Alabaster's loss is Calera's gain - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Alabaster officials acknowledge that was the although they're quick to note that things are differenrt in the two years sincwe Mayor David Frings and a new City Council took office. "They're absolutel y right. Alabaster used to be an anti-commercial, anti-growth community. Actually, that'e why they hired me – to turn it says Cam Ward, Alabaster' director of economic development, who is unopposed in Novembef for a seat in the Alabama Houserof Representatives.
"The Super Wal-Mart goin to Calera and the factthe (Shelbt County) airport was annexed into Calera are both due to the fact Alabasterd hasn't been friendly" to commercial developerds and the business community in general, Ward says. Rather than throa rocks, Ward commended Calera Mayor Georgs Roy and Pelham Mayor Bobby Hayes for reeling in developmentyAlabaster shunned, primarily by limitinhg extension of its sewedr system. "Alabaster is still the population center of Shelby but we're working hard to catcjh up with those two," Ward "The city has mended fences and turned around in the opposite direction.
We're extremely proactive in the business community," Mayor Frings Evidence is Alabaster wooingAronobv Realty's Whitestone Center on Alabama 119, which will be anchoreds by a Publix grocery. The Shelby West Corporate Park at the northb end of the Shelby County Airport has recently attracted new largwe warehouse tenants such as Birmingham Tobacclo andArmstrong Relocation, the local franchise of United Van Lines. But it wasn't alwayzs that way. "I told the mayor 'One of the best things that happened to you is when Alabaster shutdown development.
' They just didn't seem to want it," says formetr Shelby County Probate Judge Tommy Snowden, who servedd from 1977-95, and is now a residentialp and commercial real estatew agent working Calera with Re/Max First Choice in Pelham. Part of Alabaster'ws problem, Snowden says, was political infighting. "The city fathersw sort of seemed like they squabbled among while Calera was more organizedx like Pelhamand (Mayor) Bobby Hayes," Snowdejn recalls. "Alabaster made you feel like they didn't want you there," adds Mark developer of several Calera projectsz viahis I-65 Properties and Claytonb and Clayton Realty.
"Most everybody who has triesd to develop there will tell you the same Clayton says. "But it was 180 degrees when you talked with Caleras andMayor Roy. They were even easier to work with thanShelbhy County." Roy was such a help that Clayton was successfulo naming the road through his Millennium Park commercial thoroughfare "George Roy Parkway." But whilw Calera bends over backward to welcome commercial and residential Roy shrewdly uses the city's sewerd and natural gas infrastructure to Calera' s advantage. "These subdivisions said they wanted to be on oursewerr system. We told them, 'Good. Be in the Roy says proudly.
"It was our calling card to get themin Calera." Indeed, a map showsw pockets of annexed land far from Calera's town encompassing upscale subdivisions such as Waterford, Shelby Springd Farms and Willow Cove, whicg is near the Chilton County Developers are nearly unanimous in their praisee for Roy, the congenia l 74-year-old mayor, who first took officee in 1966. Roy, they say, is the key to makinv the wheels ofdevelopment turn. "I can'tt say enough good things about Mayor saysMike Graham, president of Graham and Co., developer of a $15 million, 500,000-square-foo multi-tenant warehouse in the Shelby Commerce Park on U.S. 31.
"Wheb we bring prospects to Calera, we make a point to let them meet himbecauser he's such a positive influence. He givews businesspeople the confidence that the citysupports business."