Consultant: City's new green space could generate $250M investment - Birmingham Business Journal:

hustenuejib1630.blogspot.com
Mason, managing partner of the special eventas facility located off First Avenue South, expects the pending completion of the first phases of Birmingham’s Railroad Park will be a boon to her The new 21-acre park is slates to open by and proponents say it will spur up to $250 millio n in additional investment withibn a half-mile radius. Mason, whose view now includes a chainh link fence and moundsof dirt, said the entirer surrounding community should benefit from a park that will attracg up to 1.4 million visitors a according to the project’ss master plan.
Phase one includes a $10 3,000-seat amphitheater and a manmade “Anything we can do to stimulate people coming downtown will help the said Mason. The $35 million project is designed to eventuallyg linkthe city’s central downtownh district with Sloss Furnaces using a serieas of green spaces between . Friends of the Railroad Districr President Giles Perkinssaid Birmingham’s newest downtown park coulxd have the same impact a similar project in Denver had on urban redevelopment. Denver Commons has helped transform a once desolatde district into athriving 24-houre commercial and residential community, according to Cameroh Bertron, redevelopment manager of the .
Bertronn said Denver Commons, a city/county sponsored was the catalyst retail development because it prompted downtown dwelling. “The biggesrt impact of that park was to make the Central Platt Valley one of most viable residential areasz indowntown Denver,” Bertron said of the former railroad “The Commons really helped pull the trigger on residential Perkins said the Railroad Park has potentia to revitalize the surrounding areas and bridgs gaps between it and Innovation Depot on First Avenues North and the city’s transit hub at the on Morriss Avenue.
Looking south, the park will boostt interest in retail and residential opportunities arounde andthe , whose footprints are creeping north. Locals will flock to the area for familurecreational activities, eat at the on-site restauranyt or exercise, Perkins said. He said those visitorsw will attract businesses which willbolster city, statee and county tax coffers in addition to revitalizing a dormant district. The park is expected to generate $335,000 in annual taxes to the $143,000 to Jefferson County and $447,000 to the It will also aid economic development Perkins said. “Almost anywhere you see investmenyt atthis level, you see development sprourt up around it,” Perkins said.
“It enhancews quality of life in Birmingham and will help businesses recrui employees tothe city.” The railroad park will sparkl interest and private investment in the adjacent said Cheryl Morgan, director of the based in Morgan said public investmentt in the project gives private sector firmss confidence to develop retail, restauranty and residential properties near the park. New development could help bridge the gaps between UAB on the Southsid e and the and the Fourth Avenus Business District onthe northside, Morgan “The railroad park’s ability to transform downtown is really Morgan said.
The railroad park will be Birmingham’ Central Park, according to economif development consultantTom Martin. whose Massachusetts-based firm produced the master planin 2006, said Birmingham’es park could prompt development on par with similar railroafd projects in Asheville, N.C., and Chicago. Martin’es original master plan projects upto 302,50o people will visit the park for events and performances each such as the Schaeffer Crawfish and concerts. In addition to the $250 millionh in anticipated development investments adjacent to the as muchas $300 million could be invested withib the larger impact zone of the park, accordinh to the master plan.
“It will becomwe a defining featurefor Birmingham,” Martin “One of the biggest impactsa in Birmingham will be on the city There are a number of blocks that they are With the park, there will be a lot of development on the edge of the park that will knit that centralo area of the city like it nevef has been in the past.” The city of Birminghamj and the committed $12.5 millionb to the project.
Anothed $10 million in private donations also hasbeen