Mountain Brook Shopping Center
The Mountain Brook Shopping Center was a strip shopping center located on Culver Road near the intersection of Montevallo Road and Cahaba Road on the north side of Mountain Brook Village.
The 63,000-square-foot center was developed by A. A. Evans' Mobile-based Southeastern Investment Company. The east side of the shopping center opened in 1955. Harry Hester was the architect and F. R. Hoar & Son was the general contractor. The modern-styled building featured yellow-colored jumbo brick walls with glass and aluminum storefronts shaded by a pre-cast concrete awning supported by angled steel columns. Existing streams crossing the site were routed in culverts below the floor slab.
The western end of the center was completed in 1959, adding Utopia Cleaners, Little Hardware and a small Western Supermarket. The area between the two ends was left open in anticipation of the Odum, Bowers and White department store opening there. A Britling By The Brook cafeteria took the place in 1961. At the same time an out building was constructed for Treadwell's Barber Shop.
An Exchange Security Bank branch, in a Plantation style, was built on another outparcel in 1964. A former gas station behind the barber shop was later rebuilt as a real estate office.
The entire complex, save the bank, was given an exterior remodeling in 1980, with new roof gables and faux half-timbering.
In 2009 Rele Evans and his son John revealed plans for a $200 million redevelopment of a 27-acre parcel including the shopping center and adjacent Park Lane Apartments on Lane Park Road. The new development, dubbed "Lane Parke" would be built in phases with a total of 210,000 square feet of retail space, 1,200 parking spaces, a 75-room hotel and 45,000 square feet of office space above the shops. Condominiums, town houses and apartments would also be constructed in the final phase.
The first Lane Parke retail tenants opened behind Mountain Brook Shopping Center on October 1, 2015. Demolition of the center began shortly thereafter, but demolition of the last section was delayed until July 2018 because of Rite-Aid's lease.
Tenants
- 2700 Culver Road: Treadwell Barber Shop (1961–)
- 2701 Culver Road: Western Supermarket (1959–?), Dandé Lion (1970s–2018)
- 2701-A Culver Road: Mountain Brook Post Office (-2018)
- 2703-2705 Culver Road: Little Hardware (2009–2014)
- 2703: Little Hardware (1955–2014)
- 2705: Jonathan Benton Bookseller / Daily Cup (closed 2009)
- 2707 Culver Road: A Mano (-2017)
- 2709 Culver Road: ABC Store (-2010)
- 2711 Culver Road: Woods Rexall Drugs (1955–?), Rite-Aid pharmacy, Bryant Bank
- 2713 Culver Road: Britling's By The Brook cafeteria (1961–1979), Browdy's (1991-2009)
- 2715 Culver Road: Emery's 5 & 10 (1955–?), Smith's Variety (1970s–2015)
- 2717 Culver Road: Colonial Stores supermarket (1955–), Western Supermarket / Superior Bank
- 2721 Culver Road: Exchange Security Bank (1964–1971), Regions Bank (1971–present)
- 2629 Cahaba Road: RealtySouth training center
References
- Tomberlin, Michael (April 5, 2009) "Family plans $200 million Mountain Brook Village shop, hotel development." Birmingham News
- Nelson, Linda J. and Marjorie L. White (2009) Mountain Brook Village: Then and Now Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society ISBN 0943994349