Map courtesy of city of Hoover
The city of Hoover is selling 1.7 acres of land near the Cahaba River in Riverchase for redevelopment by a private developer. The land once was home to a concrete mixing site.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night took another step toward selling 1.7 acres of land the city owns near the Cahaba River in Riverchase to a private developer.
The council voted to hire The Falkner Firm to conduct an appraisal of the property at 3989 Lorna Road. The council previously on Sept. 22 voted in favor of selling the property to a company called Cahaba Landing Development with the condition that the price be determined by an independent third party appraiser.
The land formerly was used by Bama Concrete as a concrete mixing site but has been vacant for years. The City Council bought a total of 2.63 acres there in April 2022 for $375,000 with the intention of selling at least part of the property to a private developer who could make better use of it considering its proximity to the Cahaba River.
The idea was to turn the spot into a canoe and/or kayak launch and have a complimentary business such as a canoe or kayak business and/or restaurant or retail site.
Cahaba Landing Development has said its plan is to put a “food and beverage provider,” light retail tenant, coworking space and common green space on the property it is buying. The city is keeping the remaining acre of property closest to the river for a potential kayak and canoe launch.
Cahaba Landing Development is owned by five men who graduated from Hoover High School in 2002 who consider this a passion project, said Phil Amthor, one of the partners. They see it as an opportunity to help the city add to quality of life in the city by redeveloping a vacant piece of property that fits in with the city’s long-term plan of creating another canoe and kayak launch in the city, Amthor said.
Planners in the metro area have been looking for ways to develop ecotourism along the Cahaba, and this could be a great piece of such a network, former Economic Development Manager Greg Knighton has said.
It may be a stop along the way for people canoeing down the river, where they can get out and grab a bite to eat before continuing on down to the Cahaba River Park in Shelby County, Knightob said earlier this year.
In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:
- Appointed Assistant Police Chief Norman McDuffey as interim police chief while the city conducts a search for a permanent chief. Former Chief Nick Derzis became Hoover’s mayor on Nov. 3.
- Reappointed fire Chief Clay Bentley to continue in his role. He has been fire chief since 2017.
- Appointed former Hoover Chief Financial Officer Robert Yeager as city treasurer through the end of the year. Yeager, who retired as CFO in October 2019, also is serving as interim chief financial officer following the departure of Jennifer Cornett about a month ago.
- Appointed Terica Henderson as a magistrate for the city.
- Gave approval for a new restaurant called Toujours to sell alcoholic beverages at 4524 Southlake Parkway.
- Approved a resolution to start livestreaming and recording all meetings of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on the city’s YouTube channel and providing a link to the recordings, agendas and minutes of such meetings on the city’s website.
- Gave approval for clinical emergency room staff from Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital to ride along with Hoover Fire Department emergency medical services staff during emergency calls for training purposes.
- Agreed to provide $15,700 to the Miss Hoover Foundation for its work in putting on the Miss Hoover and Miss Hoover’s Teen competitions and supporting the winners as they advance to the state competitions.
- Agreed to pay Motorola Solutions $193,315 a year for cybersecurity services for the city’s public safety communications systems and $95,527 a year for public safety radio equipment.
- Renewed an agreement for Entegrel to provide security services at Aldridge Gardens
- Rejected a bid from REV Construction to do rehabilitation work on a sewer pump station in Riverchase for $1.3 million and authorized the mayor to try to negotiate a lower contract amount since REV Construction was the only bidder for the job.
- Accepted a $75,000 contribution from the Alabama Department of Tourism to help cover costs of putting on the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium
- Reclassified the city’s economic development manager position as director of economic development and increased the salary by $23,171 and value of benefits provided $5,619, for a total increase of $28,790. Derzis said the role will be a vital one in helping spur redevelopment of the Riverchase Galleria property.
- Joined Derzis in recognizing Miss Hoover 2026 Ali Mims and Miss Hoover’s Teen 2026 Grier Feldman
