Residents express concern with hotel, apartments at The Bray meeting

At a meeting held at Old Overton Club in Liberty Park on Nov. 30, several Liberty Park residents expressed concern with the proposal to add apartments and other multifamily housing as part of The Bray at Liberty Park development.

While residents told Daniel Communities President John Gunderson that they didn’t have a problem with much of the commercial development, which will be called The Bray Town Center, they worried about the vitality of a luxury hotel in the area. Residents also expressed major concerns with the impact of multifamily housing on the Vestavia Hills City school system.

Daniel Communities is overseeing the development, and is planning on building 570 multifamily units, 270 of which would be traditional, market-rate apartments, and the other 300 would be active adult and senior living, said Doug Neil, vice president of development and consulting for Daniel.

They are also seeking permission to build an additional 644 detached single-family homes, in addition to the 662 detached single-family homes they are already entitled to build, Neil said. That’s a total of 1,306 single-family homes in addition to the multifamily housing. The residential units will join The Bray Town Center commercial development at the 700-acre site to form The Bray.

The last of three public meetings, Monday night’s meeting saw residents ask how it would impact schools, as early estimates foresee the addition of about 1,000 students to the school system as the units are built over the next two decades.

“It’s a great plan, but it’s not right for the schools,” one resident said.

Another resident informed Gunderson of a poll conducted by a homeowner’s association that had zero residents express approval and 196 oppose the project. Four residents requested more information, she said.

Questions posed online and in person also centered around whether a proposed luxury hotel at the town center would be viable. Daniel has brought in similar hotels in Mountain Brook and Ross Bridge, but as they do not own those hotels, Gunderson told residents he could not tell them how they were doing financially.

Both the Vestavia Hills Board of Education and the Vestavia Hills City Council will be part of the approval process of the plan, Gunderson said. Currently, no formal plan has been submitted to either entity.

The proposal at the town center would see a variety of businesses brought in, including a great lawn, restaurants, specialty retail, general business and medical offices.

Gunderson said all of the components of the plan work together, and the interconnectivity is what makes it work.

The entire project, both commercial and residential, is valued at about $860 million, Gunderson said.

The commercial development and the town center should be complete within 24 to 36 months, Neil previously said, with the rest of the community, including residential and recreational areas being built in the next 10 to 12 years.

Anticipating revenues from the Bray Town Center, a future Class A office and residential sales of homes throughout Liberty Park over the years, Neil estimated that over the next 25 years, there would be about $230.2 million in new net tax revenues raised, with about $118 million of those revenues going to Vestavia Hills City Schools.