Tuscaloosa Grants Stan Pate $35 Million Incentive to Redevelop Alberta’s Leland Shopping Center

Elected officials in Tuscaloosa voted Tuesday to give businessman Stan Pate tax incentives worth more than $35 million to redevelop a once-bustling shopping center in the Alberta area.

As the Thread reported last month, Pate is seeking to bring new-to-market concepts to the old Leland Shopping Center on University Boulevard in addition to his work redeveloping the McFarland Mall on the other side of town.

On Tuesday, the city council voted 5-2 to approve a tax abatement deal to incentivize Pate to undertake the Alberta project. Little is known about what could come to the site because of confidentiality agreements - something protested during public comments by a pair of citizens before the vote.

Councilmen Norman Crow and Lee Busby voted against the resolution. Joe Eatmon, Raevan Howard, Kip Tyner, John Faile and Cassis Lanier voted yes.

Get our free mobile app

Although Pate was still unable to say which potential tenants he's eying for the former Leland Center, it was evident on Tuesday that he has a nostalgic attachment to the site and told the council he is committed to a project that would improve the area.

"I see this as one unbelievable, incredible opportunity to leave my fingerprint on this city," Pate said. "It's a huge responsibility on my part and my team's part, and I want to promise you that I accept that responsibility."

Pate spent a little over 10 minutes explaining the history of the Alberta area to the council, beginning with its earliest known modern inhabitant, J.M. Kicker, who built an estate there, east of Tuscaloosa, in the woods near the Black Warrior River. Kicker Road is named for him.

The community was named in 1914, Pate said, when G.B. Wright dedicated it to his wife, Alberta.

Pate said in the 20th century, it was businessmen taking risks who saw Alberta grow into a community of industries, then homes, stores, shops, and other amenities.

Pate cited Jack Warner and his family's paper mill, the Ryder Truck terminal, a plant manufacturing artillery shells for use in the Vietnam War, Central Foundry, Empire Coke, Warrior Asphalt, and others as titans of industry who paved the way for modern Alberta.

"There are people who took a risk and helped create jobs and helped bring Alberta City to its greatness," Pate said.

Those jobs and homes then drew commercial investment, including the Leland Shopping Center, which Pate said opened the year he was born in 1959.

In its time, it featured community favorites such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Krispy Kreme, and numerous retail stores. The former retail utopia was perhaps already in decline when it was devastated by the EF-4 tornado of 2011 and ultimately demolished in 2013.

With the incentive officially approved, Pate will now aim to spend $10 million on property acquisition, engineering, demolition, and construction to bring "an important business for the community" to that site in a way that has "a lot of collateral impact on the real estate in the area," he said last month.

The city's incentive is not a cash payment but a 100 percent rebate of all abatable municipal taxes and building permit fees, with a maximum obligation of $35.5 million over 27 years.

Pate has called this kind of deal a "keep what you kill" arrangement, in which he will begin receiving incentive payments only after a new-to-market business is on-site and generating tax revenue; all the up-front risk is his.

For more exclusive coverage of restaurant and retail development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.