The purchase of 13.4 acres for the proposed $50-million, 9,000-seat The Star at Uptown amphitheater on the site of the former Carraway Hospital in North Birmingham was approved Wednesday by the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center board of directors.

The cost was $2.9 million—$4.97 per square foot, according to BJCC executive Director and CEO Tad Snider, who called the price “reasonable”.

Included is a parking deck with 380 spaces (two other decks, owned by developer Corporate Realty, are across the street from the site).

“Every step at this phase is important,” Snider said. “Obviously having the property to build this type of venue is a big step.”

There’s no timetable yet for starting construction, Snider added.

“The goal all along has been to have it available for the 2025 amphitheater season,” he said. “That’s a very aggressive timeline, so we can’t say for sure yet when exactly it’s going to [open]. But that’s the goal: 2025.

The City of Birmingham and the Jefferson County Commission recently approved contributing $5 million each towards construction costs of The Star at Uptown just north of Protective Stadium.

The amphitheater is part of a $300 million-plus mixed-use development by Corporate Realty that is slated to include retail, hotel, entertainment, and residential components.

The music venue will be owned by the BJCC and managed by Live Nation, the global music agency that now manages the Oak Mountain Amphitheater in Pelham. When The Star at Uptown amphitheater is ready, the promotion company will leave Oak Mountain and place from 17 to 19 events in Birmingham annually.

“There’s a lot of steps to this,” Snider said. “The good thing is we’ve recently been down this road on two other projects [Protective Stadium and Legacy Arena],” Snider said. “It’s a journey but we’re progressing right on that schedule to get to 2025.”