Rendering by Tres31.
This building design by Tres31 is the type of design that HBH Realty would like to use for a proposed four-story bed and breakfast in Hoover, Alabama.
A Hoover Realtor is pursuing plans to build a four-story bed and breakfast facility near the Hoover Metropolitan Complex.
Jordan Masaeid-Hosey’s company, HBH Realty, has purchased a 2.4-acre piece of property at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Mineral Trace, across from Brock’s Gap Brewing Co., and wants to build a bed and breakfast with 18 suites, each able to accommodate 6-10 people, she said.
The lodging facility also would have a spa and breakfast/brunch café on the ground floor and rooftop bar and pool, Masaeid-Hosey said.
Because the Hoover City Council in February decided to mostly ban short-term rental properties in residential neighborhoods, Masaeid-Hosey is trying to provide an Airbnb-like experience in an area zoned for light industrial use near the Hoover Met.
There is a strong demand for short-term rental properties in Hoover, especially among people coming to take part in the many sports tournaments at the Hoover Met Complex, she said.
Most of the people who come to those events don’t come alone, Masaeid-Hosey said. They come in groups that like to stay together, she said.
Hotels work for some groups, but others like to have a lodging experience that allows them to stay and hang out together instead of being broken up into separate hotel rooms, Masaeid-Hosey said. Short-term rentals of single-family homes gave people that option, but now that is no longer available, she said.
Masaeid-Hosey, who has a short-term rental business called GameOn BnB, was left scrambling to find short-term rental properties where people could stay outside of the city because it’s no longer legal to do so in single-family neighborhoods in Hoover, unless for a special event and for less than seven days a year, she said.
That motivated her to move ahead with the bed and breakfast idea. She already was contemplating the idea near the Hoover Met but initially had put a lot of contingencies on her offer to buy the property, she said.
After further evaluating the demand and possibilities for success, she later removed the contingencies and bought the property for $440,000, she said. “I know the area is ready for it.”
Some residents in neighborhoods near the Hoover Met Complex in 2017 staunchly opposed commercial development near the Met, including the idea of a hotel. Opposition arose again in 2019 when the city hired a consultant to study the feasibility of a hotel on city property at the complex.
Masaeid-Hosey said her proposal is much different than a hotel with 700 rooms. Her bed and breakfast would be much smaller and more quaint, she said. “It’s kind of like a hotel and Airbnb hybrid,” she said.
Plus, “this is not an entry-level property,” Masaeid-Hosey said. “This is an extremely upscale, luxury, high-end-looking property. We plan on creating an experience like Hoover has never seen before that is going to be an asset to the community. It’s very elegant. It’s very sexy. It’s very sleek.”
Rental rates likely would start at $500 per night, she said.
Masaeid-Hosey, who lives not far away in Blackridge, said she already has talked to some people in neighborhoods near the Met who are excited about what she wants to build and supportive of the idea. “People are really looking forward to it,” she said.
She immigrated to the United States from Jordan in 1999 as a child and graduated from Hoover High School. She’s not some out-of-state real estate person who doesn’t know anything about what the people of Hoover want, she said. “I know what my community wants. I know what my neighbors want.”
The four-story bed and breakfast likely will cost more than $10 million to build, Masaeid-Hosey said. She already has talked to several investors who are interested in fully funding it, but she would retain an ownership interest, she said.
Masaeid-Hosey was able to get the Hoover City Council to amend its zoning ordinance to allow short-term rentals in light industrial zones, but she still must get conditional use approval from the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission and Hoover City Council for this particular project.
HBH Realty also is getting ready to open an eight-suite bed and breakfast in Helena called Buck Creek BnB in May.
