Birmingham City Center Business Improvement District

The Birmingham City Center Business Improvement District (BCCBID) is a 96-block area within the broader Birmingham city center, within which property and business owners have agreed to pay a special assessment to fund additional clean-up, security and special event services. The concept was championed by Fox deFuniak, who lobbied stakeholders and political leaders to accomplish it. The city center is currently the only area of Birmingham to have organized a business improvement district.

The Business Improvement District lies principally between 16th Street on the west to 22nd Street on the east, and from 5th Avenue South in Southside to the I-20/59 downtown viaduct. The borders of the district extend northward to include all of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, eastward to pick up YWCA of Central Alabama, First Light shelter, the Rotary Trail, and two large Regions Bank parking lots. On Southside 18th Street forms the western border, with exceptions carved out for Children's Hospital and its parking decks. In the Parkside District only Railroad Park itself is part of the service area. On the northwest, non-continuous part of the improvement district cover the Harris Early Learning Center, Disability Rights and Resources, and the Alabama Power Appliance Center.

A board, called the City Center District Management Corporation (CCDMC), carries the authority to collect those assessments and to perform or contract work done "in the public realm" of the improvement district. Under state law, a third of the board's seats are held by owners of property in the lower third of valuation. The current assessment is .001 of assessed property value ($1 for every $1,000 dollars of value).

Since 2018 the CCDMC has has contracted with the non-profit REV Birmingham to operate the District and manage its programs and activities. REV employs Michael Symes as "City Center District Manager" to head up that work.

After a night of vandalism which followed In 2020 George Floyd protests the BCCBID supported the establishment of a "Birmingham Business Relief Fund" to help business and property owners make repairs.

In 2022 the CCDMC's budget was $1,935,149, of which 70% was supported by assessments and 30% by contracting services to others. Just over half of its spending went toward "Clean & Safe Services" through CAP, with another 22% allocated to "Special Projects" and nearly 20% to program and contract administration and overhead. During that year the District supported streetscape improvements and events on 20th Street North, as well as the "DowntownBHM.com" website and associated social media.