Crestwood Village

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Crestwood Village (formerly Crestwood Shopping Center and Shoppes of Crestwood) is a 38,168-square foot neighborhood shopping center located on a 3-acres site on the northwest corner of the intersection between Crestwood Boulevard and 56th Street South in Crestwood. It was developed by Ervin Jackson's Jackson Securities and Investment Company as part of their 200-acre post-war Crestwood residential community.

Though Jackson had marked the site as "Reserved for Crestwood Business Section" on his original subdivision map, he did not apply for a commercial rezoning until 1946. With no specific plans ready to go, he allowed the matter to lose momentum at City Hall, finally getting the zoning officially changed in September 1950. In January 1953 Jackson and partner Newman Waters announced plans for a modern shopping center, including a Shell gasoline station at the corner. This prospect engendered fierce opposition from many Crestwood residents, who formed a committee to oppose Jackson and Water's plans. After their requests to reverse the rezoning or construct a park in place of the shopping center failed, they went to court. A state circuit court decided that the gas station could be considered a public nuisance and should be moved away from the corner. That decision was overturned in June 1955 after a cross-appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. As he had promised, committee leader and attorney William Soroka appealed the matter to the United States Supreme Court, but they declined to review the decision. Construction of the Shell station proceeded, and it opened in 1956.

The shopping center itself opened on June 27, 1957 with a 10,000 square foot Western Supermarket managed by R. R. Glasscock, Utopia Custom Cleaners and Elliott Drugs as the first tenants. An 11-store expansion was begun just a few months later, in March 1958, bringing the center to 36,000 square feet, doubling parking capacity to 144 spaces, and adding a continuous canopy over the shop entrances. F. H. Hoar and Sons was the contractor.

Other original tenants included a hardware store, bakery, and shoe repair shop. The Waters family bought out the Jacksons' stake after the center opened. They continued to own and lease the shopping center until 2014.

That year the property was sold to a group including attorney Payne Baker and Crestwood Tavern owner Mike Millican for $1.4 million. The new owners updated the storefronts with wooden slats and repaired and resurfaced the parking lot. They changed the name to "Shoppes of Crestwood" and The Filling Station restaurant for the vacant gas station. In 2016 they announced the addition of the Crestwood Pharmacy & Soda Fountain.

Robert Crook and Jaren Aksut of Ironvest Partners acquired the shopping center in 2017 for $3.5 million and undertook another refurbishing project, shoring up the retaining wall behind the strip, improving the landscaping and painting the brick and stucco walls an off-white color. They gave the strip its current name, drawing on the popularity of other "Village" neighborhood commercial districts.

Tenants

References

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