Old Carraway complex to be demolished all at once under new deal with city
The city of Birmingham has revised its plans for the former Carraway Hospital complex to give developers more up-front money for demolition.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Birmingham City Council, councilors approved a revision of a 2-year-old funding agreement with Corporate Realty (doing business as Northside Redevelopment LLC), which is redeveloping the former Carraway Hospital site into a mixed-use development, Star at Uptown, which is to include residential, retail, office and dining spaces, as well as a 9,000-seat amphitheater.
Under the original incentives package, the city would have remitted $9.1 million in future sales, use and property tax revenues to Northside Development; Tuesday’s revisions cut that number in half to $4.55 million. In return, developers will now receive $3.7 million from the city for demolition right away.
Such an up-front payment was necessary, Corporate Realty Chief Development Officer Brian Wolfe told the council, because developers had decided to demolish Carraway Hospital all at once instead of in phases, as initially planned.
“We had contemplated more of a phased approach to demolition over time,” he said. “We’d rather not do that for a lot of leasing reasons. We’d like to continue with momentum we’ve got on the leasing side and go ahead and take care of all the demolition at one time.”
With the approval of the funding, he said, demolition of the long-vacant complex would likely be completed by spring.
The city will likely have to pay for some infrastructural elements of the project in the future, such as traffic engineering, stormwater management or sidewalks, but those have not been specifically determined and will be subject to separate approval by the council.
Mayor Randall Woodfin called the redevelopment “transformational” for northern Birmingham and compared it to large projects such as the Summit shopping mall and the Bessemer CrossPlex.
“There has been huge underinvestment and disinvestment in this side of town,” he said. “We know the return (on this project) will be tenfold … where citizens in the north side of town won’t have to leave the north side of town to shop or eat or (be entertained).”
District 1 Councilor Clinton Woods said he was comfortable with the revised deal because it meant that the city is “basically putting less money into the project.”
“It makes the deal easier to stomach, when you’re actually putting the city in a longer-term better position,” he said. “We’re having the opportunity to convert restricted ARPA dollars and get back later unrestricted general fund dollars, and so that’s another benefit, but I think the overall investment going down is probably the thing that makes me comfortable with the deal.”
Light from satellites will ruin majority of some space telescope images, study says
Astronomers have long been concerned about reflections from satellites showing up in images taken by telescopes and other scientific instruments.
Defense Department is reviewing boat strike video for possible release, Hegseth says
In a speech on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the strikes, saying: "President Trump can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation's interests."
Bama, Miami in, Notre Dame out and Indiana No. 1 in College Football Playoff rankings
Nobody paying attention for the past 24 months would be surprised to see Indiana – yes, Indiana – leading the way into this year's College Football Playoff.
McLaren’s Lando Norris wins first F1 title at season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Red Bull driver and defending champion Max Verstappen won the race with Norris placing third, which allowed Norris to finish two points ahead of Verstappen in the season-long standings.
A ban on feeding pigeons ruffles lots of feathers in Mumbai
The pigeon population has exploded — a result of people feeding the birds. For some it's a holy duty and a way to connect to nature. Critics point to health risks tied to exposure to pigeon droppings.
UN humanitarian chief: world needs to ‘wake up’ and help stop violence in Sudan
The UN's top humanitarian and emergency relief official has told NPR that the lack of attention from world leaders to the war in Sudan is the "billion dollar question".
