Hoover approved the Riverchase Crossings East deal. HomeSense is the anchor.

This one is close to home. Not a study, not a concept: an adopted resolution covering a shopping center most of us drive through every week.

What was approved

On August 10, 2026 the Hoover City Council adopted Resolution 8917-26, authorizing the use and grant of public funds under Amendment 772 in connection with a development agreement with NRE Riverchase, LLC for the Riverchase Crossings East redevelopment (City of Hoover resolutions).

Ahead of that vote, reporting described the agreement as covering roughly 37,793 square feet of vacant retail space — including the former Big Lots — at 1773–1775 Montgomery Highway, with anticipated tenants HomeSense and Shoe Dept. HomeSense is a TJX brand, and this would be its first Alabama location (ABC 33/40).

On August 16 the Birmingham Business Journal reported that the redevelopment is moving forward following the incentive deal and a land sale, under the headline “Protective Life Corp. makes $10M land sale for retail project” (Birmingham Business Journal). That article is paywalled, so beyond the headline figure we are not going to characterize the terms.

What we are deliberately not telling you

You may run across specific numbers for this deal — a rebate amount, a split of the square footage between the two tenants. We found those figures only on marketing blogs, never in a city record or a news outlet. So we are leaving them out.

The same goes for an opening date. “Anticipated tenants” in a development agreement is not a signed lease with a grand-opening date, and we have not seen either. When HomeSense announces, we will post it.

Why an empty box on Highway 31 matters to Riverchase

Vacant anchor space is the kind of thing that quietly shows up in how buyers talk about a neighborhood. When we show homes on the Riverchase side of Highway 31, buyers ask about the retail corridor without ever using the words “sales tax base.” They ask whether the shopping nearby feels alive or tired.

Roughly 37,793 square feet coming back into use, with a first-in-state retailer as the draw, is a straightforward positive on that question. It is also a useful signal about how the city intends to handle the corridor: Riverchase Crossings East got a negotiated agreement rather than being left to sit, and that came on the same night the council granted conditional use for a freestanding emergency department at 2137 Valleydale Road (City of Hoover resolutions).

What we would not do is stretch this into a claim about your home’s value. One retail redevelopment does not move a comp. It moves the story a buyer tells themselves about the drive in, which matters at the margin and is genuinely hard to quantify.

The wider pattern

Hoover has been busy this summer, and the projects cluster on the south and west sides more than they do near us:

• The council approved a performance-based incentive capped at $28 million, plus $4 million in city spending on stormwater work affecting Scout Creek and Scout Lake, for Stadium Trace Village Phase II on July 13 (Bham Now). By August 20, dirt was moving and developers had bought 65 more acres off Highway 150 for a Phase III (WBRC).
• South Haven Surgical Plaza broke ground August 14 on 18.4 acres in Stadium Trace Village Phase II: an 80,000-square-foot, four-story, $35 million medical office building with an ambulatory surgery center (Yellowhammer News).
• The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a conditional-use request on July 6 for an approximately 11,000-square-foot freestanding emergency department with 12 exam rooms at 2137 Valleydale Road, and the council followed in August — though Shelby County approval for access to Valleydale Road and a traffic study are still required (Bham Now; ABC 33/40).
• Closer to Riverchase, the city’s Riverwalk Village page projects more than $400 million in cost on the roughly 90-acre site, including a 135-room hotel, 32,000 square feet of retail and an ambulatory surgery center (City of Hoover). In July the mayor said Solara Surgical Partners is pursuing the certificate of need and is expected to begin construction within “the next several months” (WBHM). That page carries no publication date, and no 2026 construction start has been confirmed.

Riverwalk Village is the one on this list we would keep the closest eye on, because it is in Riverchase rather than near it.

One traffic note

ALDOT began asphalt removal on July 19 for a 3.2-mile resurfacing of I-459 from south of SR-150 to north of US-31, with nightly closures from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Friday and completion expected by spring 2027 (ALDOT). If you have been wondering why the evening detours, that is why.