Cool News (Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile: transplants, neighborhoods, theater)

[steveklein]

You missed the part about the thriving city? The article hit on a lot of points about developments in the city's core.

Also, just as an aside... to call Birmingham thriving seems like a stretch at best.

[Tourian]

This comment in the response section stands out to me. Hopefully it is true.

I looked up the BLS non-farm employment for metropolitan B'ham, Chattanooga, Memphis, Huntsville, and Louisville. I took the average monthly number of jobs in each market for each year back to 2011 and through 2015. Louisville is the only one that stands out. Birmingham increased the job base by 5.24% - 25.9K jobs. Chattanooga added 5.0% - 11.6k jobs. Huntsville added 4.8% - 10.0K jobs. Memphis added 4.4% - 26.2K jobs. Louisville added 10.5% - 61.4K jobs. Even if you look at just 2015-2014, B'ham added 8,100 to 5,800 for Chattanooga and 2,750 for Huntsville.

[Tourian]

I had no idea these two buildings were empty or for the most part empty for this long.

Good news for Colonnade. +1700 to the daytime population there making space that much more a premium. And it brings them all into Birmingham city limits.

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingha...ldings-at.html

[steveklein]

Just another example of reshuffling wealth around the metro area. It will really do nothing for the metro area unless jobs are created.

[Tourian]

If it were up to me and I had to choose between reshuffling that spreads jobs out in the suburbs and pushes development further and further out as opposed to bringing them inward to the core city, I will choose the latter. Even if it is on 280, Birmingham will reap that benefit.

Just a year ago that was an empty hospital and two big (mostly) empty office buildings. Downtown had plenty of empty buildings. Now more are being utilized. More density, less sprawl. It is better.

[TimCity2000]

Originally Posted by Tourian

Just a year ago that was an empty hospital and two big (mostly) empty office buildings. Downtown had plenty of empty buildings. Now more are being utilized. More density, less sprawl. It is better.

except now there's an empty hospital near my house, much closer to the core, as a result.

[preguntas]

Actually it can be a precursor to growth in the fact that it fills larger hard to market buildings while freeing space in smaller buildings that also occupy prime desirable areas.


The smaller buildings will be much easier to market. Cities can bring in new jobs and also grow what they have. Both are attractive. At this point, the jobs that are coming into the area are not as noticeable because they have to follow the availability of large level tracks of land and some are even mandated to be a certain distance from the city center due to the EPA rules.


It's far smarter to keep doing what we are doing than building new buildings while current ones go half filled. It would surprise a few to know how many empty buildings stand in booming cities. But that is an argument I have information on but still don't want to participate, so I won't.

[preguntas]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

except now there's an empty hospital near my house, much closer to the core, as a result.

And it was in a residential area with horrible access. And pity the people from out of town trying to get to that place in a hurry.


Hard to believe anyone ever thought that was an appropriate place for such a development. I suspect they targeted Mountain Brook and then it lost their favor. It sure lost mine.








The businesses that have signed on so far are far more appropriate.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

except now there's an empty hospital near my house, much closer to the core, as a result.

Fair enough but at one point it looked like the city would lose them entirely to Irondale. At least this way this very important area of the city is now reaching its full potential. I think they have at least sold one of the buildings on that campus to a tech company. I think the rest has a better chance to bounce back than Carraway.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by preguntas

Actually it can be a precursor to growth in the fact that it fills larger hard to market buildings while freeing space in smaller buildings that also occupy prime desirable areas.


The smaller buildings will be much easier to market. Cities can bring in new jobs and also grow what they have. Both are attractive. At this point, the jobs that are coming into the area are not as noticeable because they have to follow the availability of large level tracks of land and some are even mandated to be a certain distance from the city center due to the EPA rules.


It's far smarter to keep doing what we are doing than building new buildings while current ones go half filled. It would surprise a few to know how many empty buildings stand in booming cities. But that is an argument I have information on but still don't want to participate, so I won't.

Oh stop it. Everyone knows that Birmingham is the only city with empty buildings.