David Sher’s ComebackTown for a better greater Birmingham

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Today’s guest columnist is Barry Copeland.

Back in 2005, the former Birmingham Chamber of Commerce hosted one of its annual BIG Trips (Birmingham Innovation Group) to a competitor city to help our leaders learn lessons from their leaders.

That year in Nashville, guess what we saw under construction? A 50-story residential building in the heart of downtown. It was going up a block or two from the Ryman Theater, and within an easy stroll of their “Broadway” entertainment district.

That building was so big, it qualified for its own zip code. And it was just one of many little pieces in the mosaic that is Nashville today.

At the time, we never thought a project like this could be possible for Birmingham.

So how exciting is it that we’re now doing the same thing here?

A new downtown neighborhood

There’s about to be a new neighborhood right smack in the middle of downtown. And it’s exactly what Birmingham needs these days as a “next step” on its path toward re-emergence as a great place to work, play and live.

Birmingham is growing ever closer to being just that – a downtown where more and more people want to live.

That’s what the developers at 600 North 19th Street are betting. And they’re betting big. It’s a substantial task they’ve undertaken to grow a new neighborhood inside and around a 30-story building.

You know the building, I’m sure. It sits catty-cornered to the block bordered by 6th Avenue North and 19th Street.

It used to be the headquarters of the five-state telephone company South Central Bell, which became BellSouth, which became AT&T, which is becoming…a neighborhood.

Soon, it will be converted to apartments or condos (maybe both), and therein lies the neighborhood connection. With maybe hundreds of new neighbors, institutional properties around the site will immediately become potentially more profitable. Look for new restaurants, new shops, services like a drug store maybe, or a dry cleaner.

And talk about the ultimate WFH (work from home) environment. That building is literally loaded with fiber cable. If I worked at Alabama Power (across 18th Street), I might be looking to re-locate in a new space nearby. Ditto for workers at the nearby bank headquarters and the almost-adjacent government centers flanking Linn Park.

Who knows, First United Methodist Church across the street might get some new visitors. How about a short walk to the historic Alabama or Lyric theatres, the many great restaurants now downtown, the BJCC Legacy Arena, the pickleball courts underneath the interstate, the Birmingham Museum of Art . . .or the Linn-Henley research library?

Time for another Chamber BIG trip

In 2006, the Chamber took another BIG trip. A hundred of Birmingham’s top leaders spent three days in Pittsburgh, where they learned about the immense value of a connected parks and trails system. You see some of the inspired results of that in today’s Red Rock Ridge and Valley trail system here. In St. Louis in 2003, we learned about the magical connection between that city and the bio medical research effort then blossoming at Washington University. Dr. Carol Garrison was the President of UAB at the time. She took notes.

So much of what we now are able to enjoy has come to fruition because leaders here learned from leaders there – in these places and others, like Baltimore, Charlotte, Denver, Austin.

These annual BIG Trips exposed our leaders to new ideas, innovations, positive economic development and the energy that feeds a city on the move.

We are now one of those cities – on the move. But we shouldn’t rest on our laurels.

Isn’t it time to energize a new generation of leadership on the newest trends of progressive cities nationwide? It seems apparent that there is a lot to be learned “out there.”

Why not plan another BIG Trip? Heck, I might even go along!

Meantime, welcome to the neighborhood!

Click here to see renderings of the project.

Barry Copeland is a retired business executive who spent most of his 42-year career with companies and agencies in the Birmingham area. He served in positions of senior management in television news, in telecommunications and in community development, retiring as Senior Vice President of the Birmingham Business Alliance. Barry is married and lives in Homewood. He and wife Kathy have three married children and three grandchildren.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

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