Derek Jeter-Backed Developer Breaks Ground on Luxury ALUM Condos in Downtown Tuscaloosa
A Derek Jeter-backed hospitality company broke ground Friday on a 116,000-square-foot condo, hotel and private club development downtown, and its CEO says Tuscaloosa beat out every other college town in the country for the company’s first property.
ALUM’s Tuscaloosa project at 2130 4th Street near Temerson Square will hold 68 luxury condo-hotel residences, a members’ clubhouse, a restaurant and cafe open to the public, a rooftop lounge, event space and a pool. The company is aiming to open in July 2028.
Former Alabama national championship quarterback and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy recently joined the company as an investor and board advisor and bought a residence in the development.
A Blind Outreach and a Road Trip
Co-founder and CEO David Vialli told the crowd the company’s West Coast founders did not start out looking at Alabama.
“Four years ago, when we started talking about Alum and where we wanted to go, we’re all West Coasters. I said, oh, we’ll go to Oregon first, I’m sure Phil Knight will pay for the whole thing,” Vialli said. “And then we started looking around and seeing what was going on in Tuscaloosa, and seeing the success the city had had and what the school had accomplished, and we said, all right, we may need to go take a trip to Alabama.”
He said he sent a blind inquiry through a commercial real estate website and got a call back from Ward McFarland, a local broker.
“Ward picked us up, we had coffee, walked around, he toured us around and said, you’ll never get this site,” Vialli said. “And I said, that’s the site I want. Lo and behold, four years later, here we are.”
Asked why the company chose Tuscaloosa first, he pointed to the city and the university together.
“The city has gone through a tremendous amount of growth over the last 20 years, and with the university’s continued growth and success, not only in sports but in academics, this was really the first place to be,” Vialli said.
Maddox Reflects on Decades of Downtown Growth
Mayor Walt Maddox used the groundbreaking to make an argument about what two decades of public spending downtown has produced.
“When I look at our downtown, I can’t help but think about what it looked like two decades ago. Our downtown was blighted,” Maddox said. “When I first took office I could have taken a club out of the bag and hit a golf ball down University Boulevard, and not hit anybody. Today it’s vibrant. In fact, I get complaints about how busy our downtown is, people can’t find parking, and I think, what a great problem to have.”
The modern downtown district, bustling with hotels, restaurants, bars and stores, stands in stark contrast to the near-empty place Tuscaloosa knew before Maddox took office while the University exploded in growth and Nick Saban dominated the college football landscape.
“Since we started 20 years ago, we've invested over $100 million in this district. and that hundred million has been matched by over $400 million in private investment into our downtown,” Maddox said. “Every dollar that we’ve invested has been returned four times by the private sector. And today is another example of private sector investment driving our community.”
Maddox said the project means tax revenue for police and fire service and jobs from Harrison Construction Co., the locally owned contractors who will build ALUM.
“Those jobs mean they can have a mortgage, they can save for their children’s future, they can have a high quality of life,” he said. “We’re glad you’re using a local contractor, which again means more jobs in our community to make Tuscaloosa stronger.”
Condos, Clubhouse and a Pool Deck
Vialli described the project as a hybrid. Buyers own their units outright and can place them into a managed rental pool for hotel guests when they are not using them.
“As a condo owner, you can own your unit, and when you’re not there, you put it back into a branded residential rental pool and we manage that for you,” he said. “You don’t really have to do anything.”
The members club will sell memberships to locals and to out-of-town alumni, with access to the pool deck, fitness facilities and clubhouse. Vialli said memberships will eventually carry across the company’s other properties as they open, naming Kentucky, Notre Dame, Michigan and Oregon as markets in the pipeline.
The name follows from that idea.
“When we think about all the communities we’re going to build in, everybody is an alum somewhere. So it’s about belonging,” Vialli said. “That’s why we always say the community already exists, we’re just building the clubhouse.”
Asked what separates the project from other condo and hotel developments in Tuscaloosa, Vialli cited build quality, the amenity package and the fact that the company manages everything.
“If you own a condo somewhere else, you have to do all that work yourself,” he said. “We take care of everything. You just get to come and enjoy yourself.”
Dirt in a Month
Materials have been ordered and one more set of drawings is going to the city, Vialli said. Excavation should begin within a month to a month and a half, and construction is expected to run 16 to 18 months.
Tuscaloosa’s Harrison Construction is the general contractor. Vialli got a laugh thanking the firm.
“There was no one better to choose to build this site,” he said. “I was a little concerned when I found out Tim went to Auburn, but I figured, let’s get it done.”
Condos are already for sale through the Gray Group at Keller Williams Realty in Tuscaloosa. More information is at alumclubs.com.
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