Students graduating within the year may not reap the benefits of the anticipated West Pace Village. While the project developers hope it will someday compare to East Chase in Montgomery and will keep shoppers in Auburn instead of traveling out of the city to Birmingham or Atlanta, the process to get there has been slow. "The first purchase was on Aug. 15 five years ago," said Tom Hayley of West Pace LLC. Since then, the only businesses to make appearances are the Nissan and Toyota car dealerships. City Manager Charlie Duggan said the development is trekking along according to plan, which asset manager Tom Daniel said has been categorized into three phases.
The construction is paid for with bonds rather than tax revenue and getting that sorted takes time, Duggan said. A bond issue closed earlier this month to help complete what's considered public infrastructure such as roads, water, sewer and sidewalks. "Now that has taken place, you're going to see some more activity out there," Duggan said. "A few companies have been waiting to have that bond issue closed and know that all the roads and sidewalks and all those amenities were going to be completed before signing and announcing that they want to locate there." Duggan said they don't know what types of businesses will set up shop at West Pace Village, but the developers are aiming to have multiple restaurants, clothing stores, a movie theater and possibly a hotel.
"Right now nothing is ready to be announced," Duggan said. "And typically until everything, every bit of paperwork is signed, you won't hear any announcements." The progress of the development depends largely on the economy. Duggan said if a national chain is involved, the decision will lay on whether Auburn is the appropriate market size and demographic, as well as the income levels and amount of disposable income in the area. One benefit of West Pace Village both the city and developers agreed on is the first 13 cents of every tax dollar going to the public schools in Auburn.
"This needed to happen to be able to attract national retailers," Hayley said. "There is a number of national retailers that are out there. We are looking forward to courting, recruiting and trying to get them to the best town in Alabama and the best town in the South, in my opinion." Even though the development has already been worked on for 2-3 years, its completion may take a while. "We were plowing new ground from day one," said Mayor Bill Ham. "There has been an incredible amount of time that has gone into this." But, no one knows how long it will take West Pace Village to fully come together. "We've talked in terms of years," Duggan said. "It may take 10 years to build a development of this size." Developers are hopeful in the coming weeks that they will hear from businesses interested in locating to the area.
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