FOLEY, Ala. — When it rains it pours, and the same can apparently be said concerning hotels and convention centers.

After years of slugging it out over Gulf State Park, state officials, who said if you build a new luxury hotel and convention center they will come — they being conventioneers — and grassroots groups, who protested that those coming wouldn’t be the people the State Park’s facilities were built for — namely, Alabama families of modest means — are finally on the same page so to speak.

The Alabama Legislature recently approved a compromise bill that is the first step in getting a hotel and convention center built at Gulf State Park, generally considered to be the crown jewel of the Alabama State Parks system. Those facilities were lost in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan made landfall on the Alabama coast.

The bill passed by the Legislature contained language that would require the concessionaire to have reasonable rates for the public, something a number of state agencies and citizens groups took Gov. Bob Riley to task over. Opponents of the original plan, which would have given Auburn University a long-term lease on the beachfront property, and would have allowed the West Paces Hotel Group out of Atlanta to operate the facilities, said the compromise bill restored true competitive bidding.

But now, a Chicago-based company and a Mobile businessman are proposing to build the same thing — Gulf-front hotel and convention center — in Orange Beach.

“We wouldn’t want the governor or Legislature to think we’re not appreciative of what they’ve done,” said Mayor Tony Kennon of Orange Beach recently in referring to state plans for Gulf State Park.

But Kennon said the plans being made by Centrum Properties of Chicago and K.C. Chiang of Mobile are farther along than plans for a new hotel and convention center at Gulf State Park.

“It’s a good possibility it’s going to happen,” Kennon said of the Centrum Properties proposal. If the developers’ money comes through, the City of Orange Beach is going to approve the project, the mayor said.

Charley Grimsley, former commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and a critic of the initial Riley proposal regarding what was often referred to as a “four star” hotel at Gulf State Park, said recently that “any competing hotel/convention center project, particularly one of (the Orange Beach) size, would knock any mega-deal at Gulf State Park in the head.”

Grimsley, who filed a lawsuit in connection with the initial state proposal regarding the hotel and convention center at Gulf State Park, said he can’t imagine anybody bankrolling the proposed hotel and convention center in Orange Beach what with the economy being the way it is at present.

“But I certainly wish them well because it would eliminate the need for a luxury hotel and convention center at Gulf State Park,” said Grimsley, who has threatened to take the governor back to court if concession rates and charges are not reasonable under the recently passed bill.

The designs for the Wyndham & Winfield Resort, which Kennon said would be on approximately 10 acres of land on the “west side of town,” have already been approved by the city.

Add to the mix plans for the completion of the Homeport Marina on the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores. “Completion” includes a hotel, convention center and ferry terminal, according to Mack McAleer, who owns the 27 acres where the Homeport Marina is located along with Lucy “LuLu” Buffett’s landmark eatery.

McAleer recently told Gulf Coast Newspapers that a hotel and conference center on his property would be less affected by storms since the Marina property is 12 feet above sea level. Thus, a hotel and conference center there would not be impacted by tropical weather to the degree the same facilities would be on Gulf-front property.

While McAleer’s proposal is still on the drawing board, he’s looking at a 250-room hotel and 40,000-square-feet of conference center that will include space for additional restaurants and retail shops at the site.

In October 2008, groundbreaking was held for The Conference Center at The Wharf in Orange Beach, billed at the time as the “largest in the entire Gulf Coast.” The Conference Center, planned at approximately 27,000-square-feet, is a finished product now. The facility, through use of its partitioned wall system, can also be used as an exhibition hall and for receptions.

Factor in the numbers for the proposed Wyndham & Winfield Resort — nearly 500 rooms and approximately 17,000-square-feet of convention center — and the question might be asked if there is too much on the table for South Baldwin where the convention market is concerned.

‘LET’S GET ON WITH IT’

Grimsley says yes.

“If Centrum Properties and LuLu’s build convention centers, and considering The Wharf already has one, the question then becomes how many convention centers can be supported by an area that does not have a major airport,” Grimsley said.

“The bottom line is the new private convention centers should drive the final nail in the coffin of the Riley Ritz Carlton and Convention Center courtesy of John Q. Taxpayer,” a reference to the longstanding squabble over what would be built at Gulf State Park to replace what Ivan destroyed.

Grimsley said these other plans for developments should rightly pave the way for what should have been done years ago: “Build a hotel at the Gulf State Park beach that average Alabamians can afford. Let’s get on with it.”

Kennon, on the other hand, said there is plenty of business to go around; that the market will ultimately decide if enough convention business could be spread around to existing and proposed convention and conference meeting sites.

Herb Malone, president and CEO of Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, agrees with Kennon.

“I typically believe in the free market, and it will dictate how much demand there is,” Malone said this week.

Proposals as such don’t mean anything will be built, Malone said. He adds that when a proposal actually goes “vertical” — becomes a reality in brick and mortar — that’s when things get exciting, and that’s when others who are proposing similar ventures typically step back and give those a second look.

There is no way to know how much convention business the Alabama Gulf Coast has lost since Ivan slammed ashore five years ago, taking out the old Gulf State Lodge and Convention Center in the process, Malone said. There is a long list of groups in the area — typically trade associations — that stay in contact with Malone and the CVB about new facilities.

“They want to come here but we don’t have the facilities to meet their needs,” Malone said.

Is he excited about the possibility that a new hotel and convention center might be closer to reality at Gulf State Park?

“Absolutely,” Malone said.

Grimsley is excited too.

“From the very beginning, we said a convention center on the island (Gulf Shores) needs to be built by either the local municipalities who would benefit, or from private investors who would build such a facility on their own land. Perhaps things are moving in that direction,” he said.

Because the compromise bill approved recently by the Legislature requires the cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to, in Grimsley’s words, “pony up” their fair share for a convention center at Gulf State Park, the two coastal cities are, in Grimsley’s opinion, faced with the choice of helping to pay for that convention center on state property or getting one financed totally by private investors. Grimsley feels, where the Wyndham & Winfield Resort proposal is concerned, it might be a case of “Orange Beach … now wrapping their loving arms around the private investors.”