MICHAEL MEE, St. Clair News-Aegis
Calling it the “first big move” towards an economic recovery for the Pell City area, Mayor Bill Hereford and Councilwoman Dot Wood joined commercial developer Bill Ellison in announcing a new shopping center.
The 13-acre South Park Shopping Center will be located on Highway 231 and South Park Drive. The Publix grocery store will anchor the facility and there will be 24,000 square feet of retail space available next to the store with three lots sized for other retailers that will be located at the front of the South Park Shopping Center.
Developer Bill Ellison said that a Bojangles’ restaurant has already agreed to locate on one of the three out-parcels that will face Hwy. 231.
“This is the first big move south,” Mayor Hereford said of the development, which he said would draw customers not only from the Lake Logan Martin area, but from Shelby County as well. “With all the doom and gloom that we’ve had, well, I hate to use this old cliche, but it’s just a good old fashioned shot in the arm. It’s a boost.”
Ellison, who owns the property, said that his business partner Dick Schmalz is owed the credit for getting Publix to locate in southern St. Clair County. “Dick is absolutely Top Gun… and that’s what he brought to the table,” he said.
Schmalz, who is a member of the firm Retail Specialists, Inc., will lease the properties and handle sales and management for the facility. “He is the most knowledgeable grocery store man I know,” Ellison said.
Construction will begin in the next few months and is expected to be completed by late summer or early fall of next year.
Ellison said that bringing Publix to the area is something that was five years in the making. He added that it went from something that could have been to something that has now happened.
Ellison said that without the support of the mayor, council, the county commission and local financial lenders, it might not have been possible to see the site through to development. “It takes a lot of patience and persistence,” he said.
He said that there were several competitors in the area vying for Publix’s new store.
The South Park Shopping Center will also back up to Hardwick Drive, near where the Williams Intermediate School is located. Ellison and Mayor Hereford said that the Alabama Department of Transportation has agreed to put a trafic light at the intersection of South Park Drive and Hwy. 231, now that Publix has agreed to locate there.
