Beginning Wednesday, the television program about business called Alabama, Inc. premieres statewide on Alabama Public Television. The Alabama Public Radio newsroom is collaborating on the program which will air at 10 p.m. on your local APT station. News Director Pat Duggins will profile the man behind the high-end fashion mall The Summit near Birmingham. Saks Fifth Avenue, Gus Meyer, Jos. A. Banksthe list of high end fashion stores The Summit reads like a retail whos who. But, developer Jeffrey Bayer will tell you that it wasnt a slam dunk when he started building the project back in 1997. We had no idea how it would turn out, he says. We had never done anything like this before as a company. And critics did consider The Summit different at first. Thirty to forty years of shopping malls followed a pattern, with big anchor stores and smaller retailers and restaurants all contained under one roof. Bayer wanted an open-air feel to the Summit, which wasnt universally accepted. Could an
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