Developer to Seek Incentive to Bring New Businesses to Tuscaloosa

A team of developers from Mobile was in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday to begin the process of seeking tax incentives to demolish more than a dozen homes in a residential area to build a shopping center featuring half a dozen new-to-market offerings.

As the Thread first reported this Spring, District 7 City Councilman Cassis Lanier has a bold vision to demolish 17 mostly vacant homes and clear 24 total lots for the new shopping center.

Although a pending change in property ownership means previously revealed details are no longer set in stone, this is the same development where Lanier said there were plans for a Culver's, a Dutch Bros and a Golden Corral.

"This is what we need to push economic growth in District 7, this is what we need to bring property value up in Springbrook and Cherrydale, but also what we need to attract even more businesses," Lanier told the Thread in March. "Because when others start seeing you develop your district, it becomes an economic hub."

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On Tuesday, the Tuscaloosa City Council Property Committee heard from Michael Delaney of Delaney Property Group, who said they are picking up where the current lot owners are leaving off to seek tax rebates from the city and make this project a reality.

"This project came to us in a time when a group needed someone who could come in and deliver on a promise, and that's why we're here today," Delaney said. "We're trying to see this project through and get it to the finish line."

The proposed plan would demolish 17 homes and clear 24 lots for the new development at Springbrook Circle, which would feature six new buildings. The goal for each lot is to attract new-to-market restaurants and retailers that are not currently doing business in the Tuscaloosa area.

"We've got three tenants lined up right now, and they're all new; they're not tenants who are currently in Tuscaloosa," Delaney said Tuesday.

The Mobile developer called it a $26 million project poised to create 250 new jobs.

Work was initially intended to begin soon after the March announcement, but has stalled out, as Delaney said incentives are needed to make the investment into redeveloping the property worth the risk.

"The last group that came through, they needed incentives, but didn't know how to do it, and couldn't get it done," he told the committee. "So that's where we are right now."

That's where this new group of Mobile developers comes in.

Although the group did not discuss the full terms of the incentive request and said those details would be shared at a later meeting, Delaney said incentivizing the development makes sense for the city and would increase the property's tax revenue by about 30-fold.

Delaney said his team is poised to buy the property in June and start demolition, land-clearing, and infrastructure improvements to support the new businesses.

"Ideally, by the end of next year, we can at least have one business open and
running in there," he said.

For ongoing coverage of the discussions around the incentive and of the development, if and when it begins, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.