Hoover Business Happenings - April 2023
Now Open
Child's Play Therapy Center held a grand opening and ribbon cutting for its location at 2151 Old Rocky Ridge, Suite 100, on March 7. The company offers physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, breastfeeding coaching and counseling for depression, anxiety, behavior disorders and other mental health issues, in addition to special programs on things such as reading disorders. Child Play Therapy Center was founded in 2007 by speech pathologist Deborah Boswell and occupational therapist Kerri Bailey and is a member of the Cicero Therapies Family of Clinics. Hours are 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. However, the center offers flexible scheduling that includes late evenings and Saturdays (on a limited basis). The center has sensory-motor gyms, parent observation rooms and private therapy rooms. 205-583-2883
Euphoria Nail Bar on March 6 opened at 1005 Marble Terrace, Suite 109, next to the Pants Store in Stadium Trace Village. 205-593-4733
Prudence and Brad Kauffman have opened a new gift boutique called Blackbird by Dear Prudence at 4441 Creekside Ave., Suite 117, in the Patton Creek shopping center. They have another location of Blackbird by Dear Prudence in Northville, Michigan. 205-407-7523
Jim Rowell and Sonny Ippolito opened a new used automobile dealership, Lot31, in the former location of Southtown Motors at 1570 Montgomery Highway officially in January and started selling vehicles in March. Rowell has been in the automobile business for about 30 years, about 25 of which was spent with Southtown Motors. When Southtown vacated the property on Montgomery Highway, longtime friends Rowell and Ippolito decided to start a new business there. Rowell's daughter, Jamie Rowell Parker, is serving as office manager, while his son, Will Rowell, works in finance and sales, and his wife, Dawn Rowell, handles the title work. Ippolito's wife, Lisa Ippolito, is working with social media. Rowell said they eventually plan to keep 30 to 40 vehicles on the lot. 205-238-5482
Discount Tire has opened a new store in the former Sears Auto Center at 3240 Galleria Circle. Hours are 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-5 Saturdays. 205-905-4926
Coming Soon
Scenthound, a dog grooming business, in mid-April plans to open its third location in the Birmingham area at 5190 Medford Drive in The Shoppes at Highway 150 shopping center near Sprouts. Business partners Jacob Lee and Brett Basik already have Scenthound locations at The Village at Lee Branch in Hoover and on Hollywood Boulevard in Birmingham. The partners plan to open a total of 10 Scenthound locations in the Birmingham and Nashville areas. Scenthound focuses on cleaning dogs' skin, coat, ears, nails and teeth and, since opening its first location in Lee Branch a year ago already has 1,700 members in its monthly care club. Monthly memberships, starting at $35, include a bath, ear cleaning, nail clip and teeth brushing. Haircuts and other services can be added as needed. 205-526-4266
CAVA, a Mediterranean-style fast-casual restaurant, plans to open in the former location of Kome Japanese Cuisine at 3076 John Hawkins Parkway, next to Verizon and across from Wells Fargo.
Space Savers Climate Storage plans to start construction soon on a 100,000-square-foot, four-story climate-controlled self-storage facility on Old Columbiana Road behind the Hoover Square shopping center. The buidling should have 650 to 700 storage units, all dehumidified and with air conditioning, owner Butch Chandler said. Construction should be complete in about eight months, he said. Space Savers Climate Storage already has two facilities in Tuscaloosa, one in Prattville, one on Meadowlark Drive off U.S. 280 and one off Acton Road near the intersection of U.S. 280 and Interstate 459. A second facility also is being built in Prattville. 205-454-6790
Relocations and Renovations
Pro Dent Paintless Dent Repair closed its location in Cahaba Heights on Feb. 27 and relocated to 516 Mineral Trace, Suite D in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover. The business specializes in hail damage, dents, dings, scratch removal and touch ups. 205-677-3002
Revere Control Systems has partially moved into its new corporate headquarters on a 15-acre property at 5201 Princeton Way, formerly the site of a shopping center anchored by a Winn-Dixie grocery store many years ago. Revere previously had its Hoover operations spread out among 12 buildings at 2240 Rocky Ridge Road, near Interstate 65, but needed more space to expand. The Hoover City Council in August 2021 agreed to abate about $580,000 worth of property and sales taxes to keep Revere in the city of Hoover and assist with its relocation. 205-824-0004
Benton Nissan is undergoing $3 million worth of renovations for its automobile dealership at 1640 Montgomery Highway, including a new building front, showroom and office renovations and the new design for Nissan signs, general sales manager Frankie Bartlett said. The work began in February and is expected to take at least six months, he said. The job is being split up to do one side of the building at a time, he said. 205-979-5420
New Ownership
Gerald Wiggins on Feb. 16 purchased a 9,044-square-foot retail building at 2153 Clearbrook Road in Bluff Park between Shades Mountain Plaza and Bluff Park Village from Clearbrook Partners LLC for $1.89 million, according to parties involved in the sale. The recently renovated building has two tenants, Camp Bow Wow and Hoover Fitness. Michael Murray of Shannon Waltchack represented the seller, and Kyle Crew of Ironvest Partners represented the buyer.
News and Accomplishments
Full Moon Bar-B-Que, headquartered in Hoover at 3226 Lorna Road, early this year was recognized and featured for its barbecue sauces by two national media outlets. Mashed.com chose Full Moon’s white barbecue sauce as the “best Alabama white sauce,” and CNET.com said Full Moon has the “best barbecue sauce for 2023.” Both the white sauce and standard barbecue sauce are available at any of Full Moon’s 17 locations, online or grocery chains such as Publix and Piggly Wiggly. 205-822-0300
Personnel Moves
America’s First Federal Credit Union, which has offices in Hoover at 3312 Old Columbiana Road and #2 Inverness Center Parkway, has promoted Nancy Rice to senior vice president and chief risk officer and Terry Sanderson to vice president and experience officer. Rice, a 29-year veteran of the credit union, joined the accounting department in 1994. She moved to the internal audit department in 1997 as a staff auditor and was promoted to manager of the quality assurance/risk management department in 2004. Five years later, Rice was promoted to assistant vice president for risk management, and in 2015 she was appointed vice president for risk management and began serving as the Bank Secrecy Act officer. In her new role, she will be responsible for directing the administration of credit resolutions and enterprise risk management, including vendor management, compliance, fraud, security and quality assurance. Sanderson joined the credit union in 1979 at the start of her career. Since that time, she has held numerous positions, including file clerk, new accounts representative, collection clerk, loan writer, loan officer, indirect loan officer, supervisor of member services and branch manager. Sanderson moved to the branch services department in 2018, where she served as a regional director managing five of the credit union’s Birmingham branches. In her new role, she will be responsible for focusing on member and employee needs and developing plans and strategies to ensure exceptional and consistent experience is delivered to both credit union members and employees. 205-823-3985 and 205-995-0001
Anniversaries
Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The restaurant chain has two locations in Hoover at 4745 Chace Circle and at 601 Doug Baker Blvd. 205-682-6999 and 205-980-6063
Closings
The Brixx Wood Fired Pizza + Craft Bar at 181 Main St., Suite 241, in the Patton Creek shopping center has closed.
STIX has closed its Japanese restaurant at 3250 Galleria Circle permanently.
Tuesday Morning announced in February it plans to close at least 263 stores across the country, including the one at 1705 Montgomery Highway in Hoover and nine other locations in Alabama. Others closing in the Birmingham area include one at 5223 U.S. 280 in Brook Highland and 1610 Montclair Road in Eastwood Village. The Hoover store was expected to close by the end of March. 205-985-8680
Editor's note: This article was updated on Monday, April 3, to correct the name of one of the owners of Blackbird by Dear Prudence. The owners are Prudence and Brad Kaufmann.