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What’s more, the lagoon would feature a beach club with at least 10,000 square feet of indoor restaurant and bar space and an outdoor concert stage and facility with at least 12,000 square feet of outdoor seating, residential lots, hotels, retail space, an event center, and parking and other infrastructure.

“I think at the end of the day with what we’re wanting to do, we’re not here to force anything,” Hughes explained. “We want to be partners and want to partner with the community. That’s the only way this will work and we want to deliver a project that’s first-class.”

Hughes has a background in the entertainment business going back three decades and recently set out on his own by starting a consulting firm which has since been involved with numerous large-scale entertainment projects.

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This is where some in the Northport community have raised questions regarding past projects involving Hughes and developer Kent Donahue, who is also involved in the mixed-used development for Northport.

One of these failed projects was in Beaumont, Texas, where Hughes was involved in trying to build out amenities around Ford Park — a busy youth sports tournament complex not unlike the one currently in the works in Northport near Kentuck Park.

Hughes said, by no fault of the developers, the deal failed because it was a county-owned facility just inside the city limits, with elected leaders failing to find a way to work together to add new amenities around the park.

“It had nothing to do with our facility,” Hughes commented.

To Hughes’ credit, Jefferson County, Texas in 2020 tried to sell the park to Renaissance Development Group, with the developers planning to add a hotel and horse racing track, but this also failed to come to fruition after Renaissance failed to put up the necessary money for the deal.

After starting his own company, Hughes said he began to get involved as a consultant on numerous large projects. It was around this time that he was contacted by the developers behind the much-talked-about Sapphire Bay development in Rowlett, Texas.

As Patch previously reported, the development remains unfinished and is currently the subject of a federal investigation following a large fire that destroyed an apartment complex that had yet to open to tenants.

Hughes said Donahue stepped away from the project due to the politics surrounding the effort and after others involved showed they did not intend to deliver on the promises made concerning the Sapphire Bay development.

Hughes was later asked by city officials to find a way to bring Donahue back onto the project, citing his reputation as a developer uninterested in playing political games.

Fast-forward to roughly a year ago when conversations began to gain momentum regarding changes to the proposed “water park” in Northport.

When asked how the major pivot involving University Beach first came to pass, Hughes confirmed that their interest was piqued not by an proactive effort from Northport City Hall, but through previously established personal connections in the Tuscaloosa area.

Indeed, Hughes has a son that lives and works in Tuscaloosa, while Donahue’s daughter was recently accepted into the University of Alabama. Hughes insists that even these seemingly small connections to the area underscore the sincerity and commitment of the developers to see the project come to fruition.

Upon first meeting with city leaders, however, Hughes said the bond issuance for the project had already been approved but the initial concept of a roughly 11-acre water park with a lazy river and a few slides did not seem promising.

“I don’t think too many people were real happy at the time with the impression I got, but they were kind of stuck with it,” he explained. “I didn’t think that was a good deal for the city and water parks in general. If it’s not affiliated with a major entertainment attraction or something like that, it’s going to struggle.”

So, after these views were expressed and following a meeting with Northport City Administrator Glenda Webb and City Engineer Tera Tubbs, the decision was made to begin researching the possibility of a mixed-use lagoon concept.

“They had already had a big plan for these things they were wanting to do … all I did was tell them that this is something you might want to consider,” he recalled of the conversations during the project’s earliest stages. “I told them I thought they would be wasting their money on this water park concept because it might be good for two seasons. The concept that I’ve been working on for years and what we want to do here, we’ve got to get people out of saying ‘water park.’ It’s a resort-meets-hospitality kind of venue, with entertainment, shopping, dining, residences, hotels, townhomes. It will be done in a way where there’s public boardwalk areas and year-round programming. The water park is literally like 1/10th of the project.”

Renderings viewed by Patch ahead of Monday night’s meeting were objectively impressive, with the primary focus being on a large manmade body of water in the middle of the development that could host everything from small sailing regattas and paddle board competitions to weddings or events hosted on a small island positioned in the middle of the lagoon.

As Hughes pointed out, these kinds of mixed-use lagoon projects are trending up in popularity across the country as developers are able to bring a Caribbean style, sand beach-oriented development to places like Kansas.

Hughes said his firm has already spent a good deal of money on the project — to the tune of six figures — on feasibility studies, due diligence and conceptualizing more than a half dozen renderings to be considered by Northport.

He then made it a point to mention that these were not tax dollars spent by University Beach up to this point and, if the project fails to get off the ground, the developers will not be able to make that money back.

“There will be something for everybody,” he said. “Again, it’s not a water park.”

Hughes is quite optimistic about the potential of the proposed development and said he had “100%” confidence in those investing in the project.

Additionally, he said any political toxicity around the project would have little to no impact if Northport votes to enter the public-private partnership Monday night, going on to say that once the partnership is approved, the project would then become pretty much the sole responsibility of University Beach, LLC and not Northport or its taxpayers.

“Money doesn’t just go to a project just because I want it to,” Hughes said. “There are institutions and private investors that back these kinds of things. I can show them the greatest picture or rendering in the world and say it will be awesome, but money doesn’t care. All [private investors] are worried about is if it will make money. [Investors] have all come to town, flown from California, Florida, and all come here to kick the tires, walk the city, see the site. Everybody knows what it is and where it’s at.”

Despite the excitement on the part of the developers, concerns persist among a large segment of the community that was caught off guard last week with the revelation of the proposed $350 million lagoon went public.

Chief among dissenters are residents who live in the vicinity of the project — many of whom are concerned with impacts to traffic and home values.

Hughes said he hopes to put those concerns to rest Monday night and pointed out that his firm has done studies on everything from water impact to researching infrastructure improvements to help with the flow of traffic.

“The way we positioned the program, the majority of the activities are really more in the south area directly behind Big Lots and a little bit of parking and a secondary entrance on that side that’s not going to be the main entrance,” Hughes said. “If you look on the map, this property sits a little bit south of Shirley Farms, so it’s not directly across from it.

“The next thing I would let [residents] know is that property values are going to go up, as opposed to a water park, which could make them go down,” he continued. “It was one of the things I first said and I believe this will go the other way. We’re going to have townhomes out there that will start out at significantly higher prices than [nearby] homes.”

Nevertheless, residents have also expressed concerns about transparency on the part of City Hall and, most importantly, the ever-changing nature of the project.

As Patch previously reported, the City of Northport officially closed a deal in late 2022 to purchase the 11-acre parcel along the U.S. Highway 82 corridor in the vacant tract adjacent to Big Lots, Tractor Supply Co. and Zaxby’s. This came after the city purchased the Rose Boulevard property in September 2021 from the Black Warrior Solid Waste Authority for $700,000 with the intention of that site being the home of the water park.

This plan was abandoned once city leaders saw the expensive task before them of grading down the rugged terrain, so the decision was made to pivot toward an adventure sports park for the property by building out mountain biking trails and incorporating other outdoor amenities.

The project has gone through multiple incarnations since the idea of a water park was first floated by Council President Jeff Hogg in January 2020. Over the years, Hogg has been the most vocal proponent for the project and led the charge for the city to secure the bond money to cover Northport’s share of the investment.

Still, Hogg and other city leaders have been mostly silent following the public notice on Friday, citing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) signed by city officials at the request of the developer.

Hughes stressed the importance of developers wanting to make a good impression and said the decision was made regarding the NDAs with the goal of allowing the developers to get the project where they thought it should be before being presented to the public and Council.

This is why Hughes stressed at multiple points that calling the proposed development a “water park” does a disservice to the complexity and scope of the concept.

“You’ve only got one chance to make a first impression,” he said. “We’re still not finished and we’re going to add some more features but we finally got to the point where we feel like we are close enough that we can show this and people will understand what we’re trying to do.”

The Northport City Council’s regular meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday night.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The opinions expressed in this column are in no way a reflection of our parent company or sponsors. Email news tips to [email protected].

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