Hoover Business Happenings - November 2022
Now Open
Hoover residents Donna Bishop and Tahara Evans have started an event management company called Bishop Evans Events. The pair have more than 30 years of experience in event planning, fundraising and Southern hospitality and plan to offer services for things such as weddings, corporate events, rehearsal dinners, holiday parties, birthday parties, showers, teas and vow renewals. Their expertise includes event management, floral design and event design. 205-516-3737 or 205-612-2485
Chick-fil-A on Oct. 6 opened its newly built location in the Hoover Commons shopping center at 1609 Montgomery Highway. The previous Chick-fil-A restaurant was torn down to make way for a new design. 205-979-9990
Hoover Fitness has changed its name to HF Elite Fitness and Training and reopened in a smaller, renovated space at 2153 Clearbrook Road. 205-822-9009
Coming Soon
Scenthound, a dog hygiene and grooming company, plans to open its third Birmingham-area location in the Stadium Trace Village development at 5190 Medford Drive, Suite 118, either late this year or early 2023. Franchise owners Jacob Lee and Brett Basik already have their first Birmingham-area location in The Village at Lee Branch off U.S. 280 and plan to open a second location in Mountain Brook in November. In all, they plan to have 10 stores between Birmingham and Nashville, with at least four in the Birmingham area. 205-878-3147
Precision Tactical Arms, which specializes in weapons manufacturing, plans to soon open its third brick-and-mortar location at 105 Inverness Corners. 205-703-8212
The Guthrie’s chicken restaurant plans to open in the former Zaxby’s location at 4629 U.S. 280 S.
Euphoria Nail Bar plans to open in one of the new buildings in Stadium Trace Village on the corner of John Hawkins Parkway and Stadium Trace Parkway.
Discount Tire purchased the former Sears Auto Center at 3240 Galleria Circle and plans to open a Discount Tire store there by the end of this year, according to company spokeswoman Mary Freydberg.
Sherwin-Williams is building two new paint stores in Hoover — one at 6309 Adena Lane behind the Cahaba Market strip shopping center along U.S 280 and another at 1051 Amber Drive in the Stadium Trace Village development.
Mavis Tires & Brakes plans to open a location behind the Cahaba Market strip shopping center along U.S. 280.
Lake Cyrus residents Monti and Shana Osman plan to open a milkshakes and dessert shop called Magic Milkshakes & More in the former location of Pivot Fitness at 2801 John Hawkins Parkway, Suite 157-0 in the Galleria Trace Plaza shopping center. They hope to have the 2,500-square-foot shop open sometime in November.
New Ownership
The Hills at Hoover apartment complex at 3627 Cedarbrook Drive has a new owner. A Florida-based company called Hills at Hoover Apts LLC paid $44 million for the 320-unit apartment complex to Oxford Hills at Hoover LLC, Hills at Hoover LLC, Hoover Exchange LLC and Hoover Sale 2022 LLC. The deal closed Sept. 14, according to Josh Jacobs, first vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap, which represented the sellers. The Hills at Hoover complex was originally built in 1972 and covers 25 acres off Lorna Road. It has 329,980 square feet of rentable space, according to materials provided by Jacobs. The property has 80 one-bedroom units, 160 two-bedroom units and 80 three-bedroom units, with rents ranging from $870 to $1,126 per month. 205-987-0737
News and Accomplishments
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama in July discovered that North Highland Co., a company that Blue Cross hired to conduct surveys of its Blue Advantage Medicare Advantage plan, suffered a significant cyberattack, resulting in the potential compromise of personal information for up to 8,700 of Blue Cross’ current and former Blue Advantage members. North Highland’s investigation into the matter determined that personal information such as names, ages, genders, cities, zip codes and email addresses were compromised. However, North HIghland determined that no credit card information, banking information or Social Security Administration numbers were compromised. North Highland no longer has Blue Cross member data in its active information systems and engaged third-party forensic experts to assist in remediation efforts and to prevent future incidents, Blue Cross said. Blue Cross notified people who were impacted and offered them one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft restoration services. Anyone current or former members with questions or concerns can contact 888-234-8266.
Capstone Building Corp., based in Meadow Brook Corporate Park, recently broke ground on a $13.45 million garden-style housing development in West Point, Georgia, to be called West Point Village. The development will have 72 units covering 79,389 square feet and including units with one to three bedrooms. The project will have a total of 148 beds and 92 bathrooms, as well as a community garden, clubhouse, meeting/community room and exercise facility. The development is expected to be completed by July 2023. The developer is Pennrose LLC, and the architect is Kitchen & Associates. 205-803-5226
Barber Companies, a private real estate investment firm, has purchased a 12,425-square-foot, single-story office building at 2 Riverchase Ridge in the Riverchase Office Park. The property formerly was the headquarters for Wayne’s Pest Control.
Regions, which has an operations center at 2090 Office Parkway Circle and numerous branches in Hoover, was fined $50 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and ordered to refund at least $141 million to customers the bureau said Regions harmed with illegal surprise overdraft fees. From August 2018 through July 2021, Regions charged customers surprise overdraft fees on certain ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases, even after telling consumers they had sufficient funds at the time of the transactions. The bureau found that Regions leadership knew about and could have discontinued its surprise overdraft fee practices years earlier but chose to wait while the bank pursued changes that would generate new fee revenue to make up for ending the illegal fees. Regions issued a statement, saying that “although Regions Bank disagrees with the CFPB’s characterizations, the bank cooperated with the investigation and is pleased to move forward. Agreeing to the settlement reflects Regions’ desire to focus its attention on continuing to support customers through a wide range of account enhancements that have already lowered fees for many customers.” 256-562-2200
Long-Lewis Ford Lincoln of Hoover is building a new showroom for its Lincoln vehicles, including the Black Label line of vehicles, at its dealership at 2551 John Hawkins Parkway. The new showroom is 8,500 square feet and represents an investment of more than $3 million, General Manager Terry Poole said. Long-Lewis Ford Lincoln, with Allen Vines as its principal dealer, also has purchased the Ernest McCarty Ford dealership at 1471 First St. N. in Alabaster and will be converting it into a Long-Lewis Ford Service Center that will include used car sales, rental cars, parts department, service department, body shop and Quick Lane maintenance center for routine vehicle maintenance, Poole said. 205-989-3673
Personnel Moves
Dr. Lauren Cabaniss has joined Pediatric Dental Associates of Alabama and will be seeing patients at the practice’s offices in Cullman and the Southlake community in Hoover. Dr. Cabaniss has a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a doctorate in dental medicine from the UAB School of Dentistry. She was a research assistant in UAB’s Institute of Oral Health Research under Dr. Mary MacDougall, participating in studies of cell culture (isolating bone marrow from mice), histological staining, polymerase chain reaction and DNA/RNA isolation. The Medplex office in Hoover is at 3000 Southlake Park, Suite 200. Other dentists there are Dr. Baker Chambliss and Dr. Monica Caplash. 205-453-0314
ARC Realty this year has added at least 10 real estate agents at its Hoover office at 5220 Peridot Place, Suite 124, in the Stadium Trace Village development, including six agents that joined in September. The new agents are Thomas Douglass, Julie Douglass, Kim Slifka, Britt Patterson, Vicki Lugar, Cindy Jones, Sameer Ratani, Carter Ross, Susie Helton and Patrick McPhail. 205-969-8912
Anniversaries
Tortugas Homemade Pizza at 2801 John Hawkins Parkway recently celebrated its 23rd anniversary. 205-403-9800
Anatole’s Bike Skate Surf at 5413 U.S. 280, Suite 101, in the Cahaba Market strip center, is celebrating its one-year anniversary in November.
Closings
The Sunoco Highway 31 gasoline station and convenience store at 1537 Montgomery Highway has closed.