Downtown Mobile businesses expanding on vacant Dauphin Street storefronts

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — When driving on Dauphin Street, you may come across empty, vacant buildings.

Over the past five years, Mobile has been trying to bounce back by filling those with businesses.

In 2019, there were an estimated 40 vacant buildings along Dauphin Street between SpringHill Avenue and Water Street. That number remained high through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Downtown Mobile Alliance interim President and CEO Fred Rendfrey said there’s been a lot of transition since the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses had to close, which created several vacancies.

“We’ve lost some restaurants, a couple of kind of like high profile vacancies in the last month or two have been the loss of like Five and El Papi,” Rendfrey said. “But, you know, the other side of that coin is that we’re also seeing expansions.”

Rendfrey said that the Alliance’s focus currently is expanding more on residential developments to support the new restaurants and stores.

“The more rooftops you have downtown, the more residents you have downtown that’s going to make it easier for the retailers and the restaurants to have that customer base,” Rendfrey said.

One restaurant in particular, Chuck’s Fish, has been in downtown Mobile since 2017. They are now adding onto their restaurant in one of those vacant buildings next door.

Chuck’s Fish restaurant partner Chris Eddings said that he’s seen growth throughout downtown Mobile over the past eight years they’ve been there.

“I hope that it’s enticing for other businesses, other great restaurants, too, to come in all sorts of retail to come in and develop this downtown, which it’s got,” Eddings said. “It’s already wonderful, but it’s got a tremendous amount of potential to be even better.”

Chuck’s Fish’s new extension will open on Wednesday, July 24.

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