Hoover council approves self-storage facility, retail center along Alabama 150

The Hoover City Council on Sept. 16 gave its approval for construction of about 90,000 square feet of climate-controlled storage space and a shopping center of nearly 11,000 square feet at two sites along Alabama 150.

StoreEase Development plans to put two climate-controlled storage buildings on property just west of the Walgreens near the entrance to the Deer Valley community.

And the owner of Jubilee Joe’s Cajun and Seafood Restaurant wants to build a new 10,700-square-foot strip shopping center right next to the Sprouts grocery store in The Shoppes at Hoover at the intersection of Alabama 150 and Interstate 459. Kashif “Kash” Siddiqui said he plans to relocate his restaurant there, plus build about 7,000 square feet of retail space.

SELF-STORAGE BUILDINGS

Former state Sen. Slade Blackwell, R-Mountain Brook, one of the partners in StoreEase Development, said there’s a great demand for self-storage services in that high-growth area of western Hoover and nearby communities. The area within a 3-mile to 4-mile radius of Deer Valley needs 337,376 square feet of self-storage space, but there is only 197,000 square feet available, leaving an unmet need of 140,000 square feet, he said.

The StoreEase buildings he wants to put along Alabama 150 right next to the Jonathan Michael “Mike” Gilotti Memorial Bridge would be designed in a way that’s similar to the design of buildings in the Ross Bridge Town Center, Blackwell said.

The storage buildings would be two stories, but because of the terrain, they would appear to be one-story facilities from certain angles, he said. The two buildings would be built into the sloping property. At least 80 percent of the exterior would be brick, and the color would match the bricks at the Ross Bridge Welcome Center, he said.

Together, the two buildings would have about 700 self-storage units, said Josh Boyd, another partner in StoreEase Development.

The Hoover zoning board in March recommended the City Council approve a plan to put a three-story 60,000-square-foot self-storage facility and a 9,000-square-foot retail center on this piece of property. But that recommendation was tabled due to some concerns of neighbors, and the developer ended up revising his plans to increase the size of the self-storage space, change the design and eliminate the retail strip center.

Stan Marks, one of the Deer Valley residents who expressed concerns about the original plans, said he was very pleased with the adjustments made by the developers wanting to build the self-storage space.

JUBILEE JOE’S RELOCATION

Further east, at the intersection of Alabama 150 and Interstate 459, Siddiqui wants to relocate his restaurant to 1.7 acres on a corner property next to Sprouts and an outparcel that contains Starbucks, an AT&T shop and Riveria Nails and Spa.

Because there are less than 75 proposed parking spaces on the parcel, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval for the shopping center only under the condition that no other sit-down restaurant be allowed in the center, City Planner Mac Martin said.

Siddiqui said buying the property and building the new restaurant and retail site is a $4.4 million project for him. The development will be called The Shoppes at Hwy 150 Crossings and should be ready to open by spring 2020, Siddiqui said.

The new location will enable Jubilee Joe’s to seat more diners, host more special events, boil more crawfish and once again serve buses, Siddiqui said. BRESCO is designing a specialty kitchen to include a 60-gallon steam kettle for crawfish boils. The large-volume boiling basket will be hoisted out of the kettle by a pulley block-and-tackle cable system, to a stainless steel separating table.

Jubilee Joe’s formerly served a lot of groups on buses, with the buses parking on John Hawkins Parkway, but traffic on the road got too busy to allow for bus parking, Siddiqui said. At the new location, he has cross-parking agreements with adjacent parking lots to allow plenty of room for buses, he said.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business Monday night, the City Council:

• Agreed to allow a Mexican restaurant/brewpub called Hops N Guac in The Village at Brock’s Gap shopping center at the intersection of Brock’s Gap Parkway and Stadium Trace Parkway. The brewpub plans to have indoor and outdoor recreational games and activities, such as shuffleboard, a life-size Connect 4, cornhole and a Scrabble wall, City Planner Mac Martin said.
• Approved changes to the site plan for The Crossings of Hoover senior living center planned in the Riverchase office park along Parkway Lake Drive between U.S. 31 and Parkway River Drive.
• Moved future meetings of the Hoover City Council, Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission and Hoover Board of Zoning Adjustment to the Hoover Senior Center to accommodate expected renovations of the council chambers at Hoover City Hall. The Hoover Arts Council is moving its meetings to the Hoover Public Library during the renovation project.
• Rejected three bids for an improvement project at Star Lake in the Green Valley community. Tim Westhoven, the city’s chief operations officer, said one bidder did not bid on all the required items, and the other two appear to have misinterpreted some of the work to be performed, resulting in bids coming in significantly over the $350,000 budgeted for the project.
• Congratulated Ava Walters as the 2019-20 Alabama Cinderella Queen, Elaina Burt as the 2019-20 Alabama Cinderella Miss, Emma Kate Osborne as the 2019-20 Alabama Cinderella Tot and Kennedy Osborne as the 2019-20 Alabama Cinderella Tiny Tot.
• Honored Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector for 30 years of service with the city and Hoover police Officer Christian Harper for 20 years of service.
• Declared September as Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month and Sept. 17-23 as Constitution Week.