By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City Council voted unanimously during its Nov. 9 meeting to approve a tax incentive plan valued at up to $1.125 million over a 10-year period for a retail and office development coming to U.S. 31 near Shelby Baptist Medical Center.

Through the incentives plan, Alabaster will reimburse the developer, Harbert Realty Services Inc., for 60 percent of the city sales tax collected at the development during the first five years the center is open. For the sixth-tenth year the center is open, Alabaster will reimburse Harbert for 40 percent of the city sales tax collected at the development.

Alabaster’s 1-cent sales tax earmarked for schools will not be included in the incentives package, and the developer will still pay property tax, business license fees and other taxes not tied to sales.

The incentives package tops out at $1.125 million or 10 years, whichever comes first, said Alabaster City Manager George Henry.

“It is bound by time, and is dollar-restrained,” Henry told council members during a Nov. 5 work session.

Harbert is planning to build the development on the east side of U.S. 31 slightly south of Shelby Baptist. Once completed, the development will be between U.S. 31 and Second Street Northeast.

According to plans submitted to the city, the development will include building space for medical offices, retail tenants and restaurants. The center will have access points from U.S. 31 and Second Street Northeast.

Harbert Realty Services Vice President of Retail Development James Proctor, who is working to develop the Alabaster site, said the company will close on the property in late November, and will begin work on the development soon afterward.

In early November, Proctor said he already has multiple tenants signed to the development, and is working to finalize a few more before announcing the center’s tenant lineup.

Harbert Realty also developed the Chace Lake shopping center in Hoover. The Alabaster development likely will include “fast-casual” restaurants “that will be all-new to Alabaster,” Proctor said previously. The Alabaster development is set to open in the third quarter of 2016.

Plans call for the retail and restaurant space to front U.S. 31, while the medical office space will be close to Second Street Northeast. Through an agreement with the developer, Alabaster is looking to make improvements along Second Street Northeast, including new sidewalks, to promote pedestrian traffic between the hospital and the development.