Photo by Jon Anderson.
The former Big Lots store in the Riverchase Crossing shopping center is slated to be divided into two stores — a HomeSense store and a Shoe Dept store.
The revitalization of the Riverchase Crossing shopping center got a boost from the Hoover City Council in August with approval of another tax rebate incentive agreement.
The council on Aug. 10 agreed to give a development company from Tennessee 50% of the sales tax proceeds from two stores slated to go in the former Big Lots space over a period of 10 years, up to a maximum rebate of $1.9 million.
The tax rebate is designed to help the developer make the project more feasible. The development company, NRE Riverchase, plans to invest almost $10.5 million to redevelop a 5.1-acre parcel at the east end of the shopping center, including $8.8 million to buy the land and renovate the building and $1.7 million for “soft costs” such as professional services, taxes, permits and fees, said Ken Grimes, Hoover’s economic development director.
The plan is to convert the 37,793-square-foot space that formerly was home to Big Lots into two stores — a 27,278-square-foot HomeSense store and a 10,515-square-foot Shoe Dept store, Grimes said.
It will be the first HomeSense store in Alabama and the first Shoe Dept in Hoover, he said. HomeSense is affiliated with T.J. Maxx and sells discounted home furnishings and eclectic decor, including rugs and lighting options.
The tax rebate agreement is a good deal for the city because it will help Hoover fill one of its oldest shopping centers and bring in some new brands, Grimes said.
Big Lots, after being open at that location for 7½ years, closed in February 2025, and the space has been vacant ever since and has not generated any tax revenue for the city, Grimes said.
While the tax breaks officially were extended over 10 years, the developer expects to reach the $1.9 million cap by year seven, Grimes said. The tax rebate would apply only to HomeSense and Shoe Dept, not the existing stores and other spaces on that end of the shopping center, such as the Napa Auto Parts store, Grimes said.
These new stores continue a trend of dividing large retail spaces into smaller ones.
The former 38,000-square-foot Bed, Bath & Beyond store in Riverchase Crossing also was broken up into two stores. Trader Joe’s opened in 16,000 square feet of that space in May 2025, and Sierra (a retail store owned by T.J. Maxx that sells discounted outdoor apparel, equipment and home goods) opened in the other 22,000 square feet in March of this year.
The previous Hoover City Council gave a Georgia developer up to $1.7 million in tax rebates to help spur redevelopment of the Bed, Bath & Beyond site. That developer, Bill Livingston of Warner Robins, Georgia, said then he was investing more than $11 million in renovations there, including creating another outparcel that has yet to be developed.
Grimes said visitor traffic at the shopping center picked up from 812,778 people in 2024 to 1.2 million in 2025. Over the last 12 months, it has exceeded 1.5 million, he said.
