Tuscaloosa OKs $65.1M plan for McFarland Mall development
The Encore Tuscaloosa plan, a redevelopment proposal for the old McFarland Mall site, took one huge step forward Tuesday with the Tuscaloosa City Council.
By a vote of 6 to 1, the council approved a motion authorizing Mayor Walt Maddox to execute the $65.1 million incentive plan with Stan Pate’s Encore Tuscaloosa LLC, discussed at length in the April 25 finance committee meeting.
Pate, who bought the ‘60s-era McFarland Mall site in 2009, has been working on the multi-use plan for more than a dozen years.
Though the council offered time for comment Tuesday, no one stood up to speak for or against the plan. District 3 Councilor Norman Crow, who cast the sole “no” vote, did ask Scott Holmes, city attorney, for clarity defining the infrastructure work required before the city would move forward.
“The infrastructure would include curb and gutter, street, stormwater, sewer,” Holmes said, “the full infrastructure required to develop the entire site. They would have to meet the city standards as set by the office of the city attorney, as well as what’s in our planning department, urban development, and it would have to be built to our standards, our specs. It would have to be dedicated and accepted by the city for public use.”
After the motion passed, there was applause, longest and loudest from Councilor Cassius Lanier, whose District 7 includes the old mall site. District 6 Councilor John Faile jokingly admonished “That’s enough; that’s enough.”
Holmes had summarized the roughly 40-page agreement, years in the making, at the April 25 finance meeting, as an incentive package that would far exceed any such project the city has ever offered:
reaching a total of $65.1 million dollars, or tax incentives lasting until Dec. 31, 2048, whichever comes first.
Key points:
● No upfront cash from the city.
● No debt issuance from the city.
● The developer must build all infrastructure to city standards, and dedicate those back to the city for public use. Infrastructure work has to be done before any property can be assigned.
● All money will come only from within the project, not the city, Holmes said, so Pate and partners would have every reason to get moving, and earning, as soon as possible.
Encore specifics aren’t available yet, but some tenants suggested may include a full-service hotel, a limited-service hotel, casual dining restaurants, coffee shop-style restaurants, fast-food restaurants and other commercial retail.
The plan also includes a long list of businesses prohibited from the site, including bars, flea markets, massage parlors, funeral homes, carnivals, laundromats, check-cashing shops, and many others.
Though he didn’t speak to the council Tuesday, Pate had talked at the finance meeting about what a long, tempestuous journey he’d undergone to get this far.
“But when I bought the property, I knew — all of you know, I’ve been invested in Tuscaloosa my entire adult life — it was the best property in this community. It’s just been a matter of how to make it reach its full potential,” he said.
At the April 25 meeting, Maddox had urged the incentive project forward, saying the Encore project could help rejuvenate south Tuscaloosa, much as the McFarland Mall itself once drew growth in that direction, and not unlike what the 2011-opened Mercedes-Benz Amphitheater has spurred in downtown.
Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.