City committees discuss incentives for BrickTop's, speeding near schools

The developers of BrickTop's, a Nashville-based seafood chain planning to open in Homewood, have asked the city council to consider tax incentives.

At tonight's finance committee meeting, Mike and Henry Graham and Dan Lovell with Graham & Company presented their development and tax abatement proposal. Graham & Company is the owner and developer of the former Mountain Brook Inn site, where the restaurant is planned to be developed.

Lovell said the property has been vacant for about 11 years and has come close to hosting several other developments, including the Trader Joe's that eventually located at The Summit, but has never been able to seal the deal. The BrickTop's restaurant and parking would take up about a third of the property, ideally catalyzing more development, such as a hotel or office building, on the rest of the land, Lovell said.

BrickTop's has locations around the Southeast, but this would be their first in Alabama. Henry Graham said the 6,500-square-foot building would seat about 200 people. Mike Graham said the site requires about $4 million of investment, including reworking the entrance off U.S. 280 and some of the underground utility lines.

Mike Graham estimated that BrickTop's will draw about $5 million in revenue per year once it opens, leading to a projected sales tax revenue of $150,000 per year. The developers are requesting abatement of half of the restaurant's sales tax revenue, up to $300,000 or for 10 years, whichever is reached first.

The incentive program would only apply to the restaurant, not any later developments.

Committee members expressed excitement over the possibility of the Mountain Brook Inn site being developed. A public hearing to consider the incentives will be held at the Dec. 11 council meeting.

In the public safety committee meeting also held tonight, committee members also discussed concerns about speeding on the streets near two schools, worsened by narrow lanes, construction and on-street parking.

Traffic department head Randy Hambley has studied the streets near Homewood Middle School after complaints from residents about speeding vehicles. Between Nov. 13 and 15, the study showed the average speed on Highland Avenue, Irving Road, Evergreen Avenue and Dale Avenue was 19-25 miles per hour.

On Dale Avenue, about 14.4 percent of drivers exceeded the posted speed limit. On Evergreen, the amount of speeding drivers was 16.3 percent, while on Highland it was 25.2 percent. On Irving Road, 41.7 percent of drivers broke the speed limit, though the overall number of cars on the road was fewer than the other three.

While most cars stayed at or under the posted speed limit, the study found a handful of cars going up to 45-49 miles per hour on these streets.

Ben Sutton of the Homewood Police Department said the police are looking at those streets but he also wants to meet with Hambley, as peak traffic times occurred around 10 a.m., rather than the Homewood Middle pickup and drop-off times they would have expected.

The city and police department plan to continue studying the results to find ways to reduce speeding on those four streets.

An ongoing discussion of traffic safety around Hall-Kent Elementary was also briefly renewed at the meeting. Committee members said a new speed limit sign has been installed where Kent Drive turns into Grove Street, and they have received generally positive feedback so far on other changes, including crosswalks and signage.

Linda Gancy, the grandmother of a Hall-Kent student who was struck by a car while crossing the street, returned to the committee meeting to express her wish for the city to reduce speed limits from 25 to 20 miles per hour in the vicinity of the school and to consider making the streets one-way during pickup and drop-off.

She said having a teacher monitoring crosswalks has helped the safety situation somewhat.

Ward 3 Representative Patrick McClusky said police are continuing to enforce traffic laws around the school and the city wants to give time to see how the other recent changes affect traffic flow before possibly making other changes.

“We need to let these things play out and see how things work,” McClusky said.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 4:45 p.m. on Nov. 21 to clarify that Mike and Henry Graham and Dan Lovell are owners of the site of BrickTop's proposed development and part of the commercial real estate firm Graham & Company and to update the provided image.