Metro Roundup: Stars align for Carraway; Neighbors happy to see buildings torn down

For 14 years, people living near the former Physicians Medical Center Carraway site along Carraway Boulevard have watched it slowly become more and more dilapidated.

Vandals and graffiti taggers left their marks, busted out most of the windows and tore the place up, inside and out. Vagrants took up residence, and weeds and debris took over the sprawling grounds of what for decades was a vibrant hospital campus with 617 beds.

But things are beginning to change. The new owner of the 50-acre campus, Corporate Realty, has started demolition of multiple buildings and is gutting others for them to be refurbished. The redevelopment project is expected to include at least $300 million worth of investment and convert the campus into a mixed-use development with multi-family and single-family housing, restaurants, retail space, hotels and entertainment options.

The development is being called The Star at Uptown, in reference to the glowing blue star that sat atop the hospital building for decades as a beacon to the community. The plan is to refurbish the star as well.

“This is an important time for Birmingham and especially for our neighborhoods in north Birmingham,” said Robert Simon, CEO and president of Corporate Realty, in a news release. “These communities have been working with us for years, and it’s time for this land to once again be an asset for the city and the people who live here.”

As of early September, at least four buildings had already been torn down, including the former Norwood Baptist Church building that had been converted for medical usage, a building right behind the former Norwood Clinic and two buildings at the corner of 25th Street North and 17th Avenue North. A total of nine buildings were scheduled to be demolished, Corporate Realty said.

Workers have already begun gutting the inside of the old Sanders Emergency Services Building. Several other structures, including the parking decks and main hospital building, are set to be cleaned out and refurbished.

Seeing the dilapidated buildings come down and others being cleaned up is quite a welcome sight for people living nearby, said Charlie Williams Jr., president of the Druid Hills Neighborhood Association, whose community includes the hospital site.

“It’s a wonderful thing for us as a community and a city — one less eyesore in the city of Birmingham,” Williams said. “We view it as an opportunity for revitalization in so many different forms.”

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he was born at Carraway Hospital (its former name) and knows what the site has meant to the people of Birmingham and surrounding cities.

“This was once a source of jobs and economic vitality in this community, and the real story is we’re bringing this site back to life,” Woodfin said in a news release. “This will be one of the biggest and most impactful developments our city has ever seen.”

Work is scheduled to begin in 2023 to convert the hospital building into multi-family housing, and other housing, commercial and entertainment spaces are to be added over the course of several years. On the north side of the campus, preliminary plans show up to 44 single-family houses.

Williams said residents of Druid Hills and Norwood have been working with Corporate Realty since the embryonic stages of the development. They’ve had some disagreements along the way but came together and created “a development that everybody can be proud of.”

Some people in the neighborhood pushed for new single-family housing as a transition into nearby neighborhoods, and the developer cooperated, Williams said. The neighborhoods also realize there’s a balancing act and that the project needs to make economic sense for the developer, he said.

“We want to maximize the site development,” Williams said. “We’re looking to grow Birmingham.”

Birmingham Councilman Darrell O’Quinn, who represented the area that includes the Carraway site before council districts were redrawn earlier this year, said the Carraway property had become a major blight for the community and fostered a lot of undesirable activity.

“The community is just glad to see somebody that owns it who is going to address those issues,” O’Quinn said.

Corporate Realty has worked closely with the neighborhoods, and this development is going to bring new life and energy to that part of town, he said. “It’s going to be a boon for all the families in that area.”

The development of TopGolf and the Uptown entertainment district, construction of Protective Stadium and City Walk and redevelopment of parts of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex already has started shifting momentum to the north side of Interstate 20/59, and redevelopment of the Carraway site is going to be an extension of that, O’Quinn said.

“I think all of that combined is causing folks to take a second look at places like North Birmingham for potential future investments,” he said.

The Norwood residential community is already seeing ripple effects, O’Quinn said, noting that one house in Norwood recently listed for more than $600,000.

“Twenty years ago, you probably could have had any house you wanted in Norwood for less than $100,000,” he said.

The potential for the Carraway site is promising, O’Quinn said. The parking decks could be utilized to support Protective Stadium, and there is easily a case to be made for at least two new hotels to support the BJCC, he said.

The office market is soft right now, but there is potential for more retail and entertainment options, too, O’Quinn said. Some consideration has been given to an outdoor amphitheater similar to Oak Mountain Amphitheater, and there also has been talk of a movie theater or bowling alley, he said. “There’s a huge amount of excitement.”