By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster’s newest restaurant is set to open its doors in mid-July, and currently working to hire employees for the new location, the company announced on June 29.

Crews recently began working to prepare the building at 630 First St. N., Suite 200, to house Alabaster’s first Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. While the restaurant’s managers said Taziki’s will open in the Alabaster Landing development next to Shelby Baptist Medical Center in mid-July, they have not yet announced a specific opening date.

Once it opens, the Alabaster Taziki’s will be 3,030 square feet with a covered outdoor seating area, and will be the restaurant chain’s first to feature its new interior design.

“Alabaster is a beautiful community and we are thankful for the opportunity to open a new Taziki’s in this thriving city,” Taziki’s founder Keith Richards wrote in a statement. “Our Alabaster Taziki’s will include an all new interior design. We think Taziki’s patrons will love the restaurant’s crisp, modern and community focused approach to dining.”

To gear up for the grand opening, the company currently is hiring for multiple positions, including cashiers, cooks and shift leaders. Those interested in applying should send resumes to alabaster@tazikiscafe.com or visit tazikiscafe.com/careers.

Harbert Realty Services recently completed Phase I of the Alabaster Landing development, and Jimmy John’s and Pizza Hut opened in early November 2016. With the addition of Taziki’s, two spaces remain available for lease at the center, said Harbert Vice President of Retail Development James Proctor, who is the leasing agent for the property.

In November 2015, the Alabaster City Council voted unanimously to approve a tax incentive plan valued at $1.125 million over a 10-year period for the Harbert development.

Through the incentives plan, Alabaster will reimburse the developer for 60 percent of the city sales tax collected at the development during the first five years the center is open. For the sixth-tenth year the center is open, Alabaster will reimburse Harbert for 40 percent of the city sales tax collected at the development.

Alabaster’s 1-cent sales tax earmarked for schools will not be included in the incentives package, and the developer will still pay property tax, business license fees and other taxes not tied to sales.

The incentives package tops out at $1.125 million or 10 years, whichever comes first.

The city also recently received a more than $360,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation to make sidewalk and landscape improvements along Second Street Northeast from Fifth Avenue Northeast to Seventh Avenue Northeast.