GULF SHORES, Ala. – Acme Oyster House Chief Operating Officer Lucien Gunter says his company is looking for a spot in Gulf Shores to place a new restaurant.

“We have been looking and searching throughout that area for quite some time for a deal that would fit what we are looking to do,” Lucien Gunter said from his New Orleans office on Thursday. "We’re enthusiastic that there’s going to be a location that will fit us. We just haven’t been able to ink that deal yet.”

During a March 19 council work session the topic of the waterfront overlay district came up when more money was needed for the consulting firm doing the study.

The city is trying to establish an entertainment and shopping district in the area around LuLu’s on the north side of of the Intracoastal Waterway and on the south side in the area around Tacky Jack’s.

After the discussion, Mayor Robert Craft alluded to a significant new business that was considering moving to the new downtown district, but wasn’t able to reveal what it might be.

“We do have one very important interested business looking to relocate in this newly designed area,” Craft said during that work session. “We have an opportunity to accomplish exactly what we have dreamed of having over there.”

The first Acme Oyster House opened in New Orleans in the French Quarter in 1910 and didn’t begin adding locations until 1996, according to the company website. Currently there are locations in New Orleans, Covington, La., Metairie, La., Baton Rouge, La., and Sandestin, Fla.

Gunter said there’s not a lot to tell at this point, except his company is highly interested in locating in Gulf Shores.

“The only thing I’m really at liberty to discuss right now is that even before Katrina we have always been interested in the Gulf Shores market,” he said. “We think that the close proximity to the New Orleans area and the fact that we currently have an establishment in Sandestin, it became kind of a natural fit for us.”

City leaders, while also mum about the project, have been quite helpful, Gunter said.

“We’re encouraged by the way Gulf Shores area, in conjunction with the mayor’s office and economic development and future planning, have been able to rebuild since Katrina and through the whole BP debacle,” he said.