Photo by Jon Anderson
Trader Joe's is slated to go in the 16,000-square-foot retail space being carved out of the former Bed, Bath & Beyond store in the Riverchase Crossings shopping center in Hoover, Alabama. The Trader Joe's space is the one on the left. The store is slated to open sometime in 2025.
Trader Joe’s is coming to Hoover next year, filling in part of the former Bed, Bath & Beyond space in the Riverchase Crossings shopping center across from the Riverchase Galleria, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato confirmed Thursday.
The national specialty grocery store will fill in 16,000 square feet of the former Bed Bath & Beyond space, leaving 22,000 square feet for another retailer, city officials said. The target opening date is sometime in 2025, Brocato said.
“We’re very excited to have a Trader Joe’s,” the mayor said. “It’s something that’s been in the works for quite some time.”
Trader Joe’s is a national brand that has a big following, the mayor said. “A lot of cities would love to say they have a Trader Joe’s.”
The grocery chain began in Pasadena, California, in 1967, and now has more than 500 locations in 43 states, according to the company’s website. There are only two open in Alabama right now, one at The Summit in Birmingham and one in Huntsville.
The owner of the Riverchase Crossings shopping center, Bill Livingston of Warner Robins, Georgia, is investing more than $11 million to renovate the shopping center, including creating another outparcel space on the property, and hard costs should exceed $7 million, said Greg Knighton, the city of Hoover’s economic development manager.
The Hoover City Council in August approved $1.7 million in tax incentives to help spur the project along, but no tenant names were shared at that time. The council agreed to rebate 50% of new sales tax revenues generated from the then unnamed national specialty retailer for 10 years, with a cap of $1.7 million.
Brocato said the tax incentive deal was a win for the owner of the shopping center because it helped him cover part of his renovation cost and a win for the city because it helps the city fill an empty big-box space in the city center and creates additional long-term revenue for the city.
Trader Joe’s is expected to generate $900,000 in annual sales tax revenue for the city and, with an estimated 5% annual growth rate, should bring in $11.3 million to the city in sales tax revenues over 10 years, Knighton said.
Additionally, the project is expected to create an additional $44,000 a year in property tax revenues for the city, $35,000 of which will go to Hoover City Schools, Knighton said.
The Trader Joe’s in Hoover should employ 35 to 50 people, Brocato said. The renovation project at Riverchase Crossings in total should create at least 100 direct jobs in the shopping center, Livingston said.
Bed, Bath & Beyond closed its store in Hoover last year as part of a national closure of all physical store locations that came with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Buy Buy Baby, a subsidiary of Bed, Bath & Beyond, also closed all 122 of its stores, including the one in the Patton Creek shopping center, which also remains vacant.
Just across Lorna Road from Riverchase Crossings, the former Whole Foods grocery store also is vacant. The city gets quite a number of inquiries about that site, and the owner of the Riverchase Village shopping center is working hard to fill that space as well, the mayor said.“Filling those big boxes is quite a challenge,” he said. “That’s why we’re so excited about Trader Joe’s.”
