Developer plans high-end Fowl River RV community

By Lawrence Specker | lspecker@al.com

A new RV community could bring 1,000 new residents to the Fowl River area over the next few years, and its developer says to put aside thought of its as an RV park. Instead he described it as the subdivision of the future, one where the houses just happen to have wheels.

That developer got smiles from the Mobile County Commission on Monday when he told commissioners, “My name is Ed Bridgman … and I don’t want anything.”

His plans for Homestead RV Community were well along through the permitting and planning phase, Bridgman said. He said he expected to break ground in late 2019 on an 18-acre site at the intersection of Pioneer and Bay roads, an area just off Dauphin Island Parkway close to Bayley’s Corner. He plans to open Phase 1, with 59 rented lots, in the third quarter of 2020.

Bridgman, a business consultant, said that “about 8 years ago I recognized that there was a trend in America of how people are choosing to live and where people are choosing to live.” Homestead is an attempt to put Mobile County on the cutting edge of that trend, he said.

He’s not building with snowbirds or beach-bound vacationers in mind, he said. Nor does he see baby boomers filling their retirement years with travel as his core market. Instead, he envisions a community of working professionals. Many of them may even work from home, since high-speed Internet access will be one cornerstone of the Homestead infrastructure.

In a follow-up conversation after his County Commission appearance, Bridgman offered a wealth of statistics underlying his bet that a high-end RV community for long-term users will put the county in a position to capitalize on a national movement.

RV sales have boomed in the last decade, he said, with regular double-digit annual sales increases. He cited 2017 figures, saying that just over half a million new RVs had been sold that year and more than 42 percent were sold to millennials. For some families, he said, it has made sense to house their college students in RVs they can then use to relocate to their first job or two. For some recent graduates it has made more sense to build equity in an RV than to buy starter homes they know they’ll be selling in a few years. Even for older workers, it makes sense to steer clear of brick-and-mortar investments if they know their employers are likely to relocate them. High-tech workers who can do their jobs from anywhere they’ve got adequate Internet access are another slice of the pie, he said: They’re at liberty to work from regions where they’d like to vacation.

Meanwhile, he said, as those 500,000-plus new RVs hit the roads in 2017, less than 25,000 new slots in RV parks were added nationally. “We just have a huge shortage of sites,” he said.

“We’re building a community for people who’ll work at Airbus, at Amazon, at Walmart,” he said, referring to major recent industrial developments in the Mobile area. “We’re building a community for people who will build the new bridge over the Bay.”

Homestead’s website provides a long list of amenities, including a stocked fishing pond, RV sites with room for flower beds or gardens, plenty of parking, separate storage for boats and more. Bridgman said Phase II will add a hurricane shelter as well as 83 more sites. Phase III, which should be complete in three to four years, will bring the total number of RV sites to about 250.

Commissioners expressed interest in the plan, with outgoing Commission President Connie Hudsonn saying it sounded like “an exciting development.” Jerry Carl, who will rotate into the position of Commission president later this month, invited Bridgman to meet with him afterward to discuss the development and permitting process.

5 Types of RV Destinations for Investors with Ed O Bridgman

In this episode, Ed O. Bridgman, an RV destination investing expert, shares insights into the booming RV destination industry. He discusses his background in electrical engineering and business administration, as well as his experience in applying Six Sigma principles. Ed explains the five types of RV destinations, including RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, communities, and hybrids. He highlights the growing demand for RV sites and the need for more RV destinations to bridge the supply-demand gap. Ed also provides resources for learning about RV park investing and shares his book recommendation, ‘The Goal’ by Eliyahu Goldratt.

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Homestead RV Community opening in 2020
A new RV community is coming to Theodore. Homestead RV Community is said to be one of the more technologically advanced communities in the world when it opens in 2020. Homestead RV Community is located at 10550 Pioneer Rd. Theodore AL. 36582 which is the intersection of Pioneer and Bay Roads near Fowl River AL.

Creating Next Generation. Modern RV Communities

Ed Bridgman’s background is in studying efficiency and eliminating waste. He was on the first team that developed the Six Sigma research and design process for which they won the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Award. Ed then began practicing what he’d been teaching when he began the first modern RV community in the area. He knows the market, he knows his customer, and he knows what he needs to do to attract their attention and keep them coming back.