by Dale Jones
As progress continues on the redevelopment of downtown Trussville, questions remain about what will happen to the Braden’s Furniture building once they close their doors.
So far, the short answer is “to be determined.”
Jef Freeman of the Trussville Redevelopment Authority (RDA) addressed the question at a recent Trussville Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“The Braden’s Furniture building will come down and there is an engineered right turn lane that will go in and take up part of that space,” Freeman said.
This will likely result in some available space that the city owns, and Freeman said what will happen with the space is still to be determined.
The RDA believes that the right turn signal will help alleviate congestion at the intersection of Main Street and Chalkville Road. In addition, the city expects that the look and use of the available space will coincide with the rest of the downtown project.
“What the city wants to do is control the aesthetic look and set the tone for how the rest of that quadrant will be developed in the future,” said Mayor Gene Melton. “There are a lot of undecided plans, other than it is going to be green space and it is going to blend in with what we are trying to do to make downtown more walkable.”