Among the topics discussed at Monday night’s wide-ranging Marion City Council meeting was the construction of a new Dollar General building in Marion.
Kristyna Moore of the Broadway Group, a Huntsville-based real estate development firm that works closely with Dollar General, was on the council’s agenda that night and attended via Zoom. The Broadway Group has purchased land at the intersection of Highway 15 and Highway 5 in Marion. The developers want to subdivide the property in to two lots: one about 2.5 acres and the other about 3.3 acres.
Bobby Herndon, whose Northport-based land surveying business works with The Broadway Group in the development of Dollar General properties, was at the meeting in person. Herndon presented a map showing the proposed subdivision.
“So you need us to approve that drawing so you can move forward?” said Mayor Dexter Hinton.
“We need to approve the plan so we can get the signatures needed, we can get the courthouse to continue the process,” said Herndon.
“Do we normally go through when someone subdivides lots and vote on it?” asked Councilmember Jeff Nail.
“We are the overseeing planning commission to do so if it’s zoned industrial property,” said Hinton.
“If it’s actually zoned for those purposes,” said City Clerk Laura Hinton.
Herndon said that because the property was in the city limits, he and the other developers needed to seek the city’s approval to subdivide it.
Councilmembers unanimously approved to proposal.
The Broadway Group develops properties throughout the country for Dollar General stores, then leases the properties to Dollar General—which owns little retail real estate itself—for terms of ten or fifteen years. Broadway will then sometimes sell the developed, leased buildings to other investors at a considerable profit, though sometimes it retains ownership of the properties itself.
When a property’s lease is up, recent practice has been to develop a new property nearby and move out of the old store. Marion’s current Dollar General building, which has been plagued with equipment failures over the past few years, is nearing the end of its lease period.
