Mobile Board of Adjustment approves use variance to restore Ace Theater as 100-seat cultural venue
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Summary
The Mobile Board of Adjustment approved a use variance for the historic Ace Theater at 503–505 Congress Street to allow a 100-seat cultural and educational venue for the Excelsior Band, after public discussion focusing on parking and safety concerns from nearby port workers.
The Mobile Board of Adjustment on Feb. 2 approved a use variance allowing the historic Ace Theater at 503–505 Congress Street to be rehabilitated and used as a 100-seat cultural and educational performance space for the Excelsior Band.
The decision came after a rehearing presentation by applicant Carrie Cabanas, who told the board the project will be rehabilitated using federal and state historic tax credits and must remain within the historic building envelope. "We are not booking acts...this is all an educational venue," Jose London, leader of the Excelsior Band, said in support, adding the group will focus on local musicians and youth programming.
Why it matters: supporters said the project is a catalytic piece of private investment for a newly planned civil-rights and cultural-heritage corridor along MLK Avenue and would give the 140-year-old Excelsior Band a permanent, educational home. "This project will be the first piece of private investment," an advocate for the corridor said, describing a development agreement that would have the county pay rent for the band for six years with an option to purchase later.
Board members and staff repeatedly framed the request as a narrow use-variance issue: the variance seeks only to permit the theater use in a T4 zoning district so the building can be used as it was originally built. During public comment, the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) raised operational concerns. Mark Bass, an ILA district vice president, said hundreds of port workers are dispatched from nearby properties and warned event traffic could conflict with 24-hour port dispatch activity. "My concern is what's gonna happen when I have 12 callouts a day," Bass said, urging clearer written parking and safety plans.
Developers and project managers acknowledged parking is limited at the immediate site but pointed to a supplemental submission that maps on-street and off-site shared parking, and several nearby property owners and a landowner (Rashawn/Rishon Figures) offered overflow parking options. Daniel Neil, the project manager for a nearby ILA hall renovation, said some mapped fields do not yet exist as improved parking and proposed a partnership to build parking on ILA-owned land behind the hall.
The board’s deliberations focused on the building’s preexisting condition as a theater, noting a sloped floor and other physical constraints that create a zoning hardship. A board member moved to approve the variance with findings of fact and three conditions; the motion passed by voice vote.
What’s next: the variance was approved subject to the listed conditions; the board indicated further neighborhood infrastructure and safety questions (parking location, lighting, traffic measures) are matters for later coordination among the developer, property owners and city staff. The approval allows the owner and developer to proceed with renovation plans that rely on historic tax credits and a 100-seat educational performance program for the Excelsior Band.
