Clark family to 'Plant' entertainment venue in downtown - Dothan Eagle

Alan Clark and his family are aiming to make Saturdays in Dothan better for area residents with a new entertainment venue in the downtown area.

Clark, who owns DSI Security, plans to convert the old Coca-Cola Bottling plant at the intersection of East Adams and North Saint Andrews streets into an indoor concert facility and amphitheater. Accompanying the development – which will be called “The Plant” – will also be restaurants, bars, beer gardens, office space, and potentially even loft apartments, the Clarks say.

All it is in effort to offer a new entertainment source for Dothan residents, especially young adults.

“(It’s) to try to keep people here in Dothan,” Clark said. “I always told my children when they went off to college, I’d love for you to come back to Dothan and be a part of DSI if you want to. My opinion is this: you got to have good jobs and good quality of life.”

“Quality of life is huge. It’s education, quality of life,” added Clark’s son, Boyd. “People want something to do. You got ACOM (Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine) out there. Just look at Bird and Bean or KBC during the week, and there’s a ton of ACOM students.”

The idea came to the elder Clark during a trip to Panama City, Florida, this spring. The Clarks’ firm provides security for several shows throughout the Southeast, and during a Darius Rucker concert in the Panhandle town, Alan Clark told his family that Dothan needed a large venue to attract concerts.

Clark’s daughter, Mary Neal Clark, suggested the downtown area – giving him another idea.

“The (proposed minor league) baseball team, I heard they were looking at that piece of property,” Alan Clark said in reference to the old Coca-Cola facility. “Monday morning we went down there and started pursuing it, and we bought it within two weeks.”

The old plant is about 48,000 square feet, and with the purchase of adjoining property, the Clarks now own four acres on and surrounding the property. That allowed them to conjure a three-pronged development plan.

The first phase is an indoor concert facility – complete with a stage that is about 768 square feet – near the building’s courtyard, Boyd said. The plan is to have several restaurants and bars operate in the former plant’s delivery bays, he added.

“Just think beer gardens, Saturday afternoon, football playing, live music, that type of thing,” Boyd said.

Boyd noted the area will cater to about 1,200 people – almost twice the capacity of the Dothan Opera House.

The second phase will be an amphitheater that will accommodate 4,000 people, Alan said. The current strategy is to hold three or four major concerts a year at the outside facility, and Alan said he hopes to have that phase completed in the next year or two.

Those two phases will barely utilize the main plant building. While there is no set plan for what all will go in that large space, the Clarks noted a variety of entities – more restaurants, bars, offices, or lofts – could occupy the space.

While Saturdays appear to be the focus, the Clarks noted tagging on concerts to the end of Foster Fest on Friday nights could be in the future, too. Helping with that idea was the Dothan City Commission’s decision Tuesday to extend the entertainment district to include the Clark property – allowing people to carry alcoholic drinks from Foster Street to The Plant.

The Downtown Dothan Development Authority conducts Foster Fest once a month in months outside of winter. Deavours Clark, Alan’s other son, serves on the DDRA board and believes The Plant will encourage more development in the downtown area.

“I think it would be a good center point for the continued redevelopment of the downtown,” he said. “If you can get a good staple like this, it could push more investment to North Saint Andrews and that area. I think it’ll be good to have a good base and from there people will continue to invest and look at other resources like a hotel or other retail.”

Deavours also noted the investment could also have major implications on the city’s ability to attract top industries.

“If you look at it, corporations, large businesses, to bring young talent to the city, they got to have entertainment things that they can do,” he said.

The first concert in Phase I is planned for Dec. 10. Molly Parden will open for the headliner, David Ramirez.