By David Sher
On August 12, IKEA announced its first Alabama store—in Huntsville, opening in early 2026.
That means one of the worlds most respected and disciplined retailers evaluated Birmingham and Huntsville and chose Huntsville—even though Birmingham’s metro population is roughly twice as large.
The day the IKEA announcement broke, the Birmingham Business Journal’s big business story was Exotic dancers gain $1.25M settlement. Right below that headline was “IKEA chooses Huntsville for Alabama debut.”
The juxtaposition felt like a punch in the gut.
What is IKEA telling us?
It wasn’t that long ago that Birmingham was the largest city in Alabama and fretted Huntsville might one day pass us by.
Then in 2021 Huntsville did that dastardly deed.
We were #2.
The next year Mobile unexpectedly jumped ahead of us.
Suddenly we were #3.
Today, Huntsville’s population is shockingly 50,000 more than Birmingham.
Residents write me at ComebackTown about what we could be, what amenities we need, which companies we should recruit.
The retailer at the top of the wish list—year after year—is IKEA.
And yet, when IKEA made its move to Alabama, it didn’t pick us.
Why Huntsville?
Huntsville executes a simple playbook—unity.
When I chaired the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce 2005, we flew to Washington, D.C., to present our federal priorities. We brought a carefully crafted regional list.
But we weren’t the only delegation.
The City of Birmingham had its own trip, UAB had another, Shelby County had another—each with different priorities.
Our senators and representatives gave us the same message: “Go home, agree on one list, and come back.” Translation: divided requests are easy to ignore.
Meanwhile, Huntsville and Madison County sent plane loads of corporate and political leaders—one team with one agenda.
They didn’t just get meetings. They got results.
Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Huntsville is successful because of all its federal government campuses.” Well, focus and unity is the reason the federal government has confidence in Huntsville.
Look what Huntsville accomplished since my Birmingham Chamber Chairmanship in 2005:
It was just announced that the U.S. Space Command is coming to Huntsville.
- FBI Redstone Arsenal campus major facilities opened in 2022 with more coming.
- Army Materiel Command HQ relocation completed in 2011.
- Army Contracting Command HQ stood up 2008; colors uncased at Redstone in 2011.
- Missile Defense Agency buildout Von Braun Complex III opened 2011.
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville Center new 205,000-sq-ft facility opened 2024.
- DIA Missile & Space Intelligence Center new facility work underway since 2023.
And on the corporate side: Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Meta (Facebook) data center, Blue Origin engine plant, Polaris, and Boeing expansions.
That is success built on alignment.
Birmingham’s weaknesses are magnified because we approach our state legislators and governor with the same lack of unification we lobby the federal government.
Incredibly, the Birmingham Mayor and the Birmingham City Council each have competing lobbyists in Montgomery.
We have city vs. city, county vs. city, institution vs. institution.
IKEA’s choice isn’t an obituary for Birmingham; it’s a diagnosis.
The prescription is to get our act together.
Huntsville is proof of what happens when a community rows in the same direction.
We can do the same—if we decide to do it together.
Until then, Huntsville gets the IKEA…and Birmingham gets a headline about happy exotic dancers.
I’d rather write the column about our next unified win.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
The reasons for selecting Huntsville are obvious.
Here is a response from AI:
“ Why Birmingham Was Less Likely:
While Birmingham is a major city in Alabama, Huntsville’s specific demographic and growing economic base likely aligned better with the company’s strategic goals for its smaller-format, service-focused store.
The presence of a thriving tech and aerospace sector in Huntsville, which is a target demographic for IKEA’s modern home furnishings and design services, also made it a more appealing choice.”
From my own opinions:
A- higher education per capita
B- higher income per capital
C- crime is possibly an issue
We all hope Bham can do better.
We are winning the game in the area of medicine
And health services. Hopefully we can build on that.
A merger of surrounding cities into Birmingham is not
In the cards.
The city of Birmingham needs to focus on its own problems including education, income per capita, and crime. Part of that problem is broken homes and kids running the streets. City leaders have to face these problem with real effort.
If there were a way that surrounding cities could help, I’m all for it. We all want Bham to grow and succeed.
As a side note, the Summit Mall is in the city of Birmingham, one of the most successful malls in the South. This still draw top notch retailers. I am an eye witness that this mall fills up daily and very successful after 25 years in business. Kudos to such a success.
This generates a huge amount of tax revenue for the City of Birmingham and Jefferson County..
The truth here is the mall sits in the little village of Cahaba Heights and is surrounded by high income areas like Mt Brook and Vestavia.. in effect, these towns are pouring tax money into Birmingham’s tax coffers daily. This is a win-win deal. Kudos to the creators of this mall. It is well maintained and low crime.
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Tom Phillips,
…Tom…Well…I sincerely hope you guys get to keep your Mall.
Malls across the country have been failing miserably due to poor management and poor business decisions. Some are picking up again but with different business models due to past failures.
For the past several decades, Huntsville has had at least 4 thriving, fully enclosed Malls, but all but one has survived. The failure of the other three had nothing to do with “crime rate” or lacking in “upscale locations”.
There was no excuse other than simple greed for the recent failure of “Madison Square Mall”…It wasn’t just “online shopping” or competition from the yuppified “Bridge Street Town Centre”…(an “upscale” open air “Mall”)…
Lease holders at Madison Mall kept raising their rental rates, those rates were passed down to the consumer by the retailers who belly-ached over rental rate…It was a slow, sad death to witness; one by one retailers took flight.
So Birmingham beware !…Don’t take for granted that your wonderful Mall will last indefinitely…regardless of its “upscale location”…
Greed can be a bugbear from both sides of the equation.
And keep in mind you do have to get your crime and poverty rate down before any economic progress can be foreseeable :
On that sad note about “exotic dancers”, Birmingham needs to take to heart that there are studies strongly suggesting a clear correlation of so-called “exotic dancer” clubs to crime and poverty…
Google AI :
“However, a 2020 study involving 926 counties across 13 U.S. states did find a significant association between the density of strip clubs per capita and violent crime rates, even after controlling for factors like poverty. ”
There’s much debate on the issue, and Google’s “AI” is not always reliable, but I think common sense should rule the day.
Crime and poverty are the biggest bugbears suffered by Birmingham, and you folks need to get a handle on that and not always be in “denial mode” about it.
~ Ballard from Huntsville
In my opinion you are doing the same thing that Sher is lamenting in this article. It seems you are saying “Birmingham is the problem and we in the burbs are willing to help them but they need to get it together.” This is the same division he spoke of! This is why this area lags. Instead, maybe your approach could be “What do We as a united Jefferson County see as our mutual goals and objectives and how can we use state and federal resources to achieve them?” The line is alwayd “Birmingham is the problem” and THAT divisive perspective is what the real problem is. Yall just dont get it and therefore we as a region remain exactly where we are.
What a reasonable response to Mr. Sher’s decades of baiting the community. Well done Mr. Phillips.
More on Summit Mall:
From Birmingham now-
“ The Summit Birmingham is celebrating yet another win. The open-air shopping destination on Highway 280 was just named the 10th best retail center experience in the U.S. for 2025 by Chain Store Age”
I don’t think Huntsville has anything like this!
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Tom Phillips,
“Chain Store Age”, huh, Tom ?
…Might want to do your research :
“USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards (2025): Bridge Street Town Centre was voted the #6 Best Shopping Center in the United States by readers. It was the only shopping center in Alabama to make the list. The publication praised the center for its European-inspired architecture, lake, walking trails, and diverse mix of shops and restaurants.”
And…
“Business Insider (2025): In a story covering the USA Today 10Best results, Business Insider also recognized Bridge Street as one of the top 10 shopping centers in the U.”
Sorry Tom…
It’s not always advisable to consider just one source, at the expense of others !
~ Ballard from Huntsville
It’s quite simple – Huntsville is considered a “smarter” city, and one on the rise, even before the Space Force relocation announcement. Birmingham is considered stagnant, and as a lifelong Birmingham resident, I concur. At least the BHM metro is finally getting its second Costco next year – something Huntsville has already had for years.
Huntsville looks forward, while Birmingham will forever be looking backwards.
In 2018, IKEA cancelled its plans to build and open a 340,000 square foot store in Nashville. Yes, Nashville with its higher average household income, economic and population growth, and unified metro government. Could it be that the company’s decision to open a store in Huntsville now is simply to locate halfway between the much larger populations of Nashville and Birmingham? (Shoppers drive hours to the store in Memphis.) Not every business decision is a punch in the gut to one’s home town.
Birmingham just lost Spirit Airlines today. Meanwhile, Breeze Airlines, which won’t even consider Shuttlesworth Airport, has direct service from Huntsville to Los Angeles.
I’m so tired of my city being on the losing end of everything.
In some ways, after today’s announcement regarding U.S. Space Command, I see Birmingham’s opportunity for even Alabama regional dominance greatly diminished. Another poster equated Birmingham being stagnant amd associated with the past. There’s just bad ju ju over that entire area. People want to reinvent but history won’t allow it. At least 10 times I ha e said in these comments that Birmingham’s past can be its savior or its demise, depending on how it is dealt with. For 65+ years, Birmingham evokes images of German Shepheards and water cannons, burned churches and the klan. Because all that has just been swept under the rug, that city is still seen that way largely today.
The best hope for Birmingham is for the Amtrak extension from the soon to be built Atlanta hub.
Tom said it in his first post, and they’re my exact thoughts: Huntsville is more educated, has a much higher per capita income, and has a thriving tech sector, all of which lures retailers like Ikea. No need to go back and forth over that; it’s true. I once lived and worked in Huntsville -twice. They have their stuff together.
Agree. Not all populations are created equal and having larger numbers doesn’t necessarily equate to success.
David, we can’t have a unified win unless we are unified.
I keep asking how can the metro area unify? Most folks know why the Bham area divided into many multiple autonomous suburbs, but there doesn’t seem to be any direction or a plan to unify Bham.
To your point David, the metro leaders of Bham are not unified. Without the metro leaders being unified, how can they sell the idea of cooperation and unification to their select constituents?
Someone has to put a plan together to unify Bham metro that leaders across this area can agree upon. David, are you the man for this job?
Talking season is over.
David, your pieces become more persuasive with each new edition. So well done!
Put them into a booklet of essays and bombard every authority in every disparate piece of the Birmingham area jigsaw puzzle.
P.S. I’m glad for the dancers though.
BHM has no interest in a unified government. The Water Works takeover was long overdue, and look at the uproar that has caused, all those freebies passed out to the cronies drying up, Ms FishFry Tyson, you remember her, the one that claimed that the BHM system was apartheid because the city council would not pay for 99 people to go an annual convention where they blew money of a fish fry?
No thanks, I will pump my tax dollars safely into my OTM suburbs, and pay the city taxes when I eat downtown.