UPDATED: New and Upcoming Projects. (Birmingham, Valley: Wal-mart, cold weather, boundary)

[wardamnbham]

Fascinating thread. I need to revisit that 2018 doc. I do wonder how much pent up demand is a factor. From what I understand, occupancy rates are very favorable. There was a period of time when nothing was being built downtown. Safe to assume developers are looking at recent projects that have come online and, coupled with UAB's continued growth, inspire confidence in this increased construction pipeline.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by wardamnbham

Fascinating thread. I need to revisit that 2018 doc. I do wonder how much pent up demand is a factor. From what I understand, occupancy rates are very favorable. There was a period of time when nothing was being built downtown. Safe to assume developers are looking at recent projects that have come online and, coupled with UAB's continued growth, inspire confidence in this increased construction pipeline.

I think another factor is the growth of tech companies such as Shipt.



I live in the 35205 zip code, up near English Village. And I've started an informal hobby of noting all the New York and California plates on cars that have suddenly appeared. I think there is a surge of people into the market for a host of reasons.

[magiccity3]

I'm sure this is a factor in absorption studies, but I feel like the amount of people moving from the outer suburbs / exurbs to downtown is way understated. The importance of the city becoming 'cool' is that a lot of people that wouldn't even have visited in the past now desire to live there. I feel like this relocation in the metro is probably more pronounced here than most cities.

Anecdotally, I have friends in property management and they have always talked about how good occupancy was doing. This was more at the beginning of Covid, so I'd be interested to hear now. But like I remember the Denham building was 95%+ full within a month or two of it opening. I think the big testament will be to see how all the Parkside apartments do as they open over the next year. They are all very similar and will be coming online at an interesting time. If they fill up fairly fast, game on.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by magiccity3

I'm sure this is a factor in absorption studies, but I feel like the amount of people moving from the outer suburbs / exurbs to downtown is way understated. The importance of the city becoming 'cool' is that a lot of people that wouldn't even have visited in the past now desire to live there. I feel like this relocation in the metro is probably more pronounced here than most cities.

Anecdotally, I have friends in property management and they have always talked about how good occupancy was doing. This was more at the beginning of Covid, so I'd be interested to hear now. But like I remember the Denham building was 95%+ full within a month or two of it opening. I think the big testament will be to see how all the Parkside apartments do as they open over the next year. They are all very similar and will be coming online at an interesting time. If they fill up fairly fast, game on.

Yep. We lived in Avondale for 13 years before skedaddling to Mountain Brook for the schools. But a year after our last child graduated high school, we hammered a For Sale sign in the front yard and moved to Southside two years ago.



Then my brother and his wife did the same thing, leaving their home in the entrails of Riverchase to move into an apartment in Parkside. Other acquaintances moved to a condo off Highland Avenue. A friend of my sister did the same. Then some friends of ours moved downtown from Greystone. We know others who are weighing the same kind of move.



Don't get me wrong. The suburbs are great in a lot of ways, especially if you're raising kids. But if you enjoy cultural attractions, a wide array of restaurants and the general sheer convenience of living near where you work, then it's way better in the downtown area. And I think the infill from the suburbs is a trend that shouldn't be ignored.

[TimCity2000]

hopefully COVID hasn't slowed that influx too much.

i also hope the metro area as a whole starts seeing better growth, otherwise it's just people moving from one part of the metro to another that's driving these developments.

[MinivanDriver]

Lo and behold, the Federal Reserve just dropped this analysis tool.



https://www.frbatlanta.org/center-fo...tum-index.aspx

[BamaDave]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

Yep. We lived in Avondale for 13 years before skedaddling to Mountain Brook for the schools. But a year after our last child graduated high school, we hammered a For Sale sign in the front yard and moved to Southside two years ago.



Then my brother and his wife did the same thing, leaving their home in the entrails of Riverchase to move into an apartment in Parkside. Other acquaintances moved to a condo off Highland Avenue. A friend of my sister did the same. Then some friends of ours moved downtown from Greystone. We know others who are weighing the same kind of move.

Our first house in Birmingham was in Crestwood North (1991-1994), and we loved it. It's also worth almost six times what we paid for it back then. LOL. Ugh... We left for a couple of years and moved back to the area in 1996, but because of a tight budget we moved wayyyyyyyy out to West Blount County and have been here ever since.

We will be empty nesters in six months and have thought about moving back into the city. However, we have very good friends who are renting an apartment downtown, and they already seem to be growing tired of living there. They're now talking townhouse in Inverness. They love the access to the restaurants and bars but seem to be burning out on all of it. I have to admit, the last time we went out with them I felt conspicuously old. LOL. Maybe the clientele in these places during the pandemic has skewed younger.

Our younger daughter and her daughter are staying out here, even more remote actually. So that has derailed our ideas about moving back into the city for now. I still think it would be great to be so much closer to the things we like to do AND health care as we get older.

[mcalumni01]

Birmingham has the bones and city grid to be a city of close to 250-275K people and should be today.

[wardamnbham]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

Lo and behold, the Federal Reserve just dropped this analysis tool.



https://www.frbatlanta.org/center-fo...tum-index.aspx

Good find. Gonna spend more time with this but at first glance it seems to support the argument that Birmingham metro is doing quite well in the face of covid.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

Birmingham has the bones and city grid to be a city of close to 250-275K people and should be today.

Truthfully, we could go larger than that. Remember that Birmingham had 340,000 in 1970.