Stan Pate Aims to Redevelop Leland Shopping Center Destroyed by 2011 Tuscaloosa Tornado

Tuscaloosa businessman Stan Pate had major business in front of the city council's various committees on Tuesday, including asking for a tax incentive to redevelop an Alberta shopping center destroyed in 2011.

Very little about the plans could be discussed publicly on Tuesday due to confidentiality agreements and pending contracts.

Even so, Pate asked the city council's Finance Committee for a $35 million tax abatement to rebuild at the site of the Leland Shopping Center on University Boulevard.

The former retail utopia first opened in 1959 and was perhaps already in decline when it was devastated by the EF-4 tornado of 2011 and ultimately demolished in 2013.

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Still, Pate said, he believes he can breathe life back into the site, which is between the Alberta Dominos and Piggly Wiggly, and above the railroad tracks near the former Leland Lanes bowling alley.

"When I was a little boy, Alberta City was the place to go, the jobs were out there on the river, and if you wanted a Krispy Kreme donut, you went to Alberta City," Pate said Tuesday. "And the place to shop was Leland Shopping Center. You could get some groceries, you could eat, you could get your clothes cleaned or go to the drug store."

City Councilman John Faile remembered the Pot of Gold, where you could once buy seven hamburgers for a dollar.

Those glory days were long gone when the storm tore through, necessitating the eventual demolition, and the site has been undeveloped since.

"As bad as the tornado was, it created the opportunity for Alberta City to renew," Pate said. " A lot of people have looked at this site, kicked the tire - but we believe in it, we believe in Alberta City."

Pate said though he doesn't own it yet, he's about to buy the property and wants to bring "an important business for the community" to that site in a way that has "a lot of collateral impact on the real estate in the area."

Pate said he has been working on this plan with Councilman Kip Tyner for years, and it's almost ready to advance and reveal.

"We're sitting on G, waiting on O," Pate joked.

For the 9-acre project, Pate is committing $10 million to property acquisition, engineering, demolition, and construction, and said that if the project he pitched in private to the council does not proceed, he would return the site to green-field condition.

In exchange, he's seeking a tax incentive that rebates 100 percent of all abatable city taxes and building permit fees, with a maximum obligation of $35.5 million over 27 years.

Although the committee could not discuss details of the development, they unanimously voted to advance the matter to a full vote of the Tuscaloosa City Council on January 6th.

"This is a dream for me," Tyner said during the meeting.

For more coverage of Tuesday's meetings and the major news coming out of them, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.