A welcomed retail ripple effect

A little over two years ago, the city of Mountain Brook welcomed its first high-end hotel to Mountain Brook Village. 

The Grand Bohemian opened in October 2015. Since its opening, many businesses in Mountain Brook Village, specifically those within walking distance of the hotel, have felt the increase in out-of-towners visiting their storefronts. 

Hotel Manager Thomas Hoffmann said since opening, they’ve been fairly busy, and surrounding businesses have seen an increase in walk-in customers. 

“Generally, we didn’t see the foot traffic, and now we do,” said Jay Connor, owner Mountain Brook Creamery along Cahaba Road.

Connor said previously, the customer base in Mountain Brook was mostly destination-based, including shoppers driving in from nearby towns, families wanting to visit the Birmingham Zoo and Birmingham Botanical Gardens or people looking for a bite to eat.

And the hotel saw high occupancy relatively quickly after opening, Hoffman said.

“We didn’t have a long ‘ramp up’ period, so to speak,” Hoffman said. “We saw a high demand early on and definitely exceeded our expectations.”

Hoffmann said they expected to be busy during the weekdays as more businesspeople were in town for conferences or meetings, but he didn’t think they would be as busy as they are on the weekends. 

“We do actually very well on weekends,” he said. He said the location has “the best of both worlds” for those who are looking to stay in the Birmingham area, what with the proximity to downtown or U.S. 280 and Mountain Brook’s walkable nature. The hotel includes 100 rooms, event and meeting space, a spa, restaurant, gallery and other amenities, too.

People are typically staying for two nights, Hoffman said, and with an average occupancy rate of 80 percent, the hotel isn’t only bringing in visitors — it’s bringing in business.

Even though the Hampton Inn on U.S. 280 was built only 0.3 miles away — the same distance the Grand Bohemian is from the ice cream shop — the Creamery still didn’t see many people who were staying there, Connor said. 

“The [Grand Bohemian] hotel has definitely added foot traffic,” Connor said.

Patricia Murray, owner of Table Matters on Montevallo Road, agreed. 

“We do get more out-of-town traffic now,” she said. 

Murray has been the owner of Table Matters, which is 0.4 miles from the hotel, since 1997 and the store has been in its current location since 2001. 

She said she can always tell when someone new visits her store after they say something like, “Oh, I love your shop,”  and she starts a conversation asking from where they are visiting.

By adding the Grand Bohemian to Mountain Brook, Murray said it is helping people stay in the city and encouraging them to walk around the village. 

“They might not know how quaint and charming Mountain Brook is, and now that we have this hotel in the heart of the village … it has had a positive influence on our businesses,” Murray said. When guests stay in Mountain Brook Village, she said they don’t have to drive from location to location, and directions might not even be necessary. 

The Dande Lion owner Joann Long said she has always had shoppers coming from out-of-town and hasn’t noticed an influx that would be attributed to the hotel. She has been open for 48 years and is currently on Culver Road, only 0.2 miles from the Grand Bohemian.

“I get people looking for something all the time,” she said. “I always ask where they’re from, and I can’t tell any [if it is] significantly more because of the hotel.”

She said some days are busier than others and some stores may have better sales than others, but, “It’s not one set pattern.” 

Something that all three owners agreed upon, however, is that certain events draw in more crowds than others — and some of those crowds will stay at the Grand Bohemian. 

Some of these people come from the Barber Motorsports Park driving schools.

Hoffmann said the Grand Bohemian is the Porsche driving schools’ preferred hotel, so most guests will stay there while in Birmingham.

“And these people come from all over the world,” Hoffman said. He said they have a very international clientele when it comes to that course, noting guests have come from South America and Europe.

“People will come from all over to do the Barber course driving experience,” Murray said. 

“When they have any event, we get a lot of traffic from that,” Connor said. 

Other nearby sporting events, such as SEC baseball championships, college games or nearby tournaments and weddings have also been known to bring in more people to the hotel, who then explore the village. Murray said UAB’s family weekend helped create more foot traffic, too, and Hoffmann said families who are visiting from far away may choose the Grand Bohemian. 

By having the Grand Bohemian in Mountain Brook, it gives visitors another choice when looking at where they should stay, Murray added.

“Beforehand, people that had to [come to Birmingham] … would stay outside of Mountain Brook,” she said.

Other hotel options in Birmingham proper, near Ross Bridge or even the Galleria would attract guests, she said, and many people may not have otherwise experienced Mountain Brook.

“When you come here, we don’t just sell the hotel, we sell the destination,” Hoffman said. “We sell the Grand Bohemian and Mountain Brook, botanical gardens, the zoo, shopping and dining — all in walking distance.” He described it as a partnership and a package, one that works in tandem with its surroundings.

And the ability to just walk through the village lends itself to more people — visitors or locals — strolling between shops and restaurants on the weekends, Murray said. 

Connor also noted that the Grand Bohemian’s restaurant, Habitat, is technically competition for other local restaurants, but Hoffmann said that the choices present more options for people while complimenting one another. 

“When you open two or three restaurants in the neighborhood, you’ll always feel that [competition],” Hoffman said. “And it gives more options to our hotel guests.”

And some believe the culmination of the traffic projects in Mountain Brook Village and the completion of the second phase of Lane Parke will have an effect on the area as well. 

“I think with the expansion of the development and more shops coming on line, it’s just going to be more attractive,” Hoffmann said.

Connor said he believes once the second phase is finished and open, foot traffic will increase through the village. 

Murray added that, “some more roundabouts would be nice,” to help with vehicular traffic and parking.

And after the first two years of working alongside the Grand Bohemian, she thinks it will have an enduring impact on the surrounding area. 

“I think it will have a long-lasting positive effect,” she said.