The future for a former music venue is a little clearer after a community meeting Thursday night. The city of Pelham hosted the in-depth meeting full of information about its plans but hasn’t made an exact decision as to what the old Oak Mountain Amphitheater will look like just yet.City manager Gretchen DiFante said Thursday’s meeting to unveil the plan to reimagine the former music venue was part of a multi-step process. More than 1,000 residents made their voices heard throughout the process.“We wanted them to feel that they were heard, and what was so much fun about this process is we had people who just took a survey, and then we had people who came and heard the engineers and heard the developers and heard about the challenges, but also the great opportunities,” DiFante said. “Then, we had stakeholder groups who have very specific needs. What was so neat is so many of the priorities are the same. That’s very, very helpful when you’re looking to develop a property or have a project this large.”The city has three different designs it’s considering to bring a multiuse space. That would include hotels, offices, restaurants, green spaces and its own entertainment district.The area near the proposed site already fits the bill. Pelham business owner and resident Roberto Rodriguez said this project is going to help other businesses like Taco Mac and Big Bad Breakfast thrive, which may not have been the case with the amphitheater. He said other business owners told him concerts didn’t bring a whole lot of businesses because of the traffic cause concertgoers to leave the area quickly after an event.“It’s great to have the ice-skating rink and the Bulls here, but that’s just an evening event,” Rodriguez said. “We need live activity going all the time, and if you have something that’s going to be driving people here, that’s what’s going to help all of these businesses flourish, and not just those here, but all those in the surrounding area.”The city expects the design to be done next week, but the project is still in the early stages. It could take another two to four months before a developer is chosen.
The future for a former music venue is a little clearer after a community meeting Thursday night. The city of Pelham hosted the in-depth meeting full of information about its plans but hasn’t made an exact decision as to what the old Oak Mountain Amphitheater will look like just yet.
City manager Gretchen DiFante said Thursday’s meeting to unveil the plan to reimagine the former music venue was part of a multi-step process. More than 1,000 residents made their voices heard throughout the process.
“We wanted them to feel that they were heard, and what was so much fun about this process is we had people who just took a survey, and then we had people who came and heard the engineers and heard the developers and heard about the challenges, but also the great opportunities,” DiFante said. “Then, we had stakeholder groups who have very specific needs. What was so neat is so many of the priorities are the same. That’s very, very helpful when you’re looking to develop a property or have a project this large.”
The city has three different designs it’s considering to bring a multiuse space. That would include hotels, offices, restaurants, green spaces and its own entertainment district.
The area near the proposed site already fits the bill. Pelham business owner and resident Roberto Rodriguez said this project is going to help other businesses like Taco Mac and Big Bad Breakfast thrive, which may not have been the case with the amphitheater. He said other business owners told him concerts didn’t bring a whole lot of businesses because of the traffic cause concertgoers to leave the area quickly after an event.
“It’s great to have the ice-skating rink and the Bulls here, but that’s just an evening event,” Rodriguez said. “We need live activity going all the time, and if you have something that’s going to be driving people here, that’s what’s going to help all of these businesses flourish, and not just those here, but all those in the surrounding area.”
The city expects the design to be done next week, but the project is still in the early stages. It could take another two to four months before a developer is chosen.