Jon Anderson
Home Development
Construction workers build a house in the Sawyer Trail section of Ross Bridge.
Hoover is expected to gain about 350 new houses in 2017, according to projections from the city’s planning consultant, Bob House.
Most of the new houses coming are in the western part of the city, in communities such as Ross Bridge, Lake Wilborn and McGill Crossings.
House projects there will be 150 or more houses built in Ross Bridge in 2017. Signature Homes, the most active developer and home builder in Hoover, expects to build 90 to 100 of those, President Jonathan Belcher said.
Signature still has five areas of Ross Bridge to complete, Belcher said. About 14 houses in The Hamptons (priced in the $400,000s) should be completed in the first quarter, and the final 70 houses should be built in Sawyer Trail (priced in the $300,000s) in 2017, he said.
There are 46 home sites remaining in Glasscott (starting in the $700,000s), and Signature plans to start development of 22 of those this spring, Belcher said. Development of the rest of Glasscott should stretch into 2018, he said.
Signature Homes also plans to begin construction of 40 town houses (starting in the mid-$200,000s) and 20,000 square feet of commercial space in the Ross Bridge Town Center by April. That sector will be called Taylor’s Court and also should stretch into 2018, he said.
The fifth area is between the Ross Bridge Town Center and Birchall Apartments and should include 62 houses, Belcher said. He hopes to initiate building plans in the spring and start construction in the summer, he said. Development there also should carry over into 2018, he said.
U.S. Steel and Daniel Corp. also still have areas in Ross Bridge set aside for commercial, office and industrial development, Belcher said.
Lake Wilborn, Blackridge and others
Signature Homes also has been busy preparing its 408-acre Lake Wilborn development for houses at the end of Stadium Trace Parkway, west of Bumpus Middle School. The entire development is slated to contain 499 houses. Preliminary plans have been approved for the first 203 houses, and Signature hopes to start building houses in April, Belcher said.
They hope to complete 40 to 50 houses (priced from the $300,000s to $500,000s) in 2017, he said.
Signature Homes also is getting started on the 1,739-acre Blackridge community, which is slated to contain 1,150 houses just southwest of Lake Wilborn. Signature Homes already has gained approval of preliminary plans for 165 of the 650 houses (starting in the $500,000s) it plans to develop on the 916 acres it owns. The other 823 acres are owned by Riverwoods Holdings and will contain 500 houses.
Belcher said the extension of Stadium Trace Parkway is under way, and he expects to have the bridge over the first set of railroad tracks completed by spring. Preparation of home sites should begin in the summer, but the first houses probably won’t be built until 2018, he said.
Also in western Hoover, House said he expects to see 20 or more homes built in McGill Crossings off Ross Bridge Parkway, 10 or more homes in Lake Cyrus and 10 or more homes in Trace Crossings. Closer to the center of Hoover, The Preserve subdivision should gain at least 25 more homes in 2017, House said.
On the eastern side of the city, Signature Homes already has final plans approved for 50 of the 97 lots in the Brock Point subdivision off Dunnavant Valley Road, just east of the Cove at Greystone. Construction should start in January, and 35 to 40 houses (priced in the $500,000s to $700,000s) should be built there by the end of the year, Belcher said.
The total number of homes sold in Hoover through the end of November was 1,776, which is the most homes sold in a year since 1,733 were sold in 2006, Belcher said. Only about 340 of the homes sold in 2016 were new (19 percent of the total), he said. That compares with 780 new homes sold in 2006, or 46 percent, he said.
