Landowners near Celebrate Alabama ponder future

By Beverly Harvey

Published: July 16, 2008

The way Brenda Holmes sees it, you can’t stop progress — not even in your own backyard.

So when Holmes and her husband were approached about selling their 40-year home to help make way for Celebrate Alabama, they decided to sell.

Silver Companies, a Florida- and Virginia-based company, is the developer of Celebrate Alabama, a planned retail and entertainment development along Interstate 85 between exits 64 and 66.

Plans for the project include retail stores, restaurants, hotels, an expo center, a music hall and a five-screen drive-in theater.

So far, Silver Companies has purchased 536 acres for the development, Chief Operating Officer Marvin Bolinger said.

The proximity of their home to the development and the projected increase in traffic are some of the reasons Holmes and her husband opted to sell.

But not everyone living near the Celebrate Alabama site is selling.

Sharlyn and Charlie Griffin have not been approached by anyone regarding their home on U.S. Highway 29, but say they aren’t interested in selling it at this time.

“At this point, we’re planning on staying,” Sharlyn Griffin said. “We bought this as our homestead to retire and die here.”

The Griffins want to see how much their property will be impacted by the Celebrate Alabama development before deciding whether to move. Sharlyn Griffin also said she likes the idea of being able to live close to the planned retail stores and restaurants, especially with the current cost of gasoline.

At least one woman, who declined to give her name, was scheduled to meet with someone about her home today, but she was having second thoughts after hearing that neighbors had been pressured to sell.

There have also been reports that residents have been approached by people falsely claiming to be connected with the Celebrate Alabama project and Silver Companies, Bolinger said.