By Valerie Bell | ABC 33/40

Plans for Edgehill at Southtown Court continue to move forward. Residential and commercial development are planned, some of which is already underway at the former site of the Southtown Court public housing community.

Companies working to create a mixed-use, mixed-income development are moving forward with the plans at the property owned by the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District. A ground lease was signed earlier this week which gives Southside Development Company the ability to move forward with construction in the blocks between 24th Street and the Red Mountain Expressway.

The site is expected to have:

• 800,000 square feet of commercial space for the biomedical innovation corridor (half of that devoted to research and development facilities and the remainder available for innovation partners and medical office space)
• 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space
• A 150-200-room hotel
• About 250 residential apartment units

“The walkable of the site is very important. The transportation, being close to essential services are very important to us. When you look at these hubs if you will around the country. They are mixed-use, very pedestrian, they have a lot of opportunity to walk out from where you live, from where you work, from where you shop and we are going to provide all of those opportunities,” said Robert Simon, CEO of Corporate Realty.

The first commercial building is expected to be a 150,000-square-foot building at the corner of University Boulevard and 24th Street that will house an incubator for biotech businesses.

“Clearly the commercial aspects of this development, biomedical, biotech and tech hub and all the things we have been working on as a community, leaning into UAB and Southern Research and things they do each and every day. We feel we have a great story to tell, great partners and really excited about the future and what it means for Birmingham and economic development,” said Simon.

Simon said the announcement of UAB acquiring Ascension is ‘really great news’ for them. He believes this strengthens their position.

“As we look to compete in this market, we have a great story to tell. UAB is a significant story in healthcare and research and we need to lean into that as a community, that’s what we are doing,” said Simon. “UAB has a lot of land, they have a lot of projects they are doing. They are, the question is whether they are direct or indirect and we would like to do both. So long-term strategies to play out with them but their direct impact and indirect impact is important to us and we are supportive and look at them as a partner.”

The plans are to develop a Birmingham Biomedical Innovation Corridor. That is possible because of new state legislation that authorized cities to establish research and development corridors to spur investment in innovation-related industries.

“We’ve been at this a while,” said Simon. “The key to this project is making sure we get the right uses on this site, so leading with residential and replacement housing, affordable replacement housing is a key component. As we look at the biomedical, that is process as well which is well underway. We have an application in to become a tech hub. We are hopeful that is met with positive results from the federal government and that will serve our community well.”

The project has been years in the making and the development began with an initial groundbreaking of the affordable residential housing in April of 2023.

“The actual project has been something we’ve been working on for years. Really just the opportunity to work with the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and the city of Birmingham and subsequently taking a piece of property that has a rich history in our city and trying to be a good steward and working on all the elements that we had to accomplish over the last six years of this project,” said Simon.

Two housing complexes are currently under construction west of 24th Street. Those complexes are said to serve many of the residents who had lived in Southtown Court.

The 60-unit family building is expected to be open in fall of this year, according to BREC Development, which is based in Birmingham. The Benoit Group, an Atlanta-based firm, expects to have the 143-unit senior building complete in March 2025.

“Everything with this project is centered around the community and the housing aspects. The mayor was very clear to us from day one that anyone who wanted to come back did come back and people first and we are very excited about that,” said Simon. “We are going to have transformational residential property, very inclusive residential offerings for every segment so we are excited about that.”

Restaurants, retail and hospitality are part of the plans for the commercial development of the site.

“We’ve got a lot of people looking at the site right now. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself on announcements but there are some coming,” said Simon. “You want the blend of national and local flavor to come to the development.”

Simon also said there are conversations with national brands as it relates to hotels.

The master plan includes 22 acres.

“I think our overall development strategy will be a 5-7 year development strategy of getting things going. Like every mixed-use major development, you’re always working. It’s like molding clay a little bit, you find the uses and you find the right application for it and how to impact it. There’s a lot of infrastructure we have to put in, parking assets, so we really want to leverage the site,” said Simon. “The whole idea of live work play stay is absolutely the top of our minds.”

Simon said since there is a lot of square footage, it’s something that they have to take their time with, but said people could start seeing cranes in the next 12 months.