COLUMN: Is Northport Water Park Cause For Celebration Or Concern?

*This is an opinion column*

"He said he did it to help us all and did it for the good of the nation. But he did it for a pot of gold and for his own preservation."

- "Preservation," The Kinks (1973)

NORTHPORT, AL — A week ago to the day, I stood flat-footed in the parking lot of Dollar General off of Rose Boulevard as a light mist fell during the early morning hours as I ripped apart a print copy of the Tuscaloosa News looking for a specific legal notice.

I had been tipped off the night before that the City of Northport would be rolling out the latest updates on its proposed water park/aquatic center off of McFarland Boulevard and stood there with trembling hands and white knuckles gripping that newsprint.

And, standing in a T-shirt, gym shorts and slide sandals, it took all of my willpower to not laugh like an empty-headed idiot for the whole outside world to see in the hazy gray of that morning

Lord knows the City of Northport wasn't going to make more noise than necessary on this one, with no formal announcement offered in tandem with the public notice. Never mind a visible segment of city officials regularly make it a point to take credit for new businesses coming to Northport that likely would have happened with or without them.

They won't admit any of that, no. And do you expect them to?

As I previously reported, the Texas-based developer for the water park — University Beach, LLC — anticipates $350 million in capital investment for the project, with the city committing up to $61 million in bond money and incentives.

Yes, you read that right ... $350 million, which comes in at roughly $100 million more than the University of Alabama's new proposed basketball arena that the UA System Board of Trustees didn't even seem to have the stomach for in an inflation economy.

But if you asked them, Northport elected officials seem confident in knowing something those deep-pocket power brokers with the UA System don't.

Most Northport leaders are on fire about the proposed development, lauding the potential for increased tax revenue, a boon for the local job market and amenities that are expected to improve the quality of life for Northport residents.

Conversely, the recent revelation was not well-received by most Northport residents — namely those in the footprint or in the immediate periphery of the proposed water park — who spoke out on social media regarding the ever-changing nature of the proposed development, its location and the bald-face lack of clarity regarding the shady developers and their checkered pasts.

"No plan. Just plenty of taxpayer money."

"As I see/read, the only benefactors are Northport's tax offices, an out-of-state developer, and of course the water authority."

"I don't feel that it is an ideal location, at all. I really believe that this is a recipe for disaster."

These are just a few of the comments that reflect some of the most common concerns expressed by Northport residents and, in this reporter's view, each is quite valid.

Nevertheless, the Northport City Council is set to hold a public hearing and receive a presentation from the developers on the proposed water park on Monday, Feb. 19.

The present mood inside City Hall is mostly optimistic and many on the city take are excited about the possibility of Northport securing one of the largest economic development projects for the metro in some time. By and large, though, the Northport citizenry appears to be less than enthusiastic and more skeptical of the sincerity of city leaders than anything else.

If it sounds too good to be true, then it normally is, right? And taxpayers in Northport keyed in on it from the jump.

These frustrations can be brought into sharper focus when considering a project that has steadily evolved from a relatively small 11-acre, Fayette-style water park to a full-blown multi-use development on par with OWA in Foley that is expected to occupy close to 100 acres.

Surely, you can see the absurdity in the whole thing just by this point, right? If you do, you can go ahead and stop reading.

The project's evolution since early 2020 has been shrouded in caged secrecy, too, with city employees signing Non-Disclosure Agreements prohibiting them from discussing the proposed water park.

This was one of the primary roadblocks encountered by this seasoned reporter, who has been stonewalled at every turn when seeking out information on the project, particularly the background of developers like Kent Donahue and John Hughes.

Indeed, Donahue and Hughes were both involved with the $1 billion Sapphire Bay mixed-use development in Rowlett, Texas, which has run into its fair share of issues after work first began in February 2015.

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.

It's also worth pointing out that the initial terms of this deal in Texas were pretty similar to those being considered for Northport, with the City of Rowlett buying the land and committing incentives to the developer in the form of sales tax revenue.

Tuscaloosa Patch has filed a public records request with the City of Northport for access to communications between the developers and city leaders and will publish those findings as soon as the request is fulfilled ... if it ever is.

As work in Rowlett continued in 2018, though, Donahue was no longer involved in the project and city leaders there began to raise serious questions about the project's feasibility. This can be interpreted several different ways, with some Northport city officials on background insisting that Donahue left the project when the legal heat began to ramp up by no fault of his own and was welcomed back with open arms once he saddled up with a different group of developers.

After Donahue initially said he expected the project to be complete by 2018, it should come as little surprise that this failed to come to pass.

Northport citizens can be sure they will hear the excuses from their own city leaders relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues with the massive development in Texas, but that simply doesn't jibe with the timeline. Problems were apparent pretty early on and well ahead of the first coronavirus case being confirmed in the United States.

When Donahue rejoined the project under a new group of developers —Sapphire Bay Land Development, LLC — the gang was headed up by Marc English, with Donahue working as his partner. The reason for this is anyone's guess at this point, but a couple of City Hall sources have said that English will likely be involved in the Northport project.

As local news outlets reported, English was in charge of the 400-unit apartment complex that burned down in December and will have to be demolished before turning a single dime of profit.

This isn't so much analysis as it is a crucial background that city leaders in Northport refuse to provide to the media on record or the taxpaying public, using the convenient excuse of having signed Non-Disclosure Agreements on the project.

Never mind these same folks, on your behalf, borrowed the equivalent of the city's general fund operating budget, to the tune of about $45 million, for three massive recreation projects that you as a busy citizen likely know little about.

As Patch previously reported, one of these three projects — the proposed adventure sports park on Rose Boulevard — is viewed by this reporter as little more than a "cover your tail" project after it was originally purchased for $700,000 from the Black Warrior Solid Waste Authority with the intention of the property becoming the home of Northport's water park.

But when city leaders realized the cost of grading down the rugged terrain, the insane pivot was made to find a new location for the water park while at the same time foolishly committing to building some weird mountain biking park that is unlikely to turn much in the way of a return on investment for the city.

These elected officials showed a propensity for impulsivity well before this and this pivot should have been the first red flag.

Again ... a "cover your tail" project that seems, at least at this point, to be little more than wasted money for the sake of preserving political reputations and new terms. Keep in mind, reader, that not a single shovelful of dirt has moved at the proposed site off of Rose Boulevard and no one seems to want to talk about it.

But, man, it sure sets easy on the ears of folks who don't care enough to ask direct questions of their elected officials, right?

So, as has been the case with other Northport issues like the failed push for a city school system that ended up being little more than bone-heads tilting at windmills for the sake of individual political capital or Northport's ham-fisted loss of the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, we're left with little more than our own independent speculation from the grandstands since city leaders are muzzled by their own legal department and often opt to point fingers elsewhere instead of taking ownership of poor decisions.

These folks can point fingers all they want, but the entire Council knows the score, whether they will admit it to you or not.

Still, without a public vote or input from the taxpayers, these same deeply flawed elected officials borrowed enough to effectively bankrupt the city if their wide-eyed ambitions don't come to fruition and the whole effort seems to be nothing more than something to wave as a figurative flag going into an election year in 2025.

To make matters worse, they are banking on you to take the bait hook, line and sinker.

And, like the embarrassingly delayed project in Texas, Northport's proposed $350 million aquatic center and lagoon is well behind schedule because city leaders don't anticipate you following along. As Patch previously reported in March 2023, City Council President Jeff Hogg said the city expected to begin construction of the water park the following December.

Hogg also said last spring that the water park could be open as soon as May 2024 — a target date that is pretty much unrealistic now.

But who cares? After all, this council is giving you "progress you can see," right?

They lie like hell, get busted for malfeasance at every turn, hate each other's guts and, for whatever reason, y'all keep thinking they have some kind of magical ability to put all that aside and do things the right way.

Ain't gonna happen.

Even at this point, before the Shirley property entered the conversation, the project was initially intended to be 11 acres off of the U.S. Highway 82 corridor in the vacant tract adjacent to Big Lots, Tractor Supply Co. and Zaxby's.

To further complicate things, Northport in the last few months also began working to incorporate roughly 85 acres nearby from the Shirley property for the project, which ignited frothing dissension at the possibility of such a large development in an almost exclusively residential area.

Despite the constantly changing dynamics of such a seemingly Quixotic project, other factors persist, too, that should give residents pause.

For such a massive mixed-use development, one would probably be fair to ponder the lack of a hotel in the immediate vicinity. Never mind the Courtyard by Marriott positioned on the Northport side of the Hugh Thomas Bridge — a construction project that ran well behind schedule and has done little to boost Northport's share of the metro's tourism economy.

Don't believe me? Just drive by on a busy night on the other side of the bridge in Tuscaloosa and see how few cars are in the new hotel's parking lot.

So, here's where we've found ourselves: Faced with a twisted musical chair game of water park locations, cagey and disingenuous city leaders trembling behind NDAs and a Rorschach-style construction schedule that has seen the goalposts moved back and around at every turn.

Keep in mind, reader, that there is a municipal election coming up in August 2025 and this reporter would caution you to be aware of the convenient progress the water park and two other major recreation projects will make on the eve of voters heading to the polls next year.

They've fooled you up to this point telling you the water park is just a few breaths and dollars away ... and I'll bet they will be telling you the same thing on Feb. 16, 2025.

Don't forget, friends, that a little short of a year ago these same people were telling you their best guess was that Northport would have its fancy new water park by this spring.

HAH! Fat chance.

If Northport is somehow able to pull off such a Herculean effort, it would be an absolute game-changer for the city. But, given this City Council's track record, I'll believe it when I see it.

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 ryan.phillips@patch.com.