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Winner:
Mike Mouron
Mobilizing the community to create difference-making structures
Ten cottages off Lakeshore Drive look somewhat like real estate projects Mike Mouron has developed for students, but they didn’t make him any money. Instead, they brought an even greater satisfaction.
Injured veterans and their families stay in the cottages when they come to the Lakeshore Foundation for fitness programs. Prior to their existence, the veterans stayed in dorms while their families were in hotels off site. It’s just as important for the families to be with the injured veteran to ski or meet another fitness challenge as it is for the vet to do it, Mouron said.
Mouron and his company, Capstone Real Estate Investments, spearheaded the Cottages at Lakeshore project, which was completed in 2010, and recruited around 100 companies to donate materials and services for it. His wife, Kathy, originally pointed him to the Lakeshore Foundation and has worked with him on other projects.
“I was never in the military and neither were my sons, so I feel like it’s the least we can do for those who served and those who have been injured,” Mouron said. “It’s the smallest development Capstone has done, but it’s the most rewarding.”
Mouron said after the Lakeshore project, several people who had donated their time or services thanked him for allowing them to work on the project.
“It gives them a good feeling about themselves, their company and their community,” Mouron said. “You think people would donate their second-best product, but it was just the opposite. People were giving away the top of the line.”
A few years later, Mouron heard that the old McElwain Elementary School property was for sale and knew that PreSchool Partners was in need of a new home for its school near Mountain Brook. Mouron’s daughter-in-law Allyson Mouron works there.
“The more I learned [about PreSchool Partners], the more I was interested in the way they approach education,” Mouron said, noting how important he thinks it is that parents are required to be a part of the program as well.
Mouron negotiated purchasing the McElwain property from Birmingham City Schools, and a new building for the organization is scheduled for completion in May. The remainder of the property, about 6.5 acres, he sold to a developer who is building about 60 townhomes there.
Like with the Lakeshore project, Mouron helped recruit other material suppliers to donate or reduce the costs of their services for the school building as well as businesses to purchase naming rights for parts of the building. Pete Pritchard volunteered his architectural services and Hoar its construction services.
“It’s almost a magical feeling seeing things come together, and when you do that for a good cause, it’s [even more] satisfying,” Mouron said.
Another of Mouron’s recent projects is also familiar to the community. Growing up in Mountain Brook, his family had shopped at Park Lane Grocery in English Village and ate at its successor Arman’s, and his company had held Christmas parties at the Park Lane event venue. When its property became available last year, he purchased it from the families who owned the original grocery store and had leased it to the other businesses.
He was originally thinking about working with a restaurant to locate there, but city council members noted that Little Hardware was looking for a place to relocate since the new Lane Parke development plans would not allow it to have the outside storage it needed.
“Everyone was so fearful that Little Hardware was going to move outside the city,” Mouron said. “I think everyone in Mountain Brook has shopped there.”
It wasn’t long before Little Hardware had moved up Cahaba Road to the site.
“It’s an iconic location,” Mouron said. “After growing up in Mountain Brook, it’s fun to own that property.”
Mouron said he enjoys doing things in his own community and would never do a project like this in another state.
“Whenever I ask people to get involved, a large number are willing to pitch in even though there is never a lack of good causes,” Mouron said.
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Runner Up:
Alison Scott
President of the Junior League of Birmingham
For Alison Scott, leading the Junior League of Birmingham has made her fall even more in love with her city.
“I get to see every corner and every good thing in the city,” Scott said. “It’s an exciting time to be in Birmingham. I love that the Junior League has its fingerprints on everything good in the city.”
She and her husband, Stephen, met in Birmingham and moved back six years ago after spending 11 years in New Orleans. Two of their children, Georgia Kate and Grayson, attend Cherokee Bend Elementary, and the oldest, Brennan is at Mountain Brook Junior High.
Scott is particularly passionate about literacy and serves on the board of the Literacy Council of Alabama, which was started by Junior League members.
“I heard a speaker talk about how the formula for how many jail cells would be needed was based on the third grade illiteracy rate,” Scott said. “That was what spurred my passion for literacy efforts.”
Another program that stands out to her is the League’s Youth Leadership Forum, which teaches high school students, no more than two from each school, about their city to inspire them to come back to be community leaders themselves. The same goes with the Junior League’s scholarships, Scott said. They look for women who they think will come back and be community leaders here in Birmingham, and she loves being a part of that.
