By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Alabaster officials likely will unveil the layout of the city’s new “Alabaster Exchange” shopping center in March, and are still working to find tenants to fill the center, state Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said Dec. 28.

In October 2011, the Montgomery-based developer confirmed its plans to build the new 300,000-square-foot shopping center adjacent to Alabaster’s Colonial Promenade south shopping center. The center is scheduled to open in 2014.

“I expect our next big update will be sometime in March,” Ward said. “At that time we should have the layout of the new center ready to reveal.”

The developer recently placed Alabaster Exchange signs on the new center’s property, which is sandwiched between U.S. 31 southbound and Fulton Springs Road.

Ward said the plans likely will call for Fulton Springs Road to be straightened out to run through the middle of the new shopping center.

Currently, Fulton Springs Road ends at its intersection with Old Highway 31, which is a few hundred feet south of U.S. 31.

Ward said the city and the developer are still working to secure tenants for the new shopping center, and said he could not yet reveal the retailers they have approached.

Ward previously said the center will house retailers “not currently in the I-65 corridor.” Once complete, the development will be about the same size as the southern wing of the Promenade, which currently houses stores such as Target, Best Buy and J.C. Penney.