From left to right, properties on South Park Drive, Data Drive and Meadow Brook Corporate Parkway in Hoover are now zoned to include R&D facilities.
As the City of Hoover created a comprehensive plan for the next 10 to 20 years, fostering and supporting diversification of its economy to include more research and development (R&D) was a key item addressed.
Earlier this year, the Hoover City Council voted to modify the Zoning Ordinance of Hoover to add R&D facilities, further encouraging growth in that industry within the city.
This amendment permits R&D in commercial districts where it would have been previously not permitted due to laboratory, light manufacturing and distribution components, clearing a hurdle for those companies looking to locate or expand.
“The long-term strategy of the comprehensive plan is to be resilient over time and being more diverse in our offerings,” said Mac Martin, Hoover’s city planner. “Having a robust tech industry sector is certainly a major component of that.”
Hoover is no stranger to R&D companies – it is already home to companies like BioHorizons, ProctorU and Doozer Software in Riverchase Business Park; Command Alkon in International Park; and McLeod Software and NXTsoft in Meadow Brook Office Park, to name a few.
“Hoover is a community that embraces tech and STEM-based industries,” said Greg Knighton, economic development manager for the City of Hoover. “We have the workforce for it and amenities as a community in terms of the best-ranked school systems in the state, and fine recreational and cultural facilities make it a place people want to live. We wanted to provide further location opportunities for businesses to be in the city and for people to be able to live, work and recreate all within the same municipality.”
Specific areas in Hoover where there is property zoned for R&D use include the U.S. Highway 31 corridor, the U.S. Highway 280 corridor including Meadow Brook and Inverness Office Parks, International Park, Riverchase Business Park, and the Interstate 459/Alabama Highway 150 corridor.
Doozer Software, a software development R&D company, has been in Hoover’s Riverchase Business Park since 1999. Four of the five largest software development firms in the Birmingham region are located in Hoover, said Sandy Syx, Doozer Software’s president.
“From the volume of great jobs to great neighborhoods to quality of life, I think there’s simply no better place in the MSA to be, especially for families,” he said. “That’s probably why there are so many already here. We often recruit new employees from outside Birmingham, and they are almost always shocked at what this area, and Hoover in particular, has to offer.”
Though Hoover’s R&D space is already solid, there is ample room for growth, Knighton said – and he hopes for just that.
“We are very fortunate in Hoover that we already have a great R&D capacity within life sciences companies, financial institutions and software development companies,” he said. “We want to foster that and continue to grow that ecosystem. When you have that, more begets more.”
Planned development properties like this are advantageous for cities like Hoover and companies looking to locate, said Brian Jennings, vice president of economic development at the Birmingham Business Alliance.
“The best part about a planned development property, or properties in this case, is that it provides companies the upfront zoning that they require to not only do business but ensure continuity of operations because they fit in the overall scheme of the development,” he said. “Zoning property takes time and is an uncertain process. Because these properties are already zoned for a specific use, it eliminates time in the development process. Time is money and pre-zoned properties should be seen as a valuable incentive just as cash is for job creation or any other economic development incentive out there. Certainty is vitally important in these difficult times and that means the world to prospective companies.”