West side revival picks up
By Kym Klass
Greg Thompson, owner of Tony's Pizza, prepares a tray of lasagna in his restaurant on Bell Street in Montgomery.
In about five years, commercial property owner Jim Massey Jr. predicts people will start moving back to west Montgomery.
It's a place filled with family owned businesses. It's a place where some business owners say "if you work for it, they will come." And it's a place that's not blind to the growth, or the surge of the economic impact, on the city's east side.
But that prediction is five years away. For now, operating a business on the west side is tough.
Business people there say that to survive in the west, they work harder.
"I know you have to work harder in west Montgomery than east Montgomery because you have to tear down and rebuild," said Massey, chief executive officer and president of Jim Massey Inc. He also owns the 16,000-square-foot Uptown Shopping Center property at Carter Hill Road and South Decatur Street.
The center, anchored by Family Dollar, sits next to the upcoming Phase II of the center, which has 25,000 square feet of retail space available.
"The economic growth of the people on the west side ... they want the same services that (people) want on the east side."
He said they want the same services and the same amounts of it, whether it's the right to exercise in safety or to have good, clean roads.
"I'm in the location business, and I don't care if it's fried chicken or shoes, they want it too, and they should be getting it," he said.
The businesses surviving in west Montgomery have the kinds of goods and services that those living in their area want to spend their money on, said Douglas Jones, vice president of small business development for the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. Those businesses include Family Dollar, Auto Zone, and businesses along the Fairview Avenue area, as well as some fast-food restaurants.
"There are larger businesses in east Montgomery than west Montgomery," Jones said. "Most of the businesses in west Montgomery -- commercial and retail -- are smaller businesses."
But he said that could be less an indication of how much money there is to spend than of spending patterns.
"A residence may have equal household income -- comparing east to west residents -- but may spend their monies different."
Asked what will bring people back to west Montgomery, Massey said new home construction, businesses and people getting tired of the 30-minute commute and $3 gasoline.
"We've got some good businesses in west Montgomery."
Greg Thompson has owned Tony's Pizza and Steak Restaurant for the past 15 years, and says his continued success on Bell Street comes from hard work.
"If you work for it, they will come," he said. "If you sit back and let someone else do the work, they won't come. It's a matter of them seeing how much you care."
Thompson's customers come from Prattville and from downtown Montgomery. They come to a place where Thompson makes everything by hand -- everything from the hamburgers to the pizza sauces.
He puts in about 60 hours a week at the Bell Street restaurant, as well as his second restaurant on Troy Highway. And he still has time to coach football as the defensive line coach at Montgomery Catholic High School.
"I've heard people say west Montgomery is going downhill, and the reason that's so is because people don't want to work at those businesses" he said. "My people want to work, and I want to work, and that's how we're going to keep going."
Jones thinks the traffic along Interstate 65 contributes to west Montgomery businesses because those passing through often head to McDonald's, gas stations, or the CVS stores.
"I'm sure it's not as much (traffic) as the businesses want," he said. "I have to say the family owned restaurants do okay because they have been there a long time. But they probably get very little from traffic on 65."
But for this to change, there will have to be not only more family restaurants, but more families and it's businesses that will help bring them.
That may be a while away, but businessmen in west Montgomery, say they are working on it -- working hard.
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