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Old 07-05-2015, 04:58 PM
 
Location: Birmingham, AL
2,459 posts, read 2,272,291 times
Reputation: 1072

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^was supposed to be converted to apartments... guess that fell through:

Apartment developer plans $10M revamp of Stonewall Building

(pretty sure that's the same building...)
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Old 07-05-2015, 06:28 PM
 
3,263 posts, read 3,802,434 times
Reputation: 4491
Yeah that's the same building. Plans in 2004, 2008, and 2013 have all fallen through. Eventually it will get done.
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Old 07-06-2015, 09:26 AM
 
Location: Birmingham, AL
2,459 posts, read 2,272,291 times
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^agreed... I keep saying we're running out of big vacant buildings. this seems to be one of the last big ones (brown-marx... I'm looking at you!)
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Old 07-06-2015, 12:27 PM
 
Location: Birmingham, AL
401 posts, read 541,069 times
Reputation: 461
I'm going to throw out some properties, and anyone with any knowledge please chime in and give us some updates. My hope is that each of these finds investors / repurposing, so that demand for a new mid/high rise can begin to be discussed.

Protective Life Insurance Bldg:


The Brown-Marx:



Stonewall (American Life):



Liberty National Bldg (believe there was a proposed demolition and / or new office tower replacement back in 2010)





Transportation Bldg:

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Old 07-06-2015, 01:17 PM
 
33 posts, read 53,070 times
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I was just thinking a new midrise or highrise could do wonders now since a lot has been filled in downtown concerning space .
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Old 07-06-2015, 01:33 PM
 
3,263 posts, read 3,802,434 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Urbanvibes View Post
I was just thinking a new midrise or highrise could do wonders now since a lot has been filled in downtown concerning space .
There is a planned 15 story apartment building near Five Points South:
Highland apartment tower will cost $53 million, will include 5,000 square feet of retail - Birmingham Business Journal

However, no real news to report on it for the last year.
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Old 07-06-2015, 03:46 PM
 
Location: Birmingham
779 posts, read 1,016,000 times
Reputation: 362
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveklein View Post
There is a planned 15 story apartment building near Five Points South:
Highland apartment tower will cost $53 million, will include 5,000 square feet of retail - Birmingham Business Journal

However, no real news to report on it for the last year.
Yeah, that project has lost a lot of steam. I'm not sure that anything is going to happen. Right now, all they have done is get the lot ready. I can't believe it has been so long since this project was announced. It's so interesting to me how some of these projects take so long... Like the snail's pace that the Rotary Trail is moving.
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Old 07-06-2015, 03:59 PM
 
Location: Birmingham
779 posts, read 1,016,000 times
Reputation: 362
Quote:
Originally Posted by 280Tony View Post
I'm going to throw out some properties, and anyone with any knowledge please chime in and give us some updates. My hope is that each of these finds investors / repurposing, so that demand for a new mid/high rise can begin to be discussed.

Protective Life Insurance Bldg:


The Brown-Marx:



Stonewall (American Life):



Liberty National Bldg (believe there was a proposed demolition and / or new office tower replacement back in 2010)





Transportation Bldg:
I know nothing of the Protective Life or Stonewall buildings. The Protective Life building is very interesting. I would anticipate something being announced with it once the other larger projects start being occupied at some level. The Stonewall building is not so interesting to me just because of its location and the design of the building. However, I'm sure someone could do something with it. At the present time though, I don't see it as being a very desirable building with the housing that is around it.

As for the Brown-Marx building, the owner of H2 Real Estate owns it and got it at a steal. However, no real plans have ever been announced other than the plan to convert it to apartments. No figures or renderings have ever been offered that I can remember. I do know that he has several other projects going with the lake development, Abbey Road Townhomes near Vulcan, and some town homes in Crestline. It seems that Brown-Marx is taking a back burner to those at the moment. I also know that he applied for the historic tax credit and that was a big part of renovating the building. As you may know, the historic tax credit program weighs in the balance at the moment due to the state's budget shortcomings.

I don't know that anything else would happen at the transportation building for a long time as that has already been converted to lofts quite some time ago. I've been in a couple of the lofts and they weren't the best looking ones I've ever seen. The developer kind of did a shoddy job in my opinion. Maybe there is more to come on that?

As far as I know there is nothing presently going on with the Liberty National building. I did speak with the owner of the building about a year ago. There was an article on AL.com about the downtown renaissance last year. I was interviewed for my expertise on the subject by the author of that article. Upon reading my article, the owner of the building called to talk to me about the building and various purposes for it. We talked about different options for redeveloping the building including marketing it to another developer. There was never any decision made and I never followed back up. It may be a good idea to follow up and see where things are with that.

Hope this helps!
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Old 07-06-2015, 04:02 PM
 
Location: Birmingham
779 posts, read 1,016,000 times
Reputation: 362
Quote:
Originally Posted by Urbanvibes View Post
I was just thinking a new midrise or highrise could do wonders now since a lot has been filled in downtown concerning space .
It may do wonders for the appearance of the city/skyline, but let's not get the cart ahead of the horse. Very soon, we'll have a couple thousand residential units to fill. On top of that, we will have thousands of square feet of retail to lease out. We don't want to over saturate the market. I absolutely believe a new high rise is coming soon. However, any experienced developer would probably step back and watch for the next 6 months or so to see how things go.

We already have several mid rise developments in the mix and are well on their way.
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Old 07-06-2015, 04:11 PM
 
Location: Birmingham, AL
401 posts, read 541,069 times
Reputation: 461
Good stuff Outlook. When I first started working downtown a couple of years ago, the covered walkways surrounding the Brown-Marx led me to believe that reno was about to begin. Building is too pretty not to develop at some point, so I've got full faith that it we'll eventually see an announcement therefrom. I would place a preference on seeing the Brown-Marx and Protective Life bldgs reno'ed and repurposed. Both have good urban character and are fine art-deco, Chicagoan preservations. The nighttime skyline would be given new life and dimension once those buildings and others like the TJ Tower are refurbished and lit up.
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