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April 2024 | Volume 11 | Issue 12
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Extra 20% off in Store only. Valid only in Vestavia and Birmingham Shoe Station stores. Cannot be combined with additional discounts or coupons or used on prior purchases, refunds or exchanges. Excludes Doorbusters, Accessories, Apparel, Socks and Gift Cards. Excluded Brands: Crocs, Asics, Reef, Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, Sperry, Chaco, Birkenstock, Timberland, Timberland PRO, KEEN, OOFOS, HEYDUDE, Guess, Frye, Jack Rogers, Seychelles, Antelope, Chocolat Blu, Dolce Vita, Rainbow, Hoka One, Brooks, Dansko, Alegria, Naked Feet, Steve Madden, Koolaburra by UGG and UGG. Other exclusions may apply. To redeem present coupon at checkout. One coupon per transaction. Offer subject to change without notice. Valid 04/01/2024-05/07/2024 11:59 pm EST.
BROOK HIGHLAND PLAZA • VESTAVIA CITY CENTER
Building back Vestavia firefighter rebuilds after losing house to blaze By LOYD McINTOSH
Find tips and tricks from area businesses to jump-start any project in our guide.
See page B1
All-South Metro
L
ife for Vestavia Hills Fire Department firefighter Jonathan Vickery is almost back to normal. Almost. Seventeen months after losing his own house in a fire, Vickery and his wife, LaVonda, are in the final stages of getting ready to move into their newly built home. It’s been an exhausting year and a half for the McCalla couple, but they can see the finish line approaching. Life for the Vickerys changed around 2 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2022. The fan keeping their bedroom cool suddenly shut off, and Jonathan Vickery said he quickly realized the power was out throughout the house.
See VICKERY | page A18
See which Vestavia Hills High players were named to the All-South Metro Basketball Team.
See page B8
INSIDE Sponsors .......... A4 News ..................A6 Business .......... A10 Community...... A14 Schoolhouse.... A15
Events ................B6 Sports.................B8 Opinion..............B12 Real Estate...... B14
Vestavia Hills firefighter Jonathan Vickery talks about the addition of the upstairs with the rebuild of his home in McCalla on March 14. Vickery’s home burned in a house fire in October 2022. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Buying into the vision: Vestavia Hills City Center blossoms after early struggles By LOYD McINTOSH
facebook.com/vestaviavoice
Restaurants such as Great Greek Grill and Taco Mama help make up the Vestavia Hills City Center. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Cummings
Two decades since its debut, the Vestavia Hills City Center is on the rebound. Opened in 2003, the City Center’s mixture of high-end retail and restaurants offered a radical new vision to the aging Vestavia Shopping Center. However, the center’s two anchor restaurants, Nonna Rose and Brazil, failed within the first three years, followed by high turnover rates, an uninspired mix of tenants and bankruptcy by 2010, putting its future on shaky ground. In 2017, the Vestavia City Center was sold to KPR (Katz Property Retail), a New York-based firm
that specializes in acquiring retail shopping centers in the eastern United States, in a deal worth $60.3 million. To help revitalize the City Center and recruit new businesses, KPR turned to Birmingham-based Crawford Square Management. Mary Beyer Lell, the head of leasing for Crawford Square, led the project and early on saw the City Center’s potential, comparing it to neighborhood spaces in other cities. “I think they had an idea of what they wanted to do there, but I also knew that Vestavia did not have a gathering space,” Lell said.
See CITY CENTER | page A16
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