Bell's State of the City Address

[Tourian]

It seems almost a no brainer to have a massive development at the 22 interchange. Something with a good bit more thought then the promenade at Fultondale. Travelers from the north need to see something and have something to visit that gives them warm and fuzzies about coming to or through Birmingham - instead of having to drive through town to Oxmoor or Lakeshore exists for inviting hotel, restaurants and shopping.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Tourian

It seems almost a no brainer to have a massive development at the 22 interchange. Something with a good bit more thought then the promenade at Fultondale. Travelers from the north need to see something and have something to visit that gives them warm and fuzzies about coming to or through Birmingham - instead of having to drive through town to Oxmoor or Lakeshore exists for inviting hotel, restaurants and shopping.

In theory, yes. But the big limitation north of Arthur Payne Drive is the nature of the terrain. It's very steep in that area, so it would require a ton of civil engineering to get enough room for even a middling warehouse. Look at a map of the terrain and you see why it's no accident that you have to drive north to Gardendale to get any kind of flat space and that area is pretty much tapped out. You almost have to get over the river into Walker County before you get any acreage that could be developed on any scale.

Instead, the beneficiary of the I22 linkup would be just over the ridge line from the airport through Tarrant all the way to Pinson. It's flat, it's relatively cheap, and it sits adjacent to several rail lines that could easily have spurs added on. Simply link up to the Interstate from there and you have a huge industrial land ready to be utilized with new access.

[Tourian]

Ah yeah. It is pretty rough north of Daniel Payne. Ive been down Coalburg rd and Cherry a few times. Lots of strip pits and old mines too but I guess thats just about everywhere around here. Plus a tornado track that sees action every 7-11 years probably doesnt instill much confidence in investors either.

I did not think they were going to extend 22 to tallapoosa and 2059 at the airport or are you talking about the area where it will terminate into 31?

[raj kapoor]

The traffic at I-22/65 interchange will attract the dollars to do whatever is necessary for whatever kind of development.

Remember before Jeffrey Bayer came along some of the biggest developers in the south said the hill at the Summit could not be developed.

raj

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by raj kapoor

The traffic at I-22/65 interchange will attract the dollars to do whatever is necessary for whatever kind of development.

Remember before Jeffrey Bayer came along some of the biggest developers in the south said the hill at the Summit could not be developed.

raj

True. But, and I'll defer to you on this since you're in the biz, isn't the revenue on a high-end lifestyle shopping center going to be much higher than a warehouse? Yet while it's easy to amortize the cost of turning dirt for a development like that, I personally can't imagine anybody putting more upscale retail in that part of town.

[Tourian]

Does it necessarily have to be high end retail to turn in a profit? A grand river style approach could work. Just something better then a promenade in design.

[raj kapoor]

I'm not focused on any type of development , but especially not industrial at that location.

I would think scale and diverse usefulness would be the driver for development. For example; a Cabela's and a couple of hotels surrounded by several restaurants.

I know when I travel by auto there is always that one exit that one reaches that is a good place to stop and get oriented before proceeding into the city. This seems like that place to me.

It certainly will be interesting to see what happens there. It is surrounded by light industrial, but most of that has no road visibility.

One thing for sure, once the freeway is complete investors will look at the land in totally different light, and with totally different value assessment.

I do however believe that the most impressive projects on that side of town will be on I-22 and not I-65, but that timeline is way out there.

raj

[Tourian]

Yeah I do not get why the only strong effort from cullman, gardendale and Fultondale so far has been the promenade to take advantage of travellers coming in from the north into the metro area and shopping for residents.

jasper and graysville and pinson and trussville seem more "excited" about developing land around 22 and 422 and they arent done yet. Then again it could be they are only planning travel centers and motels for now but I agree that bigger things are in store for later with Drummond and us steel being such a motivated seller of land.

[raj kapoor]

COALBURG MINES AND CONVENIENCE CENTER?

COALBURG TOWN CENTER AND SHOPPES?

THE GALLERIES AT COALBURG STRIP MINES?

THE VILLAGES AT FOUR STACK INTERCHANGE?


Which do you think works , Tourian?

lol
raj

PS Don't forget that INVERNESS was built over strip mines and got a lake out of it as well....

[Tourian]

I like The Strip Pit Bottoms at Forestdale.