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Target projects Brookwood Village opening date

The Birmingham News - October 30, 2011

Target will join the lineup at Colonial Brookwood Village in 2013, opening a store that will be the first of its kind for the retailer in Alabama.

The 140,000-square-foot store will be elevated above ground-level parking. A two-story glassed-in atrium will connect the parking area and the store, with escalators and elevators to ferry people and shopping carts between the two levels.

Target's plan to build a store at the mall has been public record for more than a year, since the Homewood City Council approved more than $10 million in incentives for the project in September 2010.

But Minneapolis-based Target and mall owner Colonial Properties Trust are now officially confirming those plans and revealing new details about the project.

The store format that Target is using at Brookwood was driven by space issues, said Ken Marshall, executive vice president of Colonial Properties Trust.

"If we were to put their store down on the ground, we would have to provide all of the parking in front of the store," he said. "This is a solution that Target has used at numerous locations across the country when they're looking at smaller, more urban sites."

The retailer has a similar store in Chicago, he said.

The Target will be built on the western side of the mall at the site of the stand-alone building that used to house Vincent's Market and other retailers.

Prep work for demolition at the site is now under way. Construction of the store is expected to start later this year, with a projected opening date of March, 2013.

While the store will not be a SuperTarget, it will include an expanded grocery section, including fresh foods such as produce, meat and baked goods. It will employ about 200 people.

The addition of Target represents Colonial Properties Trust's efforts to ensure that the 37-year-old enclosed mall, as well as other retailers and restaurants on its site, stay relevant for local shoppers, Marshall said.

"We're committed to always look at how we can make Brookwood better, how we can make Brookwood more relevant, as the shopping habits of people have changed over the years," he said.

Those changing habits include a stronger preference for open-air centers, where people can drive up to a particular store instead of walking through a large mall.

For Brookwood, a dramatic facelift came in 2001, when a streetscape was added along the front of the mall, featuring stores that open to the street and several restaurants that have become local favorites. 

Read the full story on the Birmingham News' website.

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