The City of Orange Beach may sell the Orange Beach Event Center to The Wharf to fund the construction of a new community center that would host only locally based community events.

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said the new event center would be "close to what we have" in the current space, which holds "800-850 or so." However, Kennon said "much of it depends on building costs."

The city has no intention of selling the event center soon, Kennon said. The city is considering building a new community center facility as they are "running into a lot of conflicts" as local groups are finding they are unable to book the event center because "out-of-town purity clinics or volleyball tournaments" have already done so.

"The only reason we're doing this (considering a new community center) is to provide local residents and community their own place," Kennon said.

The current Orange Beach Event Center would be sold in order to fund the costs of the new center's construction. Kennon said even after the current building is sold, it will continue to fund the new project as "we'd see a tax increase" from the venue selectively hosting commercial events.

"We think we come out a winner in this situation," Kennon said on the new building costs essentially being covered by the old one.

Orange Beach City Administrator Ford Handley also stated the city is currently "not actively looking to sell" the event center. He said the new space would likely "be smaller than the current building" as it would "accommodate more local events for residents."

Handley said the city "would love to build a new civic center near our Art Center campus in the future. In order to build a new civic center, we would have to sell (the event center) in the future."

He said the area being looked at would be on one of the properties the city already owns "on the south side of Canal (Road) across from the Art Center."