Hoover council OKs tax rebates for Bluff Park Village, new Piggy Wiggly

The Hoover City Council on Thursday night approved $3.5 million worth of sales tax rebates for a project to expand and redevelop the Bluff Park Village shopping center.

The deal includes the relocation of the Piggy Wiggly grocery store from the adjacent Shades Mountain Plaza shopping center to a new 26,000-square-foot store to be built on the Bluff Park Village property.

Mills Pharmacy also plans to relocate from Shades Mountain Plaza to a 3,000-square-foot space to be constructed next to the new Piggy Wiggly, said Ken Harden, the owner of Bluff Park Village.

Harden said he also plans to remodel the rest of the 80,000-square-foot Bluff Park Village and build another commercial building on a now vacant lot on the Clearbrook Road side of the development, facing the interior of Bluff Park Village.

City officials and residents alike said the expansion and redevelopment of Bluff Park Village will serve as a catalyst for more commercial development in the rapidly changing Bluff Park community.

Ben Smith, a Bluff Park resident affiliated with a restaurant group that involves the El Barrio restaurant and Paramount Bar in Birmingham, said he has already signed a lease to open a new restaurant in Bluff Park Village called The Electric. It will have about 30 seats in a roughly 2,000-square-foot space and will serve sandwiches and salads for lunch and dinner and have a full bar. Smith said he hopes to be open by summer.

The Bluff Park Village redevelopment project represents an investment of about $9.5 million, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said.

“This gives us an opportunity to invest in one of our historic neighborhoods,” Brocato said. “I’m very excited about this for Bluff Park and our city.”

It’s not a typical deal with developers, the mayor said. It’s a deal with two Hoover residents with deep ties to the city who want to invest in and revitalize the community, he said.

Naseem Ajlouny, the owner of 13 Piggly Wiggly stores, grew up just down the street on Alford Avenue. He now lives in Southlake but has several family members still in the Bluff Park area.

Ajlouny said he had planned to shut down his store in Bluff Park at the end of his lease in Shades Mountain Plaza in 2021 until he was approached with the idea of relocating to a larger space in Bluff Park Village.

Brocato said losing the Piggy Wiggly would have been a tremendous loss to the Bluff Park community. City officials have spent the past two years developing a tax incentive deal to help keep the grocery store in the area and foster more development.

Harden will receive a rebate of 33 percent of sales taxes collected from new stores in Bluff Park Village, including the Piggly Wiggly, over the next 20 years, up to a maximum of $1.5 million.

Ajlouny’s company, Buy-Lo Quality Food Stores, also will receive a rebate of 33 percent of sales taxes from new stores in Bluff Park Village over the next 20 years, up to a maximum of $2 million.

Harden said Walmart approached him several times about acquiring Bluff Park Village and bulldozing part of it, but he didn’t believe a 42,000-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market and gas station is what the community needed. The plan for a smaller Piggy Wiggly is more fitting, he said.

Ajlouny said Bluff Park is a changing community, with a lot of young families moving in who do more European-style shopping — coming to the store more frequently to get fresh fruit, fresh meat and fresh seafood.

Bluff Park deserves a store like that, and he has stores like that in other locations, but the 14,500-square-foot space he has at Shades Mountain Plaza is not big enough to accommodate the amenities he wants to add, he said.

The new Piggly Wiggly will be modeled after a similar Piggly Wiggly in Dunnavant Valley in Shelby County and will offer a full fresh seafood and meat department, a deli with a hot bar and a wine center, Ajlouny said.

Harden, a resident of Bluff Park since 1995, said he acquired Bluff Park Village in 2004 after Delchamps went through bankruptcy and closed its store there. He bought the shopping center and brought it back to life, adding a 54,276-square-foot  ArmorSafe Storage facility where Delchamps was and renovating the rest of the complex, he said.

By 2010, he had all the storefronts rented out, he said. Today, the center includes a Dollar General, Plaza Cleaners, a Happy Tails pet groomer, Appear Photography, Salon D, New China restaurant, A&T Nails and a Hoover Police Department substation.

Dollar General just renewed its lease for another five years, and after The Electric restaurant moves in, he will have just four vacancies totaling 4,400 square feet in the existing building, he said.

Ajlouny said he hopes to begin design work very soon on the new grocery store and hopes to have it open by May of 2021. In the meantime, he will remain open in Shades Mountain Plaza, he said.

Harden said that, in addition to the new grocery and pharmacy building, he plans to add another commercial building, an outdoor gathering space for community events like art and food festivals and sidewalks to better connect his development to surrounding residential areas.

A woman who has lived in Bluff Park since 2001 told the Hoover City Council Thursday night that she felt Bluff Park has been neglected and she is so thankful the city is finally doing something to help the community.

Brett Shaw, another Bluff Park resident, said many new families are moving into the community and making substantial investments. Some are tearing houses down and building half-million-dollar homes, and others are spending a lot of money to renovate older homes, he said.

“We as a community have done what we can do. We would like the city to help jump-start that,” Shaw said. “I think a lot of things will follow that will reap the city of Hoover major benefits.”

Council President Gene Smith said this is the first time the council has approved an incentive agreement that gives a tax rebate of more than 50 percent.

“This shows that this council is in complete agreement that this project is fully needed, and we’re willing to go the extra mile to see that it happens,” Smith said.

Councilman Curt Posey said this deal has been in the works a long time, and he’s very glad to see it come to fruition.

Councilman Mike Shaw said governments do a lot of things, but the magic really happens when government partners with private industry like this.

Councilman John Greene said he generally is not in favor of tax incentives for businesses, but he supported this agreement because he sees the direct benefits it will have for Bluff Park and the city.