Mardi Gras kicks off at The Wharf

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (WALA) - A CELEBRATION OF SURVIVAL

Some said when you’re celebrating surviving some very hard times, Mardi Gras parades are more than just parades. That was the case at The Wharf in Orange Beach.

“It’s great! I didn’t expect all of this,” Darryl Roberts, one of The Wharf's original tenants, said.

Roberts hasn’t seen many days like Monday. The parade brought thousands of people and a ton of business.

THE WHARF’S WOES

The Wharf originally opened in 2006. Almost immediately there was a real estate bust, a recession, and the oil spill. Bankruptcy and foreclosure split up the complex between several banks. For the businesses that survived, it was a tough road.

But now, The Wharf is once again on solid financial footing. Art Favre, President of Performance Contractors out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bought The Wharf in two sections, at a total cost of $26 million. The sales were finalized earlier in 2012.

A NEW LEASE ON THE FUTURE

“We all stuck it out here,” Roberts said. “We all took pride in it. That’s why we hung around for so many years and we finally got an owner I think is going to show great interest in the complex.”

For Roger Butterfield, owner of Tickled Pink and another of the original tenants, the future looks a lot better without the constant shadow of uncertainty.

“We remained,” Butterfield said. “We had a great outlook for the future of The Wharf, and we kept waiting it out.”

Butterfield told us it’s now time for the complex to build on successful days like this one.

“We’re very, very excited. This will be the downtown of Orange Beach in the near future.”