8/18/2000 - Brigham-Williams plans 280 center

Birmingham Business Journal - August 18, 2000 by Don Milazzo Staff

$5.5 million, 36,000-square-foot retail center will open in June 2001

Commercial real estate company Brigham-Williams Inc. is pursuing a 4.5 acre site along U.S. Highway 280, where it intends to build a 36,000-square-foot retail center.

Sid Aultman, a sales and development agent with Brigham-Williams, says construction on the $5.5 million project will likely begin in late November or early December, with Bradford Building Co. Inc. as the general contractor.

Aultman says several tenant commitments are pending but declines to reveal their identities until leases are signed. The 24,000-square-foot main shopping center -- along with two outparcels slated for 4,500 square feet and 10,000 square feet -- are being offered for lease at between $18 and $20 per square foot.

Located on undeveloped property between the Racetrac and BP service stations at the northeast intersection of Alabama 119 and Highway 280, the site is owned by DANTRACT, a local real estate investment firm founded by Bill Daniel. Brigham-Williams expects to close on the property in less than three months, Aultman says.

A roughly 20-acre site behind the development has been widely rumored as a possible future home for a Wal-Mart Supercenter (a basic Wal-Mart is currently an anchor tenant in nearby Brook Highland Plaza) and a Sam's Club wholesale outlet.

In fact, that property's owner, Lloyd's Restaurant proprietor Ely Stevens, says he's participated in some discussions with Wal-Mart regarding his land. And a local site selector for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart told BBJ last month that the rumored project may indeed move forward.

But Aultman says that possibility was not a factor in Brigham-Williams' decision to undertake the retail center.

"We think our project will stand on its own, whether Wal-Mart and Sam's move in behind us or not," Aultman says.

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