Country Crossing venues announced

Traffic slowed to a crawl on Highway 231 Monday, as passers-by craned their necks at the 1,000+ cars parked on a strip of pasture.

It was just a groundbreaking ceremony, but still enough to prompt the occasional motorist to pull over and ask just what was going on at this rural piece of property just north of the Florida state line.

If a little curiosity can pull a handful of people off a U.S. highway, local developer Ronnie Gilley believes Country Crossing can easily become a tourist destination for the masses.

Seven months after Gilley and the Houston County Commission signed an agreement to place the mega-entertainment project in Houston County, a handful of officials, dignitaries and “common folk” turned the first shovels of dirt at the proposed site.

Country music played from the loud speakers, volunteers passed out barbecue, the American flag ruffled in the stiff breeze and pageant queens paraded through the crowd. There was a lot of Nashville and a little bit of Hollywood there, but the event was decidedly Wiregrass.

Gilley said he hopes to open the first venue — a family restaurant bearing the name of country music artist Tracy Lawrence — in nine months.

Other venues will follow, Gilley said, including themed restaurants sponsored by country music artists John Anderson, Lorrie Morgan and George Jones. An electronic bingo center expected to help fund the project will go up soon thereafter, along with a hotel, amphitheater and many other attractions.

There was one surprise at the ceremony. Oscar award winning actor Jamie Foxx appeared on stage, announced his involvement in the project and even entertained the crowd of more than 1,000 with his spot-on impersonation of Ray Charles.

But the theme of the day was jobs. Gilley said he expects Phase 1 of Country Crossing to employ between 700 and 1,000, and more than 5,000 when the site is fully developed. Gilley called it southeast Alabama’s “economic stimulus package.”

“It’s a very, very sluggish economy right now to say the least,” Gilley said. “We have something here that’s going to bring jobs to the Wiregrass. You just sort of have to overlook all the rhetoric and negative dialogue and move forward.

“Starting right now, we are moving forward. There’s no going back. This project will happen,” Gilley said.

Stella Calloway arrived at the groundbreaking site more than two hours early to get a seat on the front row. She moved here from Orlando about two years ago and said she looks forward to seeing all of the country music acts at Country Crossing.

“And of course it will bring jobs here,” Calloway said.

And what about the gambling?

“I understand people that might be against it, but if you don’t want to gamble, don’t go then,” she said.

Jim Delman sat near Calloway, hoping to catch a glimpse of George Jones. Delman said he doubted Jones would remember him, but he drove Jones to the Seattle airport after an impromptu meeting “about 40 years ago.”

“Fine fella. easy to talk to,” said Delman, who moved here from Tampa a few years ago.

Gilley said heavy equipment will begin moving dirt next week while planners complete a plat plan for the land.