Main Street Alabama leader discusses redevelopment with Hoover chamber

The president of the Main Street Alabama economic development organization today shared with the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce about the importance of keeping downtown areas and commercial districts healthy.

Each year, 500 or more shopping malls close across the United States, Main Street Alabama President Mary Helmer told the crowd at a luncheon at the Hoover Country Club. In their place, developers are building “lifestyle centers,” which very much resemble downtown areas, Helmer said.

Often, they involve commercial developments on the bottom floors of buildings, with apartments and condominiums above. That’s important because studies have shown that people who live in such environments tend to spend 30 to 40 percent of their expendable income in the surrounding commercial district, Helmer said.

But each city is different, so city and business leaders need to understand their market and capabilities, she said.

For example, Dodge City, Kansas, recruited a developer to bring 100 lofts to its downtown district, but the developer ended up walking away once he found out the 100-year-old water main in the city center would not support the lofts, she said.

Downtown commercial districts are important not only economically but also emotionally, Helmer said. “In a lot of communities, that’s the place that kind of tugs at the heartstrings.”

People need to think about their downtown and commercial areas in terms of the entire district and not just individual businesses, she said.

Helmer talked about how her organization partners with cities and towns across the state to help revitalize downtowns, neighborhoods and commercial districts. Main Street Alabama will help with strategic planning, market analysis, transformation strategies, branding, implementation strategies and on-site training of local leaders, she said.

Right now, there are 27 designated Main Street communities in Alabama, ranging from small towns such as Heflin to large cities such as Birmingham. The Main Street Birmingham program focuses on entrepreneurship and revitalization in nine urban neighborhood commercial districts.

After Helmer’s speech, Hoover’s economic developer, Greg Knighton, said he believes a partnership between Hoover and Main Street Alabama is something that’s worth considering. Hoover officials, in their proposed comprehensive plan, have identified several parts of the city they would like to see redeveloped.

The Riverchase Galleria, in particular, is targeted for significant redevelopment as Hoover’s downtown “city center.” It would have a new “main street” look around the mall, with multi-story buildings right up against both sides of the road, as you might see in a traditional urban downtown.

Other potential redevelopment areas include Meadowbrook Corporate Park and older shopping centers and apartment complexes along U.S. 31 and Lorna Road, all of which would be targeted as new “town centers” with more dense multi-story, mixed-use buildings, similar to the SoHo development in downtown Homewood.

If Hoover were to pursue a partnership with Main Street Alabama, Knighton said city leaders might want to examine doing so through an entity such as the chamber.

Helmer said her organization works with a variety of different types of entities, including downtown redevelopment authorities and nonprofits that receive money from cities. In other cases, Main Street Alabama works in partnership with city employees, such as an economic developer or tourism director, she said.

April Stone, executive director for the Hoover chamber, said her organization certainly wants to be at the table for any effort that deals with the economic vitality of the city.