ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The new owner of the retail space at The Wharf in Orange Beach will be the first to tell you, running shopping complexes is a totally new experience for him.

“I’m not an expert at it,” Louisiana businessman Art Favre will quickly tell you.

But he does know how to run a business, serving as president of Performance Construction, based in Baton Rouge, La. According to his biography posted on LSU’s school of engineering site upon his induction to the school’s Hall of Distinction in 2006, Favre is owner and president of Performance Contractors, Inc., a $400 million general industrial services company specializing in construction, maintenance, and pipe fabrication capabilities.

His first order of business here as the new owner of Wharf Properties, LLC is to find somebody who knows retail.

“That’s why we’re doing a national search to bring in the best minds we can, people that do this all around the country every day all day and know the ins and outs of the business and know what it takes to be successful,” Favre said.

Favre has been a frequent visitor to Orange Beach since 1993 and now owns property here. He has some personal ideas about how the property should move forward.

“But you know I fully recognize that that’s not my expertise,” he said. “I’ve made my money in other ways. It’s a long-term financial investment for me and I’m looking at as simply that and want to have the best management we can have in order for it to be successful.”

Current tenants like what they’ve heard so far about the new landlord.

Tricia Adams, owner of Nibbles Market and Sandwich Shop, had a chance encounter with Favre when she was closing up shop recently.

“I’m very impressed,” she said. “He acted like he cared to know how our past has been, what we were looking for to happen in the future. He was not in a hurry to go ‘hey’ and go on his way because I happened to be walking out the door when he was passing by.”

Adams said even though there was an entourage with him, Favre took time to talk with her and ask questions about her market.

“I said ‘hello Mr. Favre, how are you?’ and I introduced myself to him,” she said. “And he stopped, even though he had about 30 people with him that were waiting on him.

“And that means a lot to business owners. It means a lot for someone to take their time to go ‘how are you doing? Tell me a little about your business. How has the past been? I’m going to work real hard.’ Just a genuine ‘I care’ and that’s what I felt from him.”

Renee Steele of Rafter’s Restaurant and Sports Bar hasn’t met Favre, but “of course I’m glad it sold,” she said on a slow Tuesday afternoon.

Fish on a Plate gift shop owner Sharon McCraney hasn’t met the new owner either, but says the mood at the shopping complex has improved since Favre purchased it for $10 million cash in late November.

“Everyone is feeling very positive,” McCraney said. “I honestly think it’s going to be a good move, a good thing. I’ve heard that he’s already looking at painting and getting things all fixed up, and is going to work really hard to bring people to the area to make it known that it’s here.

“I feel pretty good about that. We’re very pleased and excited and looking forward to bigger and better things.”

Favre said relationships with tenants will be a priority, something that was lacking during The Wharf’s financial struggles of the past few years.

“What we’ve gathered from the tenants that are there, is there’s really been virtually a void of any type of management at The Wharf for several years now,” he said. “They’ve been kind of having to fend for themselves.

“We’ve gotten real, real positive feedback from all the tenants that ‘thank goodness somebody’s going to come in here with some real management and help us be successful.’ That’s a big task for us to do, but that’s what we’re going to try to do. And we’re committed to do that.”

Getting the new management team in place is the initial project.

“We’re currently in the process of interviewing, on a national search, different management firms, professional management firms,” he said. “We hope to select one here before the end of the year and have them on the ground and running by the first of January.

“One of their first tasks at hand is going to be to put together a long-term global plan for the overall execution and development of the site.”

Favre says this is just the beginning and he’s looking for continued improvements in The Wharf.

“It’s going to be a work in progress for many years, but I think the key to it is having a good, long-range plan and vision that all of the participants can buy into and feel good about,” he said.