Story and photos by Francis Hare
It’s early 2005. John Evans and his father, Rele Evans, are co-managing the family business—Evson, Inc.—which owns Park Lane Apartments and the Mountain Brook Shopping Center. Their apartments enjoy 100-percent occupancy, with a months-long waiting list, and their shopping center (with its supermarket, post office, pharmacy, ABC store and several other popular retailers) is a daily destination for a significant percentage of the nearby residents. Evson Inc. has very little debt and pays virtually all its expenses with cash. Life is good.
“And then one day,” John remembers, “Tom Clark [then-City Council Head of Finance] came to me and asked if we would consider re-developing the shopping center and apartments.”
The school system’s budget was beyond stretched, Clark explained, leaving Mountain Brook with two options to prevent shortfalls: Either a significant new retail redevelopment or a property tax increase. “He knew there was no way a tax increase would pass, so he came to me,” Evans recalls.
Fast forward to Fall 2019. Lane Parke has 10 nice shops and restaurants but no ABC store, no pharmacy and no post office. Two miles up the street, gathered outside City Hall, there’s a crowd so viscerally hostile that the Mountain Brook Police Department insists on escorting the Mayor, Council—and especially Evan —after their monthly meeting.
Evans averages four hours of sleep a night. By some accounts, he’s the most disliked man in Mountain Brook. And the development he built because the city asked him is hemorrhaging cash. Life could be better.
After the Council meeting, Evans called then-Director of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce Suzan Doidge for reassurance. “That meeting was so upsetting for him,” she remembers, “and unfair to John and his father. Some of the things people said to him, honestly, embarrassed me. These were people who had no idea what sacrifice the Evans family had made, particularly since they could have sold that property to a developer with absolutely no concern for Mountain Brook. “Hard to believe,” Evans now says with a smile, “that it’s been more than 20 years since we broke ground.” Looking back, it’s harder still to believe that the number one complaint about Lane Parke today is lack of parking.
While Evans still refuses to criticize his then-leasing agent, Evson VP Bill McReynolds had to drive from Birmingham to Fairhope and back in a single day because said agent refused to make the 50-minute round trip from Mobile to sign up The Happy Olive as a tenant.
And yet, for all the pressure on him at the time, remembers former Mayor Stewart Welch, “John always remained positive, optimistic and resolute about doing what was best for Mountain Brook.”
It’s a comment Evans appreciates. “From the very beginning, my father wanted to make Lane Parke a true legacy for Mountain Brook, which had been so good to our family over the years.”
Speaking to OTMJ in 2013, the elder Evans said, “This land has been in our family for years, and we’ve always been mindful both of the special nature of Mountain Brook and the need to ensure that whatever is done here honor the best traditions of the city and of Mountain Brook Village.”
“Things really started turning-around,” says City Council President Billy Pritchard, “when John replaced that leasing agent with someone who knows the local market and knows how to get things done.” Speaking of the contributions Crawford Square has made to Lane Parke’s fortunes; Evans points out the firm’s remarkably deft management of his tenants throughout the Covid shutdown.
The turnaround Lane Parke has enjoyed since then could not be more dramatic. There are now 34 tenants (including a post office, an ABC store and a Publix supermarket/pharmacy) all of whom are thriving. Aside from the aforementioned parking issues, Evans’ only real concern is the maintaining of a retail and restaurant mix that is genuinely attractive to Lane Parke’s patrons.
As for the development’s ongoing contribution to the Mountain Brook’s overall quality of life, Pritchard reports that the development now generates, annually, $3.5 million in tax revenues—$1.5 million of which goes directly to the school system.
Life is good again. “One of the things I love nowadays,” says Evans, “is being in social occasions and hearing about Lane Parke from people who don’t know who I am. I was recently talking with a woman who was a seasoned world traveler, and she told me she thought Sea Bar was as good as any restaurant she’d been-to in New York City. That meant so much to me.
He continues, “At the same time, I couldn’t be happier with all our restaurants,” including the latest addition, Locanda Brasato—which opened September 2025. “And I would be sorely remiss if I didn’t mention my profound gratitude for the good people at A’mano, B-Prince and Char Bar—my first three tenants—who stood by us through our darkest days.”
Mayor Graham Smith says, “John has turned Lane Parke into a real community center—one with a heart, a soul and a pulse. He’s done things there, like Movie Night, that have added a real vibrancy to the development. And that’s in addition to being a retail center that complements the beauty of Mountain Brook Village. In a way, it’s become a village all its own.”
Looking ahead, Evans says, “This development has consumed me for more than 20 years now, and we’re finally in a place where Louisa [his wife] and I can start spending some real time enjoying life.”
Doubtful anyone in Mountain Brook today would disagree that they’ve earned the right to do just that.
Francis Hare is the owner of Hare Communications. harecommunications.com
