For years, Michelle Young had heard the same lament from people summoned to the Baldwin County Courthouse for jury duty: there simply were not enough places to eat near the square, and the scramble for parking made driving anywhere else unappealing.
“We heard it several times,” said Young, 44. “Multiple people had told us that there was a need. There was a need in Bay Minette.”
That need pushed Young and her business partner, Cheryl Reed, 56, to expand. In the summer of 2014 the pair prepared to open a second location of their Sugar Kettle Cafe — the first was in Daphne — on Hoyle Avenue, one of the storefront-lined streets a short walk from the courthouse square.
A city thinking about its future
Their decision arrived just as city leaders were weighing whether to invest in a study of what kinds of retail Bay Minette should try to recruit. Mayor Bob Wills said he heard the complaint about restaurants constantly.
“I know we get complaints all the time about restaurants… because we are very limited,” Wills said. “I know that is certainly something we’d like to bring in. I know there is a need for that because I hear it a lot.”
Bay Minette, the Baldwin County seat, had an estimated population of 8,934 and roughly 230 businesses. City Councilman Chris Norman noted that the city had not seen the kind of rapid growth reshaping communities to the south.
“We don’t have a lot of major new growth like they have down in Malbis, Spanish Fort and those areas like that,” Norman said, attributing much of that expansion to people relocating from Mobile into Baldwin County. Still, he believed Bay Minette could attract more if it marketed its strengths, among them a low crime rate and good schools. “It’s just a great place to live and raise a family,” he said.
Two competing pitches
The idea of a study took shape after Retail Strategies reached out to the city and the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce. The firm proposed a three-year agreement priced at $84,000 that would cover the study, its implementation and business recruitment, said Ashley Jones, executive director of the chamber.
Jones also invited Richard “Tucson” Roberts, a well-known Alabama economic developer, to make a competing pitch. Roberts sought $18,000 for an assessment and plan, plus $1,500 for travel, though his proposal did not include implementation or recruitment. He estimated a study could take two to three months and would weigh competition, drive times and the city’s trade area.
“They are pulling shoppers from as far away as 50 miles to the north, which indicates to me they have a possibility of adding some more retail,” Roberts said.
When the City Council met on July 7, Wills asked Jones to find out what it would cost to add industrial recruitment to the effort. Jones said she expected to update the mayor and council in August. “This is a process that is going to take a while for the city to narrow down,” she said.
What residents wanted
Jones said residents frequently told her what they were missing. “When it comes to the retail side, women want a shoe store,” she said. “They want a clothing boutique.” Joyce Carl, 61, who had lived in Bay Minette for 40 years, said she often drove to Malbis to shop. “I think we should have a Shoe Station or something like that,” she said.
Along Alabama 59, drivers passed fast-food outlets, a Walmart and the Bay Minette Marketplace, anchored by a Ruby Tuesday and a Winn-Dixie, with a sign promising a Mexican eatery on the way. Streets Seafood on U.S. 31 remained a local favorite, while the square itself held many shops but few restaurants.
Young and Reed were betting on the locals rather than the tourists bound for Gulf Shores. Their 100-seat cafe planned to serve breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. They acknowledged the risk — friends had warned that restaurants come and go in Bay Minette — but said curious neighbors kept stopping by the building they were renovating to ask when it would open.
“They’re really, really excited,” Reed said. “It’s like they are starving for something else, something different.”