Business Review Pell City Square

only on the I-20 frontage. Today, it’s bustling with business and more is on the way. preparing for increased traffic likely coming its way. The widening of John Haynes Drive has been completed. So has a retaining wall built near U.S. 231 South to give the outlet enough width for a fifth lane, enabling a new outbound turn lane. That will give drivers access to three turn lanes.

Traffic light signalization is being improved at Jeanne Pruett Drive and U.S. 231 to help with the flow of traffic.

What all that means is by September, the city will enter a new era of economic development with the opening of the center and the array of retail it offers to citizens plus the benefits coming to city coffers. First year sales projections are $25 million. At an effective tax rate of 5 percent, that’s an additional $1,250,000 per year. “It’s very material to our local budgets,” Muenger said.

It opens up another corridor for retail growth and other commercial developments are expected to follow. “It closes the gap in retail shopping needs,” Muenger said. And those shoppers “can stay here to find what they need rather than travel outside the city.”

When he thinks back to that photo on his phone – merely a clearing in the woods taken from the rooftop of an abandoned hospital – Muenger can’t help but see how quickly that entire area of the city has transformed.

“It’s extremely exciting for the city,” Muenger said. “We’ve worked for a very long time. It’s very gratifying. It’s what people told us they wanted to see here.”

Come September, it will all be open for business.

Restaurants line another big project just down the road