A disagreement over how to pay for the redevelopment of Westwood Plaza has put a Mobile City Council member and the shopping center’s developer on opposite sides of an incentive package headed for a council vote.
Councilwoman Bess Rich, whose district includes the plaza near Schillinger Road and Airport Boulevard, has argued publicly that a proposed 1 percent charge on shoppers amounts to an extra tax rather than a simple fee. In written comments shared with constituents, she said uneven sales tax rates across the city create confusion for shoppers and put businesses outside the district at a competitive disadvantage.
Developer Philip Burton disputes that characterization, saying the charge applies only within the redeveloped center and phases down once early infrastructure costs are recovered. He has pointed to a similar arrangement used roughly five years earlier at an outlet center in Foley as precedent, arguing that shoppers retain the choice of whether to patronize stores inside the district at all.
Under the proposal, the site would be organized as a cooperative district charging an extra 1 percent for the first seven years on top of the roughly 10 percent combined city, county and state sales tax already collected there. The rate would fall to a half percent either after seven years or sooner if the district collects more than $4.75 million from the surcharge. The agreement reportedly includes a performance benchmark requiring the project to boost tax revenue by 40 percent, or the city could withhold the incentive.
City officials have also committed to up to $250,000 in nearby roadway work tied to the project. Rich has questioned why a developer would receive public money for infrastructure that developers typically fund themselves, citing a nearby grocery store development where the builder covered added turn lanes without city assistance.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration has voiced support for the deal. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said the investment would improve retail options, upgrade infrastructure near the intersection and generate substantial new tax revenue for the city, urging the council to act quickly.
Rich has drawn a contrast with the incentive package approved for the McGowin Park shopping center near Hank Aaron Stadium, under which that developer receives a share of city and county sales tax collections over 20 years without an added shopper fee. Burton has noted that his project is a renovation of an existing center rather than new construction, unlike McGowin Park.
The Westwood Plaza project carries a reported price tag in the tens of millions of dollars and would add roughly 168,000 square feet of retail space to the existing shopping center, which currently totals about 140,000 square feet. Plans call for updated lighting matching a theme used at Mobile Regional Airport and along the downtown skyline. The developer has said the completed project could generate roughly $2 million in additional tax revenue and create more than 200 jobs, with new tenants joining existing anchors at the site.
Construction would proceed in phases, with an outdoor retailer targeting an opening by the end of the year and no firm timeline yet for the remainder of the buildout. The council is expected to take up the incentive proposal at an upcoming meeting.