Diners at Northport's future Big Mike's Steakhouse will soon see a new line item on their checks: a 2 percent user fee tacked onto every bill, approved by city officials as part of a financing deal to bring the acclaimed chophouse chain to the Jemison Lane and Airport Road area. The Northport City Council formally created a Capital Improvement Cooperative District for the project on October 19, clearing the way for construction of the restaurant, which is expected to cost $4.8 million and create 35 jobs.
Northport Deputy City Attorney Kim King clarified that the fee will not touch city residents at large — it applies only to customers actually eating at Big Mike's, calculated as 2 percent of the restaurant's gross sales, according to AL.com. Mayor Dale Phillips indicated the restaurant is targeting a spring 2027 opening, per ABC 33/40. The new 6,720-square-foot building will relocate Big Mike's existing West Alabama location from downtown Moundville to a new site across from Walmart on the U.S. Highway 82 corridor, according to The Williams Group.
How the Lease-to-Own Deal Is Structured
Under the arrangement first approved by the city in June 2026, private developers Winship, LLC and Sucarnoochee Investments, LLC will build the restaurant before selling the completed facility to the City of Northport, which will then lease it back to Big Mike's over a 20-year term. At the end of that lease, the restaurant has the option to purchase the property outright for just $100. The June agreement allocates 5 percent of the restaurant's monthly gross revenues, plus two-thirds of its municipal sales tax, toward repaying the development cost, with the remaining sales tax flowing directly to the city only after that debt is satisfied.
The city will not wait entirely on project debt before benefiting, however. Northport is set to retain the remaining 1 percent portion of its 3 percent municipal sales tax for its general fund starting the day the restaurant opens. That municipal tax is included in Northport's 10 percent combined sales tax rate, which consists of Alabama's 4 percent state tax, Tuscaloosa County's 3 percent tax, and Northport's 3 percent tax, according to Avalara.
A Dissenting Vote and Public Pushback
The financing structure has not gone unchallenged. During the June council meeting that approved the initial economic agreement, District 1 Councilman Turnley Smith cast the lone dissenting vote after his motion to table the proposal for further public review failed to get a second, as reported by the Tuscaloosa Thread. Attending residents gave Smith a standing ovation after he proposed delaying the vote.
City leadership has defended the package as securing a long-sought dining destination, with Big Mike's expected to earn $4.8 million annually in Northport. The debate echoes a broader local conversation over municipal subsidies that followed Northport's February 2024 approval of a public-private partnership for the $350 million University Beach resort development, a deal that drew its own wave of community pushback. The new district is a Capital Improvement Cooperative District, covered under Title 11, Chapter 99B of the Code of Alabama, per Justia Law.
A Regional Chophouse Expands Its Footprint
Big Mike's Steakhouse was founded in 2013 in Thomasville by chef Mike “Big Mike” Cole along with business partners Scott Powell and Caine Conway, built around a strategy of bringing high-end chophouses to smaller, non-metropolitan Alabama towns, according to the Food Network. The chain earned statewide recognition when the Alabama Cattlemen's Association named it home to the “Best Steak in Alabama.” Big Mike's currently operates locations in Thomasville, Andalusia, Orange Beach, Millbrook, Moundville, Auburn, and Guntersville.
The Northport move means Moundville will lose the restaurant's long-standing West Alabama hub, with the new location planned for Northport's Highway 82 retail corridor. The council formally adopted the resolution forming the Capital Improvement Cooperative District on October 19. For now, residents and officials alike are left watching how the new diner fee, debt repayment structure, and relocation play out once the steakhouse opens its doors next spring.
