Photo by Jon Anderson
Shoppers mill around the food court and carousel at the Riverchase Galleria on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026.
The recent study commissioned by the city of Hoover regarding revitalization of the Riverchase Galleria, a new mayor and the mall’s 40th anniversary have created a buzz of excitement, several observers with ties to the mall told the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce this week.
A consulting firm this past fall recommended a $241 million makeover of the Galleria, including demolition of the former Sears department store and current Macy’s store that was put up for sale in the summer of 2024.
In place of those two department stores and a small section of the mall would be 542 apartments, an 1,100-seat Center for the Arts, 44,000 square feet of new retail space and 44,000 square feet of green space for gatherings, the study recommended.
However, new Mayor Nick Derzis and some members of the Hoover City Council found the study lacking. Derzis said it was too limited in scope, did not include adjacent commercial areas such as Patton Creek and omitted case studies on how the city might act as a catalyst for investment.
Reinvigorating the Galleria and Patton Creek campuses were key parts of Derzis’ campaign, and since being elected, he and his economic development team have been working to engage the property owners and others who could play a part in redevelopment.
The mayor’s passion in particular, combined with the mall’s 40th anniversary celebration in February, have reignited discussion and interest in the property, said Tommy Richardson, senior general manager for the mall, during a panel discussion at the Hoover chamber luncheon on Thursday, March 19.
“I think there’s just a lot of energy,” Richardson said. “Within the economy, there’s just a lot of positive vibes.”
Derzis essentially has been his best leasing agent, Richardson told the chamber.
“I’m excited about the mayor’s team. He’s been to Montgomery. He’s been to Chicago. He’s really out and about,” Richardson said. “His whole team is just really engaged with that whole campus and … Patton Creek and just the whole area in general.”
Richardson was joined at the chamber luncheon by Paul Dangel, director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel ,and Alan Paquette, vice president for property management for Jim Wilson & Associates and manager of The Offices at 3000 Riverchase (formerly known as the Galleria office tower).
All three panelists said they couldn’t discuss specifics of potential development plans but said the opportunities at the mall campus are great.
“It’s going to have another life. There’s great interest from retailers and different uses alike that the people who live in the surrounding community are going to be very, very excited about,” Paquette said. “It’s a great piece of real estate. It really is a one-of-a-kind not just in Alabama, but in the South. You can just trust that at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, you’re going to see its next life.”
This past fall, Jim Wilson & Associates put The Offices at 3000 Riverchase on the market for sale for $20 million.
The office tower, built in 1986, has 14 occupiable floors, four of which are completely empty, Paquette said. There are 277,000 square feet of occupiable space, and that space was 52% occupied, he said in September.
Jim Wilson & Associates decided to sell the building because the Montgomery-based company is going to begin focusing more on development than management, Paquette said.
The year 2025 was a terrible year for The Offices at 3000 Riverchase and the office real estate market in the Birmingham area, Paquette said.
“I leased 4,000 square feet of space the entire year. Nobody was even walking through the building,” he said.
A lot of office buildings are being repurposed or torn down, but that demand will come back as the market eventually stabilizes, he said. He’s already seeing signs of renewed interest in The Offices at 3000 Riverchase this year, he said.
“I have more foot traffic looking at all the space right now than I’ve had in five years,” Paquette said.
He currently has seven or eight prospects in different phases of interest, he said. “We’re excited about that. That’s going to make a huge difference in occupancy, a huge difference in the things we can do to keep that building as modern as possible.”
Jim Wilson & Associates has never been an entity that skimps on keeping things modern and keeping things fresh, Paquette said. “We’ve spent a lot of money trying to be relevant and trying to be cutting-edge, and we’ve been able to keep up,” he said.
While The Offices at 3000 Riverchase is still on the market, the company received no acceptable offers and pulled back their marketing efforts, Paquette said.
“With leasing activity picking up and potential mall redevelopment on the horizon, we may choose to hold on to the asset,” he said.
Dangel said there is some renewed energy at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel as well with the arrival of a new general manager. The staff is getting reinvigorated, and physical improvements are underway that include new carpet and tile on the second floor ballroom and conference area and improvements to escalators and elevators, Dangel said.
In the mall itself, a new sushi bar called Koi Sushi is about to open in the former Crab Du Jour restaurant, which for many years was a Ruby Tuesday location, Richardson said. Koi Sushi, which will feature food on a conveyor belt, is scheduled to open in June, he said.
There are three or four other tenants actively being sought for other empty spots, Richardson said.
Paquette, who formerly served on the mall management team when Jim Wilson & Associates owned the mall, said while the mall has fallen off from its glory days, there still are some strong retailers there.
Von Maur is a lot like Parisian was in the mall’s strongest years, with a strong focus on customer service, great displays and atmosphere that includes a live pianist playing tunes to create a nice vibe for shopping, Paquette said.
Dangel said he can’t say for sure what type of redevelopment is in the Galleria’s future, but he imagines it will involve some sort of entertainment. Dave and Buster’s, which opened next to the Hyatt Regency in 2018, has been one of the biggest positives for the mall in the past decade, Dangel said.
Yes, people still come to shop, but when they get through shopping for two to three hours, they want something fun to do, he said. People are looking for experiences, he said.
It’s easy for Hoover residents to get stuck on what retailers they want to see the mall, but for the mall to be successful, it needs to have a more regional pull, Dangel said. There have to be retailers or other activities that are going to pull people from Clanton, Decatur, Dothan, Trussville, Cullman or Huntsville, he said.
Paquette said the city’s marketing team has done a great job of putting together information to market the city, mall and other commercial areas.
“I knew the Hoover market was pretty good, but when you see it on paper and you start showing that to people around the country, around the state, they’re amazed at how unbelievably strong the demographics are,” Paquette said. “They’re like, ‘This is better than anywhere in the entire Southeast or as good as anywhere else in the Southeast.’”
The access the mall has to Interstate 65, Interstate 459, U.S. 31 and Alabama 150 is incredible, he said.
The mall may need to work with the Riverchase Business Association to reduce some of the trees on the property and improve visibility, but “the Galleria has all of the intangibles,” Paquette said. “It’s the best commercial real estate in the state that’s not looking at water.”
Melanie Posey, the city of Hoover’s public information officer who serve as a facilitator for Thursday’s panel discussion on the Galleria, encouraged people in the audience to remain positive about the mall’s future.
“The power of life and death is in the tongue,” Posey said. “My challenge to you today is let’s use our tongues for positive. Let’s speak life back into the Galleria. If we can’t speak life, how about we just not speak about it until we get to the point where we can?”
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