EXCLUSIVE: 3 New-to-Market Restaurants Coming to Brand-New Tuscaloosa Shopping Center

Three new-to-market restaurants are coming to Tuscaloosa soon in a brand-new shopping center being planned in a currently residential area off McFarland Boulevard.

On Friday, with his second four-year term easily secured in Tuesday’s municipal election, District 7 Councilman Cassius Lanier shared plans for the next big thing coming for his constituents: the Springbrook Commons.

Lanier told the Thread that a developer who owns a major swath of property in the Springbrook neighborhood is gearing up to tear down around two dozen older homes in the area – seven vacant homes and 14 rental properties where tenants will soon move out.

After those residences are demolished, the developer intends to build the Springbrook Commons between the TownePlace Suites Tuscaloosa hotel and the Chevron gas station along Albright Road just off McFarland Boulevard.

On Friday, Lanier was allowed to tell the Thread which businesses will come to the development, and three of them are new-to-market dining options many in Tuscaloosa have long requested.

Lanier said Springbrook Commons is slated to feature the city’s first Culver’s, the first Golden Corral and the first Dutch Bros Coffee.

Culvers is the Wisconsin-based fast food chain offering ButterBurgers, fried cheese curds, frozen custard and more

Golden Corral offers their famous endless buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner and has been a request request from Tuscaloosa diners for years.

Although the Druid City is no stranger to coffee shops, Tuscaloosa has never had a Dutch Bros Coffee – a chain started in Oregon in 1992 that has since spread to more than 1,000 locations across the US.

The new District 7 shopping center is also planned to feature a Fast Pace Urgent Health Care Clinic and a Valvoline Instant Oil Change on site, but Lanier said he is most excited to share the news about the new dining options he’s been able to secure for the city and district.

“This is what we need to push economic growth in District 7, this is what we need to bring property value up in Springbrook and Cherrydale, but also what we need to attract even more businesses,” Lanier told the Thread. “Because when others start seeing you develop your district, it becomes an economic hub.”

Demolition of the residences and construction of the shopping center could begin as soon as April, Lanier told the Thread Friday.

As for his next major announcement – what will become of the old McFarland Mall property where Stan Pate has been given the largest tax incentive package in city history to redevelop the property – Lanier said that’s still a few months away, but still coming soon.

For more exclusive news about restaurant and retail development in west Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.