Birmingham Council gives Topgolf eatery liquor license

Topgolf — a 65,000-square-foot, high-tech indoor driving range with luxury amenities — is under construction east of the BJCC and expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

The project got one more small boost from the Birmingham City Council at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10, too: members voted to approve a restaurant retail liquor license for the facility.

The restaurant planned for Topgolf will be a good-quality restaurant, not just a cocktail lounge, according to a Topgolf spokesperson.

“This is a family destination,” she told council members.

Councilor Jay Roberson said the restaurant would be a nice amenity for the city.

“It’s a full-fledged restaurant,” he said. “We will see a lot of revenue generated and a lot of jobs.”

Hotel Indigo

The council also voted to allow the new owners of The Hotel Highland in Five Points South to make some changes to the front of the facility, which will be renamed to Hotel Indigo.

The owners will be allowed to install three aluminum canopies — one of which will be 30-feet long and two of which will be 16-feet long.

They will also be able to install patterned sidewalk pavers within the right-of-way.

When will Woodfin become mayor?

So when will attorney Randall Woodfin, who defeated William Bell in the Oct. 3 mayoral runoff, actually become mayor?

It will be somewhat longer than some city council members thought.

Council President Johnathan Austin told Jarvis Patton, Mayor Bell’s chief of staff, that he thought Woodfin would take office along with council members at a swearing-in planned for Oct. 24.

However, Patton said that Bell would remain in office until midnight on Nov. 27 – the fourth Monday of November – and asked Tracy Roberts of the city law department to supply Austin with context.

According to changes made in the Mayor-Council Act in 2012, mayors take office in November, while council members still take office in October, according to Roberts.

In the previous 1985 version of the law, both mayor and council would have taken office in October, Roberts said.

Woodfin is free to be sworn in on Oct. 24 or at any time after the vote is certified, which was to occur Oct. 10 at noon, according to Roberts.

However, taking the oath is not the same thing as actually assuming the office, Roberts said.