Investments transform Birmingham’s Northside Community
My top priority as mayor is to revive our neighborhoods. We want our neighborhoods to be places where people can live, work and play, and places where people want to live, work and play.
It can be frustratingly slow in areas scarred by decades of decline and neglect. (You can read more about that here.) But it is worth it all when you see all the right pieces starting to fall in place, and a transformative shift taking place.
You see that happening now in Birmingham’s Northside community, thanks to many investments, stretching over years, that have significantly upgraded entertainment options in and around the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, brought new businesses to the area, created new neighborhood public spaces, cleared acres of blight, and helped residents repair their homes.
This progress has been made with the involvement and input of the local residents, and with a variety of public and private partners. It is not finished by any means. But you can already see the impact and catch a vision of what lies ahead.
As a result of the changes that are starting to take shape, Forbes recently designated the “Uptown District” as a neighborhood to watch, and that got coverage from state and local news media outlets, including the Birmingham Times, Bham Now, AL.com and Yellowhammer News.
“Offering an eclectic mix of urban sophistication and leisurely activities, the Uptown Birmingham District is a bustling area known for its entertainment, dining and shopping options, featuring diverse restaurants and boutiques,” Forbes wrote.
Recognition like this is always nice — even though we know what they called Uptown is really the Northside community. But it doesn’t begin to capture all the sustained legwork by multiple individuals and organizations that created and sustained this momentum, nor does it capture what it truly means for the people of Birmingham.
The genesis of ‘Uptown’
The seeds for some of the things that are coming to fruition were planted before my time has mayor.
National Ventures Group of Atlanta had launched the $70 million Uptown entertainment district (originally called the Marketplace) with bonds issued by the BJCC and backed by the city’s lodging taxes. The space included the Westin hotel and multiple dining/retail spaces now home to such restaurants as Cantina, Mugshots and Texas De Brazil. I’m particularly proud of Black-owned businesses such as Eugene’s Hot Chicken and K&J Elegant Pastries.
The Alabama Department of Transportation had begun making plans to develop the space under the elevated downtown stretch of I-20/59 – a 1.5-mile, 30-acre stretch of land that had separated the BJCC from the rest of downtown. This ultimately became City Walk BHAM.
TopGolf had started construction on BJCC-owned land, ultimately bringing a popular recreational asset to the city.
These efforts laid a foundation for additional opportunities and investments that my administration has been happy to pursue to bring new life to this area.
Among other things, we finally resolved a long-simmering debate over a new stadium for Birmingham. Protective Stadium, which opened in 2021 in the Druid Hills neighborhood, was the result of a partnership including the BJCC, the city, the county, UAB, corporate partners and our state leadership as well.
The stadium was part of a $300 million project that also included major upgrades to the BJCC’s Legacy Arena.
Although Birmingham’s contribution is just 15% of the total costs for the project, it represented a significant commitment on our part — one I was happy to make because it would boost tourism and generate tax revenues that would support our neighborhoods.
While some criticized this as investing in “downtown” at the expense of neighborhoods, nothing could be further from the truth. Because of our city’s tax structure, bolstering our entertainment destinations is a key part of revitalizing our neighborhoods.
Close to half of our city’s revenue comes from sales taxes, so visitors who come to our city to see concerts, watch a ballgame, eat in restaurants, and shop in stores help us provide police and fire protection, maintain our infrastructure and pick up garbage in all 99 neighborhoods.
And with regard to the BJCC, the payoffs have exceeded our expectations. Since the stadium and arena projects were completed, the BJCC has far outpaced projections and has continued to set new records for attendance with a number of sold-out concerts, major sporting events and other special events. The Garth Brooks concert at Protective Stadium alone is estimated to have generated between $10 million and $17 million in economic impact for our community.
Targeting local residents for benefits
This kind of impact helps neighborhoods across our city. But there are benefits that have more directly benefited the neighborhoods that make up the Northside community: Druid Hills, Norwood, Evergreen, Central City and Fountain Heights.
One example is the Protecting Good initiative, which was launched in collaboration with stadium namesake Protective Life, the city’s community development program, the state Insurance Department, and Habitat for Humanity. Thanks to this initiative, many residents in Northside neighborhoods were able to get new roofs and other repairs to make their homes more livable and safe. (You can read more about that here.)
And while the larger financial benefits of these investments are often framed in terms of tourism, the fact is that these new amenities serve our residents, too. Just like tourists, nearby residents patronize Uptown businesses. They can hop over to City Walk Bham to play trivia or pickleball, enjoy live music, or visit the playground, dog park or skate park. This popular new public space is owned by the Alabama Department of Transportation and managed by the BJCC.
And there is more to come.
Just north of Protective Stadium, a $300 million redevelopment is underway at the old Carraway site, which had become a 50-acre eyesore after the hospital closed in 2008. In the development being led by Corporate Realty, a significant amount of blight has already been cleared, and construction will soon get under way for a new 9,380-seat amphitheater that will be owned by the BJCC and operated by Live Nation.
Eventually, the rest of the site will fill up with new housing, restaurants, shops and other businesses that will serve local residents as well as those who visit Birmingham.
What’s gratifying is that the plans for the Carraway site — like the plans for City Walk and for Protecting Good — were developed after intensive engagement with local residents to determine what their neighborhood needs and wants.
They have been key participants in this process, and their vision is the one that matters most. It will take years yet for the vision to be fully realized. But already, it is considered a neighborhood to watch, and not just by Forbes.
As news coverage shows, the developments on the city’s Northside are not only energizing current residents, but they are also attracting new people to the area. Residents see the changes to date, and they are excited by what is on the horizon.
The Northside neighborhoods of Birmingham are indeed becoming places that people want to live, work and play — and that is the most important recognition of all.
