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Photos by Lexi Coon.
John Evans, left, and his father Rele have been working on updating the Lane Parke shopping center for years, and now the first tenants are opening up this fall.
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The shopping center currently has 10 tenants preparing their shops, with some coming to Mountain Brook for the first time.
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Lane Parke sits directly across from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens along Lane Park Road. “A Celebration on Rele Street,” named after Rele Evans, will take place Oct. 20 as the official opening of the shopping center.
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When Rele Evans was a sophomore in college, he helped his father, Aurelius Augustus Evans, contractor for Evans Construction Company, survey land in Mountain Brook — land that he would one day redevelop and live on. That land now holds the new Lane Parke shopping center.
A few years later, Rele Evans graduated from Tulane University and went to Air Force flight school in the early 1950s, where he flew fighter planes for another three years. Because he didn’t intend to stay in the military his whole life, Rele Evans later applied to the Hughes Aircraft Company.
“I just applied as an engineer, but they found out I had a flying background and immediately wanted me to join their flight-test organization,” he said. “So I did. I got back to flying again and flew for another three years. I flew all kinds of stuff, including supersonic aircraft.”
Like his time in the Air Force, however, Rele Evans’ adventure as a test pilot was short lived. He went back to school to earn a master’s degree and Ph.D. in engineering from UCLA and also secured a job with the technology company Space Tech Labs, now called TRW, Inc.
“[This company] had a lead role in developing the space program,” he said. “I had an assignment to help develop some of the guidance equipment for the lunar landing.” Rele Evans worked with Space Tech Labs throughout grad school and after graduation.
He was later transferred to the Houston area, where his son, John Evans, grew up, to work in association with NASA for about 10 years.
In 1980, Rele Evans moved to Mobile to help his father with the family business. By that time, Aurelius already had developed the original Lane Parke apartments and shopping center in Mountain Brook Village.
Rele Evans worked alongside his father as vice president of the company until his father died in 1993.
His death triggered a family inheritance battle which complicated ownership, but it eventually ended in a settlement.
“Lo and behold, when it was all over, John and I and my daughter owned everything,” Rele Evans said.
He then took over as president of the company, and John Evans, after moving from Houston to Mountain Brook, assumed the role as vice president.
The father-son team had big ideas for Lane Parke, but were hindered by constant flood threats that loomed over their complexes. Eventually, the city realized that potential flood waters could affect Mountain Brook Village as well, and became involved in addressing the problem.
“When we saw that they were going to seriously address the flooding, we decided it was time for us to consider redeveloping the property,” Rele Evans said. “Because we had 50-, 60-year-old buildings, and they weren’t getting any younger.”
Rele and John Evans quickly started their research to determine the best course of action, but were soon blindsided by the 2008 recession. When they returned, they “realized finally that [they] were totally in a new world, and needed to go to somebody who knew that world,” Rele Evans said.
The duo met with the Daniel Realty Company in 2012, which divided the redevelopment into three parts: the apartments, the hotel and the shopping center. “The big deal then was mixed-use,” Rele Evans said. “People like to live close to work and walk to where they want to go.”
The apartments were completed in June 2015, and Rele Evans, now a board member of Evson, Inc., soon took up residence there in an apartment overlooking the shopping center. However, neither he nor John Evans, who is now the president of the company, own the apartments or hotel.
Their only concern was keeping the shopping center. “The retail was something we did not want to sell,” Rele Evans said. “We wanted to retain that and assume the role as the owner.”
Because the plan proposed by Daniel Realty Company would have left them as the minority owners for the retail, John Evans arranged the loan with Iberia Bank and took over redevelopment.
“The city is really excited about the project,” John Evans said. “The last thing they wanted was a fifth village within the city of Mountain Brook. We wanted it to look like it belongs.”
Now, after watching the shops grow from his apartment window, Rele Evans, along with John Evans, is able to enjoy the center and all it has to offer as the tenants begin to open up their doors to the public.
The shopping center, which spans 66,640 square feet, is divided into 12 spaces for both retail and restaurants.
“Since the [Planned Unit Development] was approved, we’ve stayed right within the framework,” said Robert Jolly, CEO of Retail Specialists, Inc.
The first tenants moved into their spaces in April and have since been customizing their storefronts.
Western Market, which has been in Mountain Brook for the past 54 years, is moving to the new Lane Parke shopping center and creating their own, larger space. “[The new building is] 8,000 square feet larger than the old location,” said Darwin Metcalf, COO and president of Western Market. “And our employees actually helped design their own departments.”
Even though the individualization of multiple stores with separate contractors can cause logistical challenges, Jolly said everything has gone rather smoothly.
There are two open spaces available for tenants, and there have been many applications for the corner locations. The prospective businesses are being chosen carefully so as to not offset the balance created within the shopping center.
“It’s very important in the retail world that the tenants complement each other and that you think through every decision you make,” Jolly said. “You don’t want to have to have tenants that compete with each other. You want tenants that complement each other.”
Recently, there were changes to the tenant list for Lane Parke, as YEAH! Burger has decided to no longer open in Birmingham. The shopping center also has added another undisclosed tenant between B. Prince and KSO.
Due to the location of the shopping center, it will be easily accessible to residents of both the Lane Parke Apartments and the Grand Bohemian.
“It’s interesting because each of the components of the development consider the other component the anchor, the real attraction to the development,” Jolly said. “It’s a really neat situation that in one site you have three components that benefit from each other.”
To honor the completion of Phase 1 of the development, Rele Street (pronounced “real”) will be closed to traffic and opened to the public Oct. 20 from 3 to 7 p.m. for a “Celebration on Rele Street.” Originally named “Evans Avenue,” the city would not allow that name because the dimensions for the street do not meet the requirements to be an avenue. “So somebody at the city named it Rele Street,” Rele Evans said.
Residents from surrounding communities will be invited to take part in the grand opening, which will be reminiscent of a street festival complete with special discounts, food, craft beer and live music.
Phase two of the project, which is not scheduled to begin until the lease for the Rite Aid in the existing shopping center has ended in 2019, will bring additional tenants.
Construction plans are to demolish the existing buildings to the edge of the older Western Market in order to make way for another 45,000 to 50,000 square feet of retail space. The new shops, which have yet to be chosen, will help create a more upscale boutique shopping location in the Mountain Brook center.
“I’ve been looking at the plans for the retail for 10 years, and to see it built is amazing to me,” John Evans said. “Once the retail is all completed, it’s a legacy to my grandfather and father.”
Tenants (as of Sept. 8):
- Kinnucan’s Specialty Outfitters: Known to its loyal customers as KSO, the store carries brands fit for all active lifestyles.
- The Local Taco: A restaurant that focuses on the blend between Tex-Mex flavors with the Southern food culture.
- M&S Interiors: A home furnishing outlet for both casual and one-of-a-kind décor.
- CharBar No. 7: A new-to-Birmingham restaurant “where quality meets casual” that features a mid-priced menu with a variety of tasty options.
- Revelator Coffee Company: A specialty coffee company that had simple beginnings in New Orleans and now has headquarters in Birmingham.
- A’mano: A tenant of the current shopping center, this studio will feature objects for an artful life from both local and international artists.
- B. Prince: Returning to its roots, B. Prince, formally called Betsy Prince, will fill its shelves with original, unusual finds.
- Western Supermarkets: A current shop in Mountain Brook, the new space will offer a wider selection of goods to include local, organics, produce, wine, seafood, craft beer and groceries.
- P2 Platinum Pilates: A Pilates studio relocating to Lane Parke that focuses on balance, power and lifestyle.
