By Sam Prickett
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato delivered his 2020 State of the City address to the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 16, recapping what he called an “extremely busy” 2019 that he said established the city as “a model for our state and for our country.”
Brocato’s speech highlighted the city’s “growing and diverse economy” that managed to attract a variety of businesses despite national challenges in the retail sector.
“We are holding our own,” he said. “The top national companies are finding their way to Hoover. Local small businesses are making investments in our city along with the national firms, and it’s particularly gratifying to see all the family-owned businesses opening all over the city.”
The city, he said, issued 1,684 new business licenses in 2019, “representing a variety of industries including retail, professional firms, insurance companies and restaurants.” He pointed in particular to the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s new medical clinic on Stadium Trace Parkway, the $2 million expansion of dental implant company BioHorizons, and the $12.5 million capital investment of McLeod Software.
Those companies, which operate in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, were drawn to Hoover in part because of the city’s investments in technological innovation, Brocato said. He said the city has embraced “small cell sites,” which provide 5G wireless service throughout the city, and “miles and miles” of fiber cable throughout the city.
“Having this infrastructure in place will lead to numerous possibilities and opportunities for new businesses and services with the provisions of ‘the internet of things,’” he said, referring to the rapidly expanding sector of web-capable smart devices and appliances. “Think about autonomous vehicles. That’s where we’re going.”
That eye to the future, he said, included the city’s pending collaboration with private investors to establish the Hoover Artificial Intelligence, Logistics and Operations incubator and accelerator program on Riverchase Galleria’s campus.
“This new asset will grow the next generation of corporate operations in Hoover,” he said. The incubator, he said, would also “bring a new dimension to the redevelopment of the Galleria campus,” which last year saw the closing of Sears, one of its largest retailers.
The city’s comprehensive plan, approved in July, proposed transforming the Galleria into a mixed-use downtown area for the city. Part of that is underway; Regions Bank, Brocato said, has announced it will relocate 700 jobs to the Galleria campus.
“We’ll continue to diversify Hoover’s economy with mixed-use commercial assets, recruiting high-tech businesses including health care, information technology, banking, and we want Hoover to be a leader in building its entrepreneurial economic system,” he said. “I’m excited about our future.”
Progress on the Comprehensive Plan
Brocato’s speech also highlighted that comprehensive plan, a fulfillment of one of his 2016 campaign promises.
“When I asked you to elect me as your mayor, I promised that we would establish a plan to guide the city’s future growth and development,” he said. “We now have a citywide plan that lays out a vision for Hoover’s future land use, transportation, natural resources, our services, quality of life and economy.”
That plan includes numerous improvements to the city’s transportation infrastructure, he added, including a new interchange along South Shades Crest Road, “which would bring significant traffic relief to western Hoover – and really, the western side of Jefferson County.”
He also pointed to plans for the Cahaba Riverchase Greenway, a development that includes a half-mile walking trail, as well as sidewalk paving plans for Bluff Park, Patton Chapel Road, Municipal Drive and Municipal Lane. The latter two projects, he said, should begin construction early this year.
One completed capital project, the Hoover Met Complex and Finley Center, had its first full year of use in 2019.
“The impact that it’s had on the community in the metropolitan area is really remarkable,” Brocato said, emphasizing events such as last year’s SEC Baseball Tournament and the upcoming USA indoor national pickleball championship, which is expected to bring more than 1,000 visitors to the Hoover area in June.
But the Hoover Met’s “most remarkable statistic,” Brocato said, came from its all-inclusive playground and splash pad, which received 90,000 visitors in its first 109 days of operation and received national and statewide awards for “allowing people, regardless of their physical ability, the opportunity to play like everyone else.”
Brocato also highlighted the city’s crime rate, which he said has continued to decline. He pointed to the 21% decline in robberies between 2018 and 2019, along with a 47% decrease in burglaries and a 19% decrease in breaking and entering.
The city would continue its commitment to public safety, Brocato said, with its new $4 million police training facility, which broke ground last year and is expected to open this summer. A new fire station on Stadium Trace Parkway also is under construction, he added.
Growing Influence
All of these developments, he said, have helped Hoover to take on a much larger role in both regional and statewide affairs. That includes a non-poaching agreement between 22 municipalities in the area, all of whom pledged not to lure businesses away from each other, and a cost-sharing vehicle maintenance agreement between Hoover and Pelham.
“We believe we can both work together and find common areas where we can save everyone money to be more efficient,” Brocato said. “It really helps the entire metro area.”
Hoover’s statewide influence has grown, as well, Brocato said. He joined a quarterly meeting with the mayors of the state’s 10 largest cities, which recently was expanded from five, and met with Gov. Kay Ivey and state legislators to discuss the city’s legislative priorities.
“We’ve made great strides in the past three years telling Hoover’s story, and now we’re leaders in the state with significant input and opportunities to steer the direction of the critical legislation that affects all of us,” he said. “We’re working every day with organizations that have an impact on our city and the entire Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area, and we now have a voice at the table. That isn’t something that you can sit around and wait for. You have to be willing to get involved, and we in Hoover are willing to get involved.”