2005 Real Estate Deals – Winner Overall - Ross Bridge Resort

Birmingham Business Journal Bestows Awards for 2005 Real Estate Deals



Project: Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa



Developer: Retirement Systems of Alabama



Location: Hoover's Oxmoor Valley, accessible from Lakeshore Parkway and Alabama Highway 150; easy access to The Riverchase Galleria and Birmingham International Airport.



Size: Covering 330 acres on the rolling, wooded hills of Oxmoor, Ross Bridge boasts a 259 room hotel, 10,000 square foot ballroom and additional meeting space, 12,000 square foot spa, and golf course spanning 8,200 yards. The resort building encompasses 333,000 square feet.



Project value: $75 million



RSA chief executive David Bronner gets a thrill every time he learns about someone being blown away by their Ross Bridge experience. People simply don't expect such world-class luxury in Alabama, he says.



Both the resort and golf course have been featured in national publications like the Robb Report and New York Magazine, drawing tourists who otherwise might not have visited our state.



Events are flocking to Ross Bridge, such as the annual Champions Tour event known as the Regions Charity Classic, formerly the Bruno's Memorial Classic, which brings the world's best golfers to Alabama. And industries contributing to a growing central Alabama economy are grateful, says Bronner, to be able to send their visitors to a hotel resort that rivals those in Tokyo or New York.



Bronner says before Ross Bridge, the only hotel-resort that came close to high class luxury in Alabama was the Grand Hotel across the bay from Mobile, currently undergoing an RSA makeover. "There was sort of a vacuum there," he says. "People thought nobody would ever pay world-class hotel rates here, when in fact now, because of the Barber (Motorsports) track, Mercedes, Honda and the world class people that UAB brings, they will. It's almost turned into a no-brainer.:



Another economic boon directly linked to Ross Bridge is the quickly growing community taking shape on more than 1,000 acres leading to the course and resort that will consist of a town center, homes and offices. They are being co-developed by Daniel Corporation and USS Real Estate.



Besides bringing recognition to Alabama, Ross Bridge has also put Hoover on the map, says the city's director of development, Virginia Williams. She says RSA's, USS Real Estate's and Daniel's grand plans for the property led the city to annex it. "It gives us a new, more sophisticated identity that we haven't had in this community before," Williams says.



That new identity promise to be enhanced even further thanks to the new Ross Bridge Institute, a group of individuals focused on bringing cultural and community events such as the Pompeii exhibit to Ross Bridge and therefore draws more visitors. Williams credits the Jefferson County Commission with providing much of the infrastructure that paved the way for the resort.



Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel in Montgomery, calls Ross Bridge the "crown jewel" of Southern resorts and the "icing on the cake for the golf trail that Dr. Bronner started 12 years ago." The Robb Report, he says, calls the course one that will challenge any golfer even a Tiger Woods, to play his or her very best game.



Bronner is justifiably proud of Ross Bridge, and says getting its look precisely right was a huge challenge. He rejected about five designs before approving the castle-like one ultimately used. With a stone exterior and interiors boasting soaring ceilings and finishes such as limestone floors, cherry wood and hammered copper, it draws inspiration from the stately resorts of the Canadian Rockies, such as The Fairmont Banff Springs.