Brookwood Village plans, property still quiet for now

As of mid-April, there has been no public movement or presentation of plans for the Brookwood Village property.

Over the years, the mall has been slowly declining, with just exterior restaurants Five Guys and Hickory Tavern remaining now. All interior tenants are gone.

Sims Garrison, chief operating officer and vice president of Fairway Investments, the company in charge of redevelopment, could not be reached by The Homewood Star for comment.

Fairway Investments has formed a partnership with Pope & Land Enterprises, based in Atlanta, to form 569 Shades Creek, which owns the mall property and the Brookwood Office Center, while Colliers International owns the former Macy’s property.

Colliers President Joe Sandner IV referred a reporter from The Homewood Star to a public relations firm, which did not answer the phone.

In August, 569 Shades Creek sent out a press release announcing plans to redevelop Brookwood Village with a team including the services of Goodwyn Mills Cawood, DAG Architects and others.

Garrison said in the release, “We are looking forward to working with the cities of Mountain Brook and Homewood to try to transform the struggling mall into something more appropriate and representative of the communities it serves.”

In November, 569 Shades Creek purchased the office center, which includes office space and several businesses, for $55 million.

Macy’s closed this January.

Former business owners previously spoke to The Homewood Star last fall as the mall faced extinction.

Diana Hansen, former owner of White Flowers, and other store owners watched it move from a crowded entertainment and shopping center to an almost completely empty building. There have been a few companies making attempts to redevelop the mall space, but previous employees said it was declining even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beszhan Dolatabadi, former owner of Betsy Prince, previously told The Homewood Star the Galleria took a chunk of business away from Brookwood Village, and then when the Summit opened, it got even less popular.

“People have just changed; they don’t want to be in an enclosed center. I think that’s true across the country,” Dolatabadi said. “Brookwood was no exception. People did not come there to hang out. They would come to use the restaurants outside; they would come to us and shop, but they didn’t come and just hang out in the mall.”

Previous plans under a different ownership group never came to fruition, despite being presented to residents and the Homewood City Council.

In October 2020, Colliers International and Arlington Properties acquired a similar contract for redevelopment of Brookwood Village. The companies brought sketches of plans to the Homewood City Council and held several public hearings, but nothing came from the agreement.

That plan would have had a “public green space as its anchor” and would have been “surrounded by locally owned, upscale retailers; food and beverage options; new office buildings; hotels; and housing for both renters and homeowners.” The plans included 350 high-end apartments.

Homewood City Council President Alex Wyatt said his understanding is the new owners are looking to “transform” the property, but he has not heard of any recent plans.

Wyatt said the city would obviously like to have tax revenues from the property, and Homewood has not been relying on revenues from the Brookwood Village area for quite some time, as the mall has been in “steady decline.”

Wyatt said lines of communication are open and the developers have shown a desire to work with the government and residents.

Dana Hazen, director of planning, building and sustainability for the city of Mountain Brook, said there has not been much communication on their end with the developers. Portions of the property are in the cities of Homewood and Mountain Brook, and a small part is in unincorporated Jefferson County.

Mountain Brook City Manager Sam Gaston said in the past, the annexation of that small piece of land into Mountain Brook city limits was included as part of any agreement.

Hazen said the city of Mountain Brook spoke with the city of Homewood in November about how to proceed.

“We want to proceed together,” Hazen said.

Hazen said the plan is to present one set of rules along with the possibility of revenue-sharing agreements so that the cities split both the benefits of any new development, i.e., tax revenues, as well as the obligations of providing emergency services and utility services.

Work on a zoning ordinance for the property that would be adopted by both cities is likely, but Hazen said the details of that are unknown without more information about the developer’s plans.

Like Homewood, Hazen said Mountain Brook would love to see the area produce revenue.

“It’s been hobbling along for a long time,” Hazen said. “It’s such a great location.”