Birmingham 2016 (Montgomery, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa: new home, neighborhoods, construction)

[Tourian]

Some of the bigger wins for the year...

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingha...from-2015.html

1. Birmingham was tapped by Zagat as the next up-and-coming food town. It was named one of the best places for millennial entrepreneurs. Just last week, the Travel Channel named it as one of the world's 11 next big destinations.

2. Work began on a number of long-awaited projects, such as the renovations of the Pizitz building and the Thomas Jefferson Tower. Companies like Infinity Property & Casualty Corp. and Atlas RFID announced plans to lay down roots downtown.

3. Just a few months after UAB President Ray Watts announced the end of the UAB football program, he was back on a stage announcing its rebirth– thanks to a grassroots effort by UAB supporters and financial support from some of Birmingham's most influential executives.

4. But, when HealthSouth decided it needed a new headquarters, company leaders didn't look outside the metro.

Instead, they weighed their local options and chose a new campus in Liberty Park.

That's a good sign for Birmingham, which ultimately needs to retain and attract corporate headquarters to bolster its economic future.

5. But the Magic City pulled in a major one of its own when Kamtek announced plans for a $530 million expansion that will create at least 354 jobs in Birmingham.

The deal was yet another victory for Birmingham's auto supplier efforts. Kamtek is a supplier to Mercedes-Benz and one of several auto suppliers that announced expansions in 2015.

[TimCity2000]

sadly only one of those is about new jobs, and a meager 354 at that. (meager because of the thousands of layoffs in the steel and coal industry that came this year0

[Tourian]

To be fair that wasn't the only new job provider that came about in 2015, it was the among the largest if not the largest. He was not trying to go into complete detail and talk about every new factory or office opening but just to summarize with Kamtek being the largest investment.

Also I thought that it was 120 + 354 as there were two separate announcements. Granted Fairfield will lose many more than that and that will probably go into the greatest losses column that same author will do later, I still think cumulatively Birmingham will have added more than lost.

[preguntas]

There are some good new job stories. (not as much as there should be)


Pharmaceuticals manufacturing, back office banking and call centers. Major distribution centers, as well as other auto supplier announcements. I also recall the construction companies located in Birmingham are adding new space and jobs. (Gray, downtown in the BTW building)


At any rate, we are not pulling in some big new industry, but we are growing what we have which will attract industry as we go forward. (I'm sure we would not have gotten Evonek if SRI had not been here growing as it has.


It is easy to forget these stories over the course of the year, but they add up.


Don't misconstrue my post as justifying a lack of greater growth, but I am a patient person and I can remember when it was really bad. (Bernard Kincaid)

[Justin Scott]

I think Uber will help allow Birmingham to be considered more now that they have a presence within the city. Next, Birmingham needs to have the Airport really try to recruit a major airline or two. The result should be more corporate type of moves.

[preguntas]

All airports are suffering from the return of the 'HUB and SPOKE' system. Birmingham will gain new flights when new flights are being generally created within the industry. That will not happen until, and if we ever return to a truly robust economy across the country.


Southwest alone did quite a bit of damage. By buying into the H&B in Atlanta they hurt Birmingham and fell to the number two airline here, they devastated Huntsville, hurt Nashville, and devastated Greenville S.C.
Delta did the same to Cincinnati and especially Memphis. (both having been healthy hubs prior to the sellouts) Charlotte is one of the few bright spots. It is the only city in the southeast that operates completely out of the shadow of Hartsfield. Based no doubt on the business climate of the Carolinas.


So, it is just not up to the cities. The systems and the business climates are the focus of this problem. The city has given the industry a beautiful new airport terminal with state of the art operations, so we are well situated to move ahead when national air travel hopefully returns to the glory days.

[WJSim]

Public transport with a separate dedicated lane for 280 and 31 commuting into downtown. It would totally transform the area.

[Tourian]

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingha...html?full=true

Among the usual gushing about downtown revitalization, Avondale's transformation, Kamtek there was this little tidbit...

Talk continues about building a dome stadium by the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex that would be home to UAB’s returning football program, Bell said. He said to expect an announcement “shortly.”

Hope he follows through this time as were supposed to hear something "before the end of the year" back in 2014.

[bhamguy]

Did some shopping at the Shops of Grand River, and noticed dirt being turned. Is this the start of phase 2? I hope so, because it is almost not worth the drive for me. It is kind of starting to depress me out there.haha

[Tourian]

My wife loves Grand River and even though it is a fairly long ride for us that takes us past other major centers we make it out there about once a month. It always seems to be doing well with patrons. I hope they are starting the next phase and like you i noticed some clearing going on but I was waiting until some sort of news broke to confirm something new going up