and offshore oil rigs that plans to move its corporate
office from
o RSA bought about $100 million worth of
shares in the $240 million company in 2008. RSA was approached about the
purchase by Washington, D.C.-based ACON Investments, a private investment firm
which bought Signal in 2003, and retains a minority ownership position. - PR
Steel and Materials
·
ThyssenKrupp, a German steelmaker, plans to build a
$4.5 billion, 2,700-worker steel
processing facility in north Mobile County off U.S. 43 near Calvert .
o The ThyssenKrupp facility, expected to
be operational by 2010, will manufacture and process carbon and stainless steel
for high-end manufacturers, chief among them the South's automotive assembly industry.
The raw steel used in Mobile will be produced at a mill in Brazil. Stainless
operations at the Calvert plant are on schedule to start in late 2009, followed
by carbon steel work in early 2010.
o Construction permits were approved by
state and federal regulators and site preparation should be completed by early
next year. The project will employ 29,000 construction workers over the next 18
months.
o The state's $811 billion incentive package for ThyssenKrupp was approved by
voters in a statewide election June 2007.
§ ThyssenKrupp AG will have to employ 2,000
people for two years to receive the entire incentives package.
§ The incentives package includes $461
million in upfront payment, with $314 million going to the company in cash, $67
million toward training, $45 million toward land purchase and $25 million in
road building.
§ State and local governments promised
$350 million in tax breaks.
§ Those figures don't include an
estimated $115 million that the Alabama State Port Authority will spend to
build a facility on
§ The figures also don't include a state
corporate income tax credit that effectively frees the company from state
income taxes for its first three decades of operation.
§ The Mobile City Council voted
unanimously to commit $33.5 million cash to the deal.
§ The Mobile County Commission also
approved a total payment is $83.5 million. The commission promised that $70
million would come directly from its Pay-As-You-Go roadbuilding
fund.
§ Of its $83.5 million, the county will
get back about $45 million through the state transportation department paying
to widen and expand
§ The Industrial Development Authority
of Mobile County approved a 20-year package of tax breaks, which includes a
break on non-educational property and sales taxes worth an estimated $178
million in its first year, though officials said that figure would depreciate.
J. Gary Cooper pegged an estimate of the county package's full value over 20
years it at more than $3 billion. At that amount, the package would average
about $105 million annually.
§ A consortium of other area city and
county governments has met to consider sharing a portion of that amount --
estimates range from $13.5 million to $20 million, but none of those
governments have formally agreed to any payments. For the remaining $13.5
million, the county and state are trying to put together a regional economic
development authority comprised of city and county governments in southwest
§ The agreement also includes a
provision that appears to be a commitment from state government to never seek the
kinds of legislation that have been proposed elsewhere to deal with global
warming: "In the event that state legislation is introduced that adds a
new tax on energy, (carbon dioxide) or the use of electricity, natural gas,
coal or industrial gases, the state shall use its best efforts to (1) defeat
such legislation or (2) seek an amendment to such legislation providing the
company an exemption therefrom."
§ According to the Deravi
study, state and local governments will reap $1.4 billion in tax revenues over
30 years, breaking even on the $461 million in state and local cash incentives
by 2020, after 10 years of operation, and recouping all the property, income
and utility tax breaks by 2030.
§ School property taxes, where no breaks
have been granted, are projected to bring in $218 million for the state,
§ The $811 million incentive is over
$300,000 per job (compared to the $167,000 per job initially given Mercedes in
1993) – James Cobb, PR 6/17/2007
o The ThyssenKrupp steel mill will
increase the level of economic activity in
§
§ Beyond the 2,700 employees of
ThyssenKrupp, spending from the mill is projected to create 4,300 indirect
employees. ThyssenKrupp employees will make an average of $41,900 a year. The
$41,900 salary for ThyssenKrupp employees is lower than the $50,000 to $65,000 range
discussed by local economic development officials.
§ Southwest Alabama can expect about
$3.7 million a year in extra tax revenue from ThyssenKrupp, including $1.5
million a year to
§ City and county governments in
Baldwin, Clarke, Escambia and
§ The
o Alabama State Port Authority will
build a terminal on the south tip of
o Land speculators started buying chunks
of land in
o U.S. Steel Corp., who has a
steelmaking complex in
o See here
for environmental concerns about the ThyssenKrupp plant
·
SSAB has a 370-worker steel mill on U.S. 43 in Axis in north
·
Berg Steel Pipe Corp. has chosen
·
Holcim
(US) Inc, a
subsidiary of the Swiss cement giant Holcim Ltd.,
received a waiver on sales and use taxes and a five-year abatement on property
taxes collectively worth $1.4 million tied to a proposed $60 million expansion
of its 156-worker cement production plant in Theodore.
·
GAF
building and roofing
materials plant has operated at Emogene and Florida
Streets for several decades. It is a former EPA
superfund site – Lagniappe, 6/5/07
·
Kellogg
Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Company, was an engineering
and construction firm with operations in
·
The auto industry plants in
·
ALCOA’s bauxite refining plant in
Technology
·
Technology firms located in
o Mentor
Graphics is the
anchor tenant at the
o Chapura Inc. develops software that synchronizes
data between PDAs and desktop computers. Its former president has moved home to
o CentralLite System’s innovative automatic lighting systems
meet consumer needs and offers artistic beauty in lighting. Xanté develops products that enable the highest quality printing
solutions for its clients.
o STI, a Mobile-based education data
management company, provides software to help K-12 schools keep track of things
like attendance, scheduling, grades, discipline and money. It is scheduled to
relocate its headquarters and 150 employees to the
·
The
healthcare information technology
sector is well represented in
o Mobile-based Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CPSI) specializes in
health care information systems for small and medium-sized hospitals
nationwide. Most of CPSI's 600 client hospitals have 100 beds or fewer. It has
more than 850 employees at its headquarters off Hillcrest Road in west Mobile.
CPSI had annual revenue of $115.9 million in 2006.
§ CPSI owners include Palisade Capital Management, L.L.C (8%), Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management, LLC (8%),
Century Capital Management LLC (7%), Neuberger Berman Inc. (5%), M. Kenny
Muscat (5%), John Morrissey (3%).
o SSI's client base exceeds 2,200 and
includes hospitals, doctors, HMOs and insurance carriers. Founded in 1988, SSI
has about 370 employees . Its headquarters are on
§ SSI has forged an alliance with
Pittsburgh-based The Bank of New York Mellon which will allow Mellon's health
care clients to use SSI products and give SSI clients access to Mellon's
"full suite of treasury services" geared toward the health care
industry.
§ In 2007, SSI was among trade
publication Healthcare Informatics' top 100 health care product and service
providers, coming in this year at No. 61 based on 2006 annual revenue of $37
million. That's down from $41 million in 2005.
§ Smith said the health care IT market
is moving from licensing software -- where the client pays a single fee upon
signing a contract -- to paying on a per-claim basis. Software license fees
would range from around $10,000 to $50,000, and the revenue was recognized
immediately, he said. Now, with claims going through SSI's clearinghouse, the
revenue is not recognized immediately.
o TeleVox
developed software for computer-generated reminder calls for a doctor, dentist
or orthodontist appointments. It was founded in 1992 by Neil Armentrout and his wife Fran Smith, and was sold to West
Corp. of
·
The
University of
South Alabama Research Park opened in 2003.
o In early 2006, Mentor Graphics'
facilities accounted for nearly all of
Food and Seafood
·
o
An
updated economic impact study of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, funded by the
U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, was presented with estimates that the
Alabama Seafood Industry will suffer more than a $112 million loss.
·
Marshall Biscuits, Sara Lee, and others have production
facilities
·
In
its facility near
Service Industries
Banking and Finance
·
·
The
Mobile Bay area's largest banks are:
Regions Bank (Birmingham; in 2006
merged with AmSouth
– also from Birmingham), RBC Centura (North Carolina, purchased Alabama National
Bancorporation, including First Gulf Bank), BBVA Compass Bank (Birmingham, acquired by Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA for $9.6 billion in 2007), Wachovia Bank (Charlotte, NC, merged
with Birmingham-based SouthTrust in
2004), BankTrust (Mobile), Colonial Bank (Montgomery), and Whitney National Bank (New Orleans) – PR5/27/07
o First National Bank was the oldest
bank in
o Merchants
National Bank became First Alabama when it went statewide and Regions when
it expanded out of
o Following the 2006 $10 billion merger
of Regions and AmSouthBancorp, the two
Birmingham-based banks were forced by federal regulators to divest a total of
52 branches. In
o RBC Centura
acquired 22 Mobile-area AmSouth branches, and announced it would make
o RBC Centura
agreed to acquire Birmingham-based Alabama National Bancorp. in
a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The deal includes subsidiary First Gulf Bank NA, which has eight
branches in
o 2007 Alabama &
Mobile/Baldwin Bank Statistics (Press-Register Graphic)
·
BancTrust:
(Nasdaq:
BTFG)
o In 1985 the Mobile National Corporation holding company and its subsidiary, The Bank of Mobile, opened for business
in 1986. The Main Office was located in downtown
o In 1993 Mobile National Corporation
merged with South Alabama Bancorporation (parent company of First National
Bank, Brewton) and adopted the name South Alabama Bancorporation. Both banks
retained their local identity, management, and board of directors. The Monroe
County Bank joined in 1996, followed by The Commercial Bank of Demopolis in
1998. Also in 1998 the Bank of Mobile changed its name to South Alabama Bank.
o In 2002, the bank changed its name to BankTrust and the holding company’s name changed to BancTrust Financial Group, Inc.
o In 2003 CommerceSouth,
Inc. was acquired. Total assets were
approximately $1.1 billion.
o In 2006 a team of former Regions
bankers in
o In 2007 BancTrust
Financial Group Inc. announced that it would merge with Selma-based The Peoples
BancTrust Co. Inc. in a $143 million deal, which will
bring the combined total of branches to 54 throughout
o Banktrust net income for 2007 dropped by more
than half, from $13.3 million in 2006 to $6.2 million.
o BancTrust
Board of Directors
o BancTrust
Beneficial Owners and Past Directors
o South Alabama Beneficial
Owners 1996
·
Commonwealth National Bank is
a minority-owned bank with branches in Toulminville,
Crichton and
·
Woodlands Financials,
a
·
Hancock Bank, based in
·
New Horizons Credit Union, formerly Scott Credit Union, has
five branches and aims to finish a sixth by the end of the year. The smaller Azalea City Credit Union has two
branches, but recently changed its charter to expand northward in
·
Bay
Bank based in
·
Century Bank, headquartered in
·
BancorpSouth,
based in
·
First Community Bank
·
Mobile Area Banks (from Business View, 9/2007)
Retail
·
In
retailing, Birmingham-based Saks
Inc. has both Parisian and McRae’s stores in
o Bruno’s operates eight Bruno’s and nine
Food World grocery stores in the
o Gayfers, Hammel's, Kayser's, Kress, Reiss Brothers are all downtown stores
that have gone out of business
Other service
·
Six
call centers call the
·
Engineering
firm Kellogg Brown & Root closed its
·
Tourism employed about 30,800 people in the
Mobile MSA and earnings (both direct and indirect) amounted to almost $837
million with 2.5 million visitors.
Industrial Sites
o The idea for the
o Degussa established the
first chemical plant in Theodore in the 1970s and remained one of the only
industries in the park until 1990. By
1996, Degussa had expanded its operations and established joint ventures with
two other chemical manufacturers that built new production facilities in the
park. They were soon joined by a host of smaller firms and refineries.
o This
phase of industrial expansion followed a decade of real estate development in
the
·
LeMoyne/Mobile
River Industrial Park
o Axis is a
rural unincorporated area located 20 miles north of
Local
Companies
·
The Mitchell Company is a real
estate development company based in
·
International Shipholding Inc. moved its new corporate headquarters
from
o
The
company was founded as Central Gulf Steamship Corporation by Niels F. Johnsen and his sons, Niels W. and Erik F. Johnsen.
Incorporated in 1947, the new company was backed by a group of
o
During
the 1960s, ISC became the number one U.S.-flag carrier between the
o
Most
of the company's sales come from the chartering of vessels such as car and
truck carriers, ships with strengthened hulls for use in polar
regions, and coal and sulfur carriers. In addition, the company uses
lighter-aboard-ship (LASH) vessels to provide scheduled ocean freight
transportation services between the
o
In 1989 ISC purchased Waterman Marine
Corporation, which operated the Waterman
Steamship Corporation,
for $34 million
o
Its
CG Railway Inc. subsidiary,
is a rail-on-barge service connecting
§
CG’s railway terminal was
launched at Choctaw Point in 2000, and was relocated to
o
International
Shipholding has 15 wholly owned subsidiaries and a
stake in three joint ventures.
o
The
company is traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ISH
o
International
Shipholding rebuffed a merger offer from privately
held New York shipper Liberty Shipping Group LLC, but the company continues to
pursue a potential deal, according to an Aug. 8 filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. Liberty holds 373,300 shares of International Shipholding stock, more than 5 percent of the shares
outstanding — a $7 million stake According to the filing, Liberty President and
Chief Executive Officer Philip Shapiro met with Niels
M. Johnsen, International Shipholding's
chief executive officer and chairman of the board, "on or about" June
10 and broached the idea of a combination or merger. International Shipholding informed Liberty at the end of July that it was
not interested in a deal, the filing shows. In a Tuesday article in Tradewinds.no, Liberty was characterized as stalking
International Shipholding. The article went on to
describe two old-line shipping families as getting ready for a Wall Street
battle over company control. The Johnsen family holds
about 36 percent of International Shipholding. – PR
8/20/08
·
Cooper/T. Smith Stevedoring Inc.
was started by Angus
Cooper in
1905. The New Orleans-based T. Smith and Cooper companies merged in 1983.
Cooper/T. Smith now has operations in thirty-eight
·
Ryan-Walsh Stevedoring: The
Walsh family side of the company was established in 1867 as a
·
Bender Shipbuilding & Repair is
a privately-held shipbuilding and repair company in
o In 1965, Bender built the first of
more than 1,000 fishing vessels it would produce by the end of the century. In
the early 1960s and again from the early '90s to today, Bender produced a
variety of supply boats, anchor-handling tugs and other vessels for the
offshore oil and gas industry. Prior to 1980, it was named Bender Welding &
Machine Co., Inc. Bender has built ammunition boxes during World War II,
provided steel for construction of Ladd Memorial Stadium in 1948, manufactured
1,200 buoys for the development of the Intracoastal Waterway system in the
1950s, built push boats for
o It is active in both ship construction
and repair, is affiliated by common ownership with Tampa Bay Shipbuilding &
Repair Co., Inc., the successor to Tampa Shipyards, Inc., and was the
o Bender has the world's largest
production laser, a $1.3 million cutting machine that is in use in only a score
of factories and yards globally. Bender was the only
o Bender's work force is not unionized.
After a series of accidental deaths and serious injuries in the shipyard during
the 1970s and ''80s, the company dramatically improved its safety record in the
1990s
o With 650 employees - compared with a
peak of 1,200 several years ago when Bender temporarily operated an auxiliary
yard in
o During the early 1990s, the company
built or converted 27 vessels for use as casino boats. President Tom Bender was
a central figure in a high-profile
o Bender employs more than 1,000 people
on property along about a mile of waterfront on the west bank of the river and
2,000 feet on the east bank – PR 6/24/07
o Bender Shipbuilding has been accused
by a worker rights group, the New Orleans-based Alliance of Guest Workers for
Dignity, of bringing 32 Mexican welders to its
·
Steiner Shipyard,
with origins as a family shipyard dating back to the 1920s, is a well-regarded
entity in the local maritime markets. Steiner is perhaps best known for its
endeavors in the fishing vessel markets, as it has built hundreds of boats over
the years.
·
C&G Boatworks, owned by the Graham family, was founded in Bayou La Batre in 1996, opened a dry dock on
·
Stauter Boat Works:
·
Negus Boat Works was started by Rone,
Don, and Ed Negus
·
Mitternight Boiler Works in Satsuma
·
Gulf Coast Marine Supply is a general supply house founded in
1935 by Marvin Mostellar
Sr. In the early years it catered to the ships trading in the Port of
Mobile but it became more industrially oriented.
·
Mobile
Rosin Oil Company,
established in 1924, uses rosin from pine trees to serve a number of industries
including rubber, paper, paint, preservatives, construction and lubricants.
Rosin oil was initially used in the manufacture of axle greases. But the rubber
industry quickly became, and remains, its largest user because rosin oil is an
excellent tackifier and processing aid in rubber
manufacturing.
·
Masland
Carpets is a major carpet
manufacturer headquartered in Saraland. It was founded in
·
Gulf Lumbar Company manufactures Southern Pine lumber. In
1939, with WWII approaching, Ben
May bought a lumber concentration yard. In 1952 the management of Gulf
Lumber was taken over by the Stimpson
brothers, Billy, Ben and Gordon. In 1973, after the death of Ben May, they
acquired the company from his estate. Billy, Ben and Gordon officially
transferred ownership to the younger members of the family in 1992. Gulf Lumber Company has 3 primary areas of
operation: a Sawmill, a Treating Plant and an import company known as Gulf
Trading, LLC. Today, independent logging crews haul more than 400
loads of logs per week to the
·
Buchanan
Lumber Mobile is a family owned business in
·
Mobile Paperboard’s mill on
·
Hargrove & Associates
engineering firm, founded in
·
Thompson Engineering Testing Inc.
was established by Vester Thompson Jr. in 1953. He
sold the company to its employees in 1996.
·
Volkert & Associates Engineering
o
Poor
engineering of the U.S.
98 rerouting,
designed by the Alabama Department of Transportation and Volkert
Engineering, contributed to runoff problems, according to interviews with
transportation officials.
·
Gulf
States Engineering:
Started in 1998 by Robert O. Edens, Gulf States Engineering serves industrial,
commercial and government clients throughout the U.S. Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Timothy Morris PE bought into the firm in 2001 as the fifth
employee, and since that time the company has grown to include 40 employees in
the Mobile office and 10 employees in the Gulfport office.
·
Cox
Nuclear Pharmacy, founded by Billy Cox, joined two other companies
in January to form Triad Isotopes,
one of the largest independent nuclear pharmacy companies in the country, in a
deal estimated at more than $100 million. – PR 11/18/07
·
CentraLite
was formed in 1997 by Jim Busby, after he left QMS. CentraLite designs
and manufactures home lighting control systems. Former Mayor Mike
Dow
joined as Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing in 2005.
o CentraLite's ownership was shown as
Jim Busby, 1.4 million shares; Jim
Busby Jr., 866,500 shares; Karen
Swanson, 500 shares; Richard Palesano, 26,000 shares; Tom Hendrich, 23,000+ shares; and Mike
Dow, 31,250 shares. – MBT 2/15/05
·
Big 10 Tire Company was
founded in
·
Molyneux and Demouy
·
Marshall Biscuit Co. is a Saraland company that makes
frozen biscuits sold in supermarkets. The Marshall Biscuit Company was founded
in 1924 by John Marshall. It began with the “Electric Maid Bake Shop”, a
coffee shop in downtown
·
Leroy Hill Coffee Company: In 1968 Leroy Hill purchased the
o In 1994 Hill was charged with
orchestrating bogus bids so he could buy 80 acres of state land adjoining his
3,500-acre ranch in
o In 1995, The
widow of deceased coffee merchant Raymond E. Brooks sued the Leroy Hill,
accusing him of cheating the terminally ill Brooks out of his share of the company
they founded.
o In 2005 Paul Stewart and his coffee
company, Coffee Pro Inc., won a $2.5 million verdict against Leroy Hill Coffee
Co., which is owned by his estranged father-in-law, Leroy Hill, and two
employees. The defendants were accused of slandering Coffee Pro by criticizing
its product and ethics and by describing one of the company’s salespeople as a
coffee thief and a homosexual. Hill, had
originally been a defendant, but was dismissed the case, in a ruling that the
plaintiffs had not presented evidence that he personally defamed anyone.
Stewart started Coffee Pro in 1997.
·
Haas-Davis Meat Company was started in 1865 by George
Augustus Haas and his half-brother Fank Hemley. Haas soon bought out Hemley.
The company was located on
·
Carrington Foods and Miss Sally’s Stuffed Crabs began
production in 1971.
·
Azalea Seafood Gumbo Shoppe was
started by Pat Lodds, and subsequently sold to Jim
Hartman (1981) then to Mike Rathle, John Addison, and
Bill Sibley (1991). It supplies ready-to-eat gumbo to approximately 1,000
supermarkets and 300 restaurants in the Southeast, with annual revenues in 2000
of more than $1 million. Case Study by John Gamble, U.S.A.
Mitchell College of Business, in Thompson-Strickland, Strategic Management:
Concepts and Cases, 13th ed,
2003.
·
Naman’s Market: George Naman of Pascagoula married Helen Zoghby
of Mobile and ran Naman’s store across from the
Cathedral from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. While his brother Michael enjoyed the
jewelry business, George continued the food business with his daughter
Elizabeth’s help. George’s other children, Emile and Mimi, ran Naman’s Department Store on
·
Autry
Greer & Sons, Inc.
runs Greer’s Food Tiger grocery
stores, Greer’s Markets, and Tiger Discount Liquors. Founded in 1916, it is still owned and run by
the Greer family. It has 34 stores
throughout the Southeast and is based in Prichard. The late Mac Greer
popularized the Greer's grocery store chain's signature phrase, "I gua-ran-tee it!" in years of television advertising.
Greer's chain has converted five of its stores to a Greer's Market format meant
to appeal to more upscale shoppers: Fairhope, Robertsdale; Perdido
Bay, Fla.; Hurley, Miss, and Dauphin Island Parkway at Bayley's
Corner
·
Manning’s Marketplace: The Manning family has converted its
eight Manning's Marketplace stores into Food For Less supermarkets that promise
goods on a cost-plus-10-percent basis
·
Pollman's Bake
Shop opened on
Royal Street in 1918. Fred Pollman Sr., who was born
in New Orleans, came to Mobile to work for Smith's Bakery, and decided to go
into business on his own, setting up shop at Warren and Augusta streets. Fred Pollman III, one of Charles Pollman's
sons, now runs the business. In 1937 Pollman's opened
a location off Broad Street. Pollman's also operates
stores at 31 N. Royal St. in downtown and at 4464 Old Shell Road in Spring
Hill. – PR 8/20/08
·
Bayou La Batre
Seafood Companies (2005):
Jubilee Foods, Sea Pearl Seafood Co., Graham Fisheries Inc.,
·
Wintzell’s Oyster
House: J. Oliver Wintzell opened his restaurant at
o The restaurant's walls are covered
with Wintzell's folksy sayings as well as photographs
of hundreds of celebrities, sports heroes, politicians and local fishermen who
have eaten there.
o The company has four restaurants in
Mobile County ( Airport Blvd., Dauphin St., and
Saraland), one in Fairhope, an one in Hattiesburg, Miss. Wintzell's
will open its sixth restaurant in August at the Eastern Shore Centre on Alabama
181 in Spanish Fort. – PR 6/8/08
o Wintzell’s first franchise location opened on
·
Wings Sports Grilles was created by Bob Baumhower, who now has about 10 franchised restaurants
regionally.
·
“The Nuthouse
in
·
Goldstein's Jewlery
was founded in 1879 by Julius Goldstein and purchased by the Frank family in
the 1950s. It is now owned by Richard Frank Jr. Goldstein's was originally
located on
·
Shoe Station was
founded in
·
Standard Equipment Co. Inc.,
distributor of industrial, construction and marine supplies, was founded in
1906 by Richard A. Christian, and is today owned by E. Burnley
Davis Sr. and Robert D. Wilkins. Standard was originally located at Commerce
and St. Anthony streets, but for nearly 50 years has operated at Beauregard and
Water streets near the state docks. – PR 9/27/07
Former
·
Waterman Steamship Company:
In 1926 John B. Waterman
started the Waterman Steamship Corp.
o John B. Waterman founded the company
in 1919 with only $2,000 capital and a ship, the Eastern Sun, leased from the
o Ryan Stevedoring Company was organized
in 1924 as a wholly-owned subsidiary, for the business of loading and
discharging vessels.
o In 1926, Waterman organized and became
president of the
o Waterman, in 1930, purchased from the
government the Mobile Oceanic Line, including fourteen ships that were soon
refitted and improved for freight and passenger service. The Pan-Atlantic
Steamship Corporation, with four vessels, was acquired in 1933. From 1935
to 1937 the management of fifteen vessels of the Anchor Line of Glasgow was
taken over
o An affiliate, Gulf Shipbuilding
Corp., built Navy and cargo ships.
o By 1930 its fleet included 14 ships
varying in size from 7,500 to 9,200 deadweight tons. At the beginning of World
War II, Waterman owned and operated 38 American flag vessels, as well as three
Canadian and five Anchor Line ships, and 12 chartered vessels. By World War II,
the company owned more than 125 ships.
o The company also ran Waterman Airlines , led by the founder's son, Caroll B. Waterman. In 1945 Waterman bought TACA Central
American Airlines (it was sold in 1961)
o Under the leadership of E.A. "Ed"
Roberts, who became president in 1936, Waterman became the largest
privately owned steamship line in the nation, operating a fleet of 125 ships.
o The Waterman company
erected one of downtown
o In January 1955 Malcolm P. McLean
sold his trucking company for $25 million, moved to
o The first
leveraged buy out
in
o In 1989 International Shipholding Corporation purchased Waterman
Marine Corporation, which operated the Waterman Steamship Corporation, for $34
million. ISC moved to
·
Alabama
Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Kelly-Atkinson Construction Co., Henderson
Shipbuilding Inc. and U.S. Steel Corp (in Chickasaw) were shipbuilders in
·
The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company
(ADDSCO) was one of the largest marine production facilities in the
o During
and after World War II, ADDSCO was the largest employer in southern
o By 1964, ADDSCO was down to 2,300 workers
and was concentrating not on shipbuilding, but repairs. Racial equality was an ongoing problem following the war,
addressed repeatedly by both management and union actions until the 1960s.
o In 1992,
ADDSCO was acquired by Atlantic Marine Holdings,
a privately held company. Atlantic Marine Holdings also owned two
shipyards in
o It was sold
again in 2006 an
investment firm headed by former U.S. Navy Secretary John F. Lehman and the
combined yard is now known as Atlantic Marine Alabama. Lehman promised
new investment in the business, which is the second-largest landholder along
o Atlantic Marine sold an 87-acre parcel
to the Port Authority and 102 acres on
o Atlantic Marine is committed to up to
$10 million in upgrades, including removing dilapidated buildings, upgrading
piers and bulkheads, performing a safety audit and building a training
facility. Atlantic Marine has more than 600 permanent, full-time workers, not
counting temporary employees and hopes to add 300 to 500 more within two years
– PR 6/24/07
·
The
Mobile Shipyard owned by the Collins
family was located on
·
Taylor Lowenstein Naval Stores Co.
·
The Mobile Portland
Cement and Coal Company was chartered in 1908 in Maine with its headquarters in the Van
Antwerp building in Mobile. It had an authorized capital of $6 million and
total authorized bond issue of $3 million. The capitalization is believed to
have reached $1 million. It planned to build the world’s largest coal and
cement plant on the old St. Stephens Bluff.
It was organized by Chicagoans John Randolph Markley and Isaiah B.
Miller, who were convicted in 1913 of mail fraud involving timber and coal
companies totalling $25 million in which they acted
as promoters and then later abandoned the companies after securing the
investor’s funds. Markley also operated a steel steamship between Mobile and
Mexico. Officers included Albert Sidney Lyons, Pat. J. Lyons, Edward L.
Russell, and others.
·
The
Star Fish & Oyster Company was
started by Sebastian Gonzales, and continued by his four sons. It closed in the 1980s due to changes in
federal fishing regulations.
·
Karl
Graf arrived ca 1888 from Baden Baden,
Germany and began a dairy business at
·
Gulf,
o In 1848 the businessmen of
o Progress of this line was hampered by
the Civil War and the depression of 1873, and the line did not reach the Ohio
River until 1883, crossing the river to
o In 1940 the Gulf, Mobile & Northern merged with the bankrupt Mobile &
Ohio creating the Gulf,
o In 1972, GM&O merged with Illinois
Central to form Illinois Gulf Central.
At the time, there were 19,000 employees nationwide, 5,000 of them in
o Sources: GM&O Historial
Society. The Gulf, Mobile,
and Ohio book by James Lemly.
·
The
·
The
New Orleans & Mobile Railroad
became CSX Transportation
o
The
first Morrison cafeteria, a novel dining concept for the area, was opened by J. A. Morrison in 1920 in
o
In
1951, Morrison Cafeterias
diversified into noncommercial feeding by providing meals on the set of the
film The Greatest Show on Earth. Catering
contracts would constitute one of the primary business segments of the company
for the next 40 years. In 1952, Morrison Cafeterias signed a catering agreement
with
o In 1968, Morrison Cafeterias Consolidated, Inc. changed its name to
Morrison Incorporated which completed several acquisitions in the 1960s and
1970s, adding a motel chain, a china and small wares facility, an insurance
carrier specializing in coverage for strip mines, a distribution company, and a
breading plant. With each acquisition, Morrison replaced existing management
with Morrison personnel, attempting to meld the disparate organizations into
one corporate body.
o
Late
in the 1970s, the company began to
flounder, as its widespread interests had created bureaucratic layers that led
to lower profit margins. In 1980,
the company selected a new chief executive, Ernest Eugene Bishop. Bishop had
joined Morrison in 1947 at age 16, rising through the company's ranks. Bishop
divested all of the company's nonrestaurant holdings,
noting later that the company's management "fell into the integration trap
in the late 1960s and into the 1970s because it was in vogue."
o In 1982, the company acquired the 15-unit restaurant chain, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. Ruby Tuesday was
founded in 1972 by five college students attending the
o In 1987, Beall
was named president and COO, and CEO in 1992. This year also featured the
reorganization of Morrison's businesses into three primary divisions,
Morrison's Family Dining Group, Casual Dining Group, and Hospitality Group.
Morrison's strategy to distance itself from its cafeteria image and identify
itself as a specialty restaurant and contract-feeding operator led to a name
change in 1992, when the former Morrison Incorporated became Morrison Restaurants Inc. The company
restructured its operations again in 1994, combining its Hospitality Group with
its Family Dining Group to create the Morrison Group, and renaming its Casual
Dining Group the Ruby Tuesday Group, providing a clear indication of the company's
strategic priorities as it entered the mid-1990s. Several months after
reorganizing the company into two operating groups, Morrison sold all of its
education and business/industry food service accounts to Gardner Merchant Ltd.,
an international contract food services company, leaving Morrison with only its
health care food service contracts. In 1996, Morrison's Fresh Cooking —
unable to withstand the loss in popularity of cafeterias in general — sold out
to Picadilly.
o In 1998 Ruby Tuesday moved its corporate
headquarters to
·
Delchamps was founded by Alfred and Ollie Delchamps in 1921 at the corner of
o
The company is credited with bringing the supermarket
concept to
o In 1997,
the chain was purchased by Jackson, Mississippi-based Jitney Jungle, and by 1999 the combined chains went into
bankruptcy. The next year some stores were sold off to Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie; most of those locations
have since closed in the wake of that chain's own troubles. Nineteen other
locations were sold to Birmingham-based Bruno's
Supermarkets.
·
Gayfers was
founded by C.J. Gayfer on
o Gayfer's (for so the company styled itself until
the 1970s, when it dropped the apostrophe) did business from several locations
over the years including 103 Dauphin St., later renumbered to 169, where it was
housed from 1880 to 1886, and the building next door, on the southeast corner
of Dauphin and Conception streets. In 1898, a disastrous fire ravaged its
stock. But the store recovered, and its new ``Spira and
o In the 1950s, Gayfers
became affiliated with Ohio-based Mercantile
Stores, a holding company (which also owned
·
The Bank of Mobile
was chartered in 1820, and closed in 1884
·
The Southern Bank of Alabama
was founded by Henry A. Schroeder, who remained its president until its charter
expired in 1880
·
Planters and Merchants Bank of
·
The First National Bank of Mobile,
chartered 1865
·
Merchants National Bank of Mobile
was incorporated in 1901 with offices at
·
Gulf Federal Bank was
chartered in 1963 as Gulf Federal Savings and Loan Association and opened its
doors in 1964. The institution has had a troubled past. Howard Leroy Davis, who
managed Gulf Federal from 1963 to 1983, was convicted in 1986 of issuing
$920,000 in unsecured loans to a friend in exchange for $100,000 in kickbacks,
as well as other misuses of the association's funds.
·
QMS (Quality Micro Systems) was
founded in 1977 by James
(Jim) Busby. Busby’s brother-in-law Mike Dow joined as EVP of
sales and marketing and a member of the board of directors. Initially involved
with controllers for printing bar codes and labels, it entered the laser
printer business in the mid-1980s. QMS pioneered PostScript along with Apple
and introduced the first auto switching printer and Kanji color printer. It was
the first to sell a laser printer for under $2000 in 1985. In only six years,
QMS grew from startup to $9 million in revenues and a $100 million market cap.
It was listed on NASDAQ in 1983. In 1986, QMS became the first
Mobile-headquartered company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. QMS
employed 1500 people worldwide and had yearly revenues of over $300 million. In
1988, Dow left QMS to become Mayor of Mobile. Busby stepped down as chairman in
1997 after several years of decline. QMS was sold to Minolta in 1998 and
changed its name to Minolta-QMS. In 2003, Minolta merged with Konica and the
QMS name was dropped. The QMS headquarters was sold to the Mobile County School
Board.
·
Saunders Engine & Equipment Co.
Inc., a family
business founded in 1959 that provides diesel engine services to commercial
marine clients, has agreed to sell its Mobile operations to Houma, La.-based
Marine Systems Inc – PR 7/10/2007
·
Three George's Candy Store, which operates a store on
·
While
most other states fund robust consumer protection agencies to monitor and
supervise the way that utilities are regulated, no one in
·
Alabama
Power Company is a member company of the Southern
Company, one of the largest investor owned utilities in the
o
Alabama
Power's 1997 KWH generation by source was 72% fossil fuel, 20% nuclear, and 8%
hydro and other sources.
o
As
a part of the Southern Company System, Alabama Power is directly connected to
the Southern Company grid.
o
It generates and distributes electricity to most of the
southern two thirds of
o
The Alabama Power Company was founded by steamboat
captain William Lay in 1906 in
o
In 1947 the Securities and Exchange Commission approved
the creation of The Southern Company, comprising Alabama Power, Georgia Power,
Mississippi Power, and Gulf Power. The company had to sell South Carolina
Power.
·
In 1885, the Electric Lighting Company of Mobile
was organized by Colonel H.M. Byllesby of
o
Byllesby went on to
form electric companies around the country
o
The Electric Light and Power Company was
formed in
o
In 1892, the Mobile Light and Railroad Company
built a powerhouse at Water and Monroe Streets. It merged with the Electric
Light and Power Company. These were then merged with Col. Byllesby’s
Electric Lighting Company to form the Mobile Electric Company.
o
T.K. Jackson, a native of
o
The Mobile Electric Company’s
o
The Mobile Electric Company was purchased by the
Alabama Power Company in 1925. Alabama Power formed the Gulf Electric
Company to run its southern
·
In 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency initiated an
enforcement action against the company for violations of the Clean Air Act.
o
In 2006, Alabama Power announced that it would spend $2
billion upgrading pollution controls at its coal-burning plants as part of a
settlement with the agency.
o
Legal claims against five coal-fired plants filed by the
Southern Environmental Law Center were unsuccessful, but the SELC plans to
appeal the decisions.
·
As
a regulated monopoly protected from competition, Alabama Power is allowed to
earn between 13 percent and 14.5 percent return on equity.
o That range is exceptionally high,
experts say. Critics have regularly questioned whether the PSC is overly
generous with the utilities it is supposed to regulate. However, Alabama
Power's residential rate is currently about 11 percent below the national
average, according to the company.
o Alabama Power Co.'s residential rates
have by more than one-third in the last five years. Nationally, the average
residential electric rate climbed by about 16.3 percent. Since 1992, Alabama
Power's residential electric rate has increased by almost 38 percent, compared
to a national average of 30.4 percent.
·
Alabama
Power’s coal-fired Barry Plant in
north
·
Alabama
Power has been important in local economic and industrial development and
recruiting.
· Mobile Energy Services Company’s 61 megawatt energy facility is located within the Kimberly-Clark tissue mill, and is the exclusive steam supplier to the mill and provides a substantial portion of the mill's electricity requirements. The powerhouse is fueled by a combination of coal, biomass and natural gas.
Mobile Gas/EnergySouth
·
Mobile Gas supplies natural gas to over 100,000
residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
o
It is regulated by the Alabama Public
Service Commission.
o
Mobile Gas obtains approximately 51% of its gas supply from
sources located in the Mobile Bay area, with the balance being obtained from
interstate sources.
·
1836 James H. Caldwell
created the Mobile Gas Light and
Coke Company to provide “natural gas” lighting for the downtown
streets of Mobile. By 1838, it expanded into residential and commercial natural
gas supply.
·
1906 Mobile Gas Light and
Coke was reorganized as Mobile
Gas Service Corporation. The Company was incorporated in 1933.
·
Mobile Gas was majority-owned by William Hearin,
former publisher of the Mobile Press-Register, who was Chairman of the Board of
Directors from 1983 to 2001.
·
EnergySouth incorporated in 1997, and the next
year, Mobile Gas and Bay Gas Storage became its subsidiaries. In 2007 EnergySouth reincorporated in Delaware.
EnergySouth traded under the ENSI symbol on the Nasdaq.
o Bay
Gas Storage formed in
1991.
o EnergySouth Midstream Inc. was created as a subsidiary of EnergySouth specializing in natural gas storage and trading,
with Bay Gas Storage operating as a division of Midstream. The company has
opened a new Midstream sales office in Houston
·
2008 EnergySouth agrees to be
acquired by San Diego-based Sempra Energy for $510 million and the assumption
of $224 million in EnergySouth debt.- PR 7/29/08,
8/22/08
o
CEO
Dean Liollio said the decision to sell came after the
company, facing increasing capital needs for its storage business, hired
financial advisers J.P. Morgan Securities and Berenson & Co., and decided
the best option was a sale. When it bought 60 percent of Mississippi Hub LLC, EnergySouth financed the purchase with a line of credit
good for up to $195 million. But that loan ran for just 364 days. JPMorgan
Chase & Co., a lender to EnergySouth, talked to
the board about the company's options, including more debt, taking on partners
in the gas storage business, selling more stock, or selling Mobile Gas.
o
EnergySouth shareholders
will get to vote on the deal, possibly in September. Sempra said it expects the
deal to close in the fourth quarter. The companies said that. The purchase
price of $61.50 a share is a 23 percent premium over the $50.16 price at the
time of the deal.
o
Sempra
Energy (NYSE: SRE) was born in 1998 when the parent companies of San Diego Gas
& Electric and Southern California Gas merged. 6.5 million gas customers running from the Mexican border into central
California and 1.36 million electric customers, mainly around San Diego. The
merger touched off an aggressive push into nonregulated
businesses, including shares in utilities in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru,
liquefied natural gas terminals, gas storage, and most importantly, commodities
trading accounting for 45 percent of the company's profit. The nation's largest
natural gas utility, Sempra has revenues of $11.4 billion (compared to EnergySouth’s $135 million revenues) and was ranked No. 232
on the Fortune 500 list of the nation's largest publicly held companies. – PR
7/9/08
·
Bay Gas Storage Company,
Ltd., an EnergySouth subsidiary, provides natural gas
storage services.
o
EnergySouth held 90. 9% interest in
Bay Gas and Olin Corporation held a 9.1% limited partnership interest.
o Bay Gas owns and operates three underground caverns used for natural
gas storage located in McIntosh. Storage caverns are cut from naturally formed,
underground salt domes through solution mining. A well is drilled, water is
injected and salt brine -- a mixture of water and salt -- is extracted.
o Bay Gas has plans to drill a fourth
cavern with 5 billion cubic feet capacity scheduled to begin service in the
fall of 2009. The project is the first phase of a planned expansion that will
later include a fifth cavern also capable of storing 5 billion cubic feet of
natural gas, raising the company's total capacity at Bay Gas to 22 billion
cubic feet. The company is spending $100 million to finish the third dome, to
start a fourth and a fifth dome, and to build a 29-mile pipeline.
o EnergySouth joined with New York-based Fortress
Investment Group to buy Mississippi Hub LLC.’s natural gas storage dome near
Magee, Miss. for $140 million in November 2007. EnergySouth
owns 60 percent of the project, and Fortress owns 40 percent..
·
Bay
Gas had a 20-year contract to store natural gas for Mobile Gas. Mobile Gas pays
about twice as much for storage as commercial Bay Gas customers such as Tampa
Electric Co. The profits of EnergySouth and Bay Gas
Storage are not limited by the PSC's jurisdiction. The cost of Bay Gas storage
is borne by Mobile Gas customers, not by the utility. In 2005, the amount of
gas withdrawn from storage by Mobile Gas represented 9 percent of Bay Gas'
total capacity, but Mobile Gas accounted for about 25 percent of the storage facility's revenue of $16 million.
·
Federal
Department of Energy surveys showed customers of Mobile Gas pay some of the
highest rates in the nation for natural gas. – PR 2/18/2007, 1/17/08
o
Mobile
Gas prices for residential customers averaged $22.42 per 1,000 cubic feet in
October 2007, 54 percent higher than the nationwide average of $14.51.
Commercial customers were charged $15.55, compared to a national average of
$10.91.
o
Mobile
Gas is the country's second-most-expensive state-regulated utility for
residential gas prices. Alabama had the third-highest gas prices in the nation
in 2006.
o The Mobile City Council asked the
Alabama Public Service Commission to investigate natural gas rates. Reggie
Copeland and William Carroll voted against the resolution. A Public Service
Commission study released in January 2008 found no evidence that Mobile Gas
Service Corp. was charging improper rates to customers, but it did not address
the reasons for the state's higher-than-average gas prices. The study did
suggest changes that would make some financial transactions between Mobile Gas
and EnergySouth, its parent company, more
transparent. Commissioners and PSC personnel continued to blame high prices on
limited volume and a need to maintain infrastructure. The Alabama Public
Service Commission questioned the use of the federal survey results and said
that PSC President Jim Sullivan did not believe the Mobile Gas rates were
unfair or out of order, based on the PSC rules that the company operates under.
Alabama's PSC is one of the few in the nation that operates without supervision
from outside authorities. All of the surrounding states with lower prices have
state-funded consumer watchdog groups that scrutinize the decisions of their
public service commissions. In
o The Alabama Attorney General's Office
is reviewing financial records at Mobile Gas Service Corp., an evaluation
prompted in part by consumer complaints about the utility's high natural gas
rates. – PR 8/4/07
· EnergySouth directors and executives owned more than one million of the company's 7.9 million shares.
o Major Shareholders (as of 12-06): Thomas Van Antwerp has voting rights on over 581,000 shares or 7% of outstanding shares (including Ann B. Hearin 105,000, Louise B. Hearin 64,000 , Luis Williams 12,000, Hearin-Chandler Foundation 175,000, Staples Family LLC 210,000). Other major beneficial owners include Royce and Associates, LLC, New York, 6%, and U.S. Trust Corporation, New York, 5.5%.
o
Directors: WALTER A. BELL Commissioner,
Department of Insurance, State of Alabama; Vice Chairman, Gulf Federal Bank. JOHN S. DAVIS Vice Chairman of
the Company; Member of Board, Infirmary Health System, Inc., Member of
South Area Board of Directors AmSouth Bank. JOHN C. HOPE, III Chairman of the Board
of the Company; Executive Vice President, Whitney National Bank; Member of
Board, Infirmary Health System, Inc. WALTER L. HOVELL Vice Chairman of the
Board of the Company; Retired President and Chief Executive Officer, Mobile Gas
Service Corporation GAYLORD C. LYON President, Gaylord C. Lyon and
Company, Inc., JUDY A. MARSTON Owner of Judy Marston &
Associates, a business consulting firm S. FELTON MITCHELL President, S. Felton
Mitchell, Jr., P.C., Sole Proprietor, S.Felton
Mitchell, Jr., CPA, President, The Vibroplex Co.,
Inc., G.
MONTGOMERY MITCHELL Retired Senior Vice President, Stone & Webster
Management Consultants, Inc., Houston, Texas; Member of Board, Energy West,
Inc., Great Falls, Montana HARRIS V. MORRISSETTE President, Marshall
Biscuit Co., Inc.; Director, BankTrust; Director,
Williamsburg Investment Trust, Cincinnati, Ohio; Chairman of the Board, Azalea
Aviation, Inc. ROBERT H. ROUSE Partner: Helmsing,
Leach, Herlong, Newman & Rouse P.C., THOMAS B. VAN
ANTWERP Executive
Director, Providence Hospital Foundation; Member of the Board, Merchants and
Marine Bank, Pascagoula, Mississippi
·
MoBay
Storage Hub Inc. plans
to build 50 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage between Dauphin Island
and Mobile County in an area where four major pipelines meet. – PR 9/30/07,
12/22/07, 2/8/08
o Its Houston-based parent company is
Falcon Gas Storage. The company signed a lease with the state on the land and said
it plans to start construction in 2008 and complete the $250 million facility
by 2009.
o The MoBay
project is a conversion of the company's nearly depleted gas field in the
o The project would create the largest
natural gas storage facility in the