Loveman Village

Not to be confused with Loehmann's Village.

Joseph H. Loveman Village is a public housing project operated by the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District located at 248 1st Avenue Southwest in the North Titusville neighborhood of the Titusville community east of Elmwood Cemetery.

The project was constructed in 1951-1952 and contains 498 apartments. It was named for Joseph Loveman, president of Loveman, Joseph & Loeb department store, who served on the city housing board from 1940 to 1949. The project was designed by Charles H. McCauley & Associates and constructed by the Batson-Cook Company.

It is managed by Danny Kidd. All units at the project were renovated and lead paint was abated in the 2000s.

In 2009, then-Mayor Larry Langford (who grew up at Loveman Village) proposed replacing the project with condominiums which could be sold to existing tenants with subsidized loans. In 2010 the HABD contracted with Columbia Residential of Atlanta, Georgia to redevelop the site as a 280-unit mixed income community to be called "Westwood Green". The Boulevard Group, which managed Tuxedo Terrace, was asked to apply for a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Hope VI grant to help fund the redevelopment.

In 2012 HABD told residents it was pursuing a $30 million "Choice Neighborhoods Initiative" grant along with $10 million of infrastructure work from the City of Birmingham to redevelop the area, with the idea that replacing the existing project with attractive, new mixed-income housing would spur private development in North Titusville, then suffering from depressed property values and high vacancy rates.

The Housing Authority announced plans in 2015 to demolish the existing buildings and redevelop the site for new public housing in three phases under HUD's "Rental Assistance Demonstration" (RAD) program. The $19 million redevelopment was to provide 250-300 accessible, modern units, along with a low-rise senior living building. Hollyhand Development of Northport was selected as the developer, and a groundbreaking was scheduled for August 2015. The state tax credits needed for the project, though, were held up as the Birmingham Department of Community Development made the 96-unit Cotton Avenue Apartments in West End a priority.

In March 2016 HABD announced that they had applied for $15-20 million in low-income tax credits to help fund the first phase of a four-part $79.6 million redevelopment. In the first phase, 100 of 220 new units would be rebuilt on the same site, designed to blend in better with the character of the surrounding neighborhood and to provide additional green space. Another 120 apartments would be built on land owned by the HABD on Sydney Drive in Oxmoor Valley. Additional new units would be constructed at various other sites to maintain the same total number available to tenants.

References

• Gray, Jeremy (November 9, 2010) "Birmingham seeks grant to raze Loveman Village, build mixed-income apartments." The Birmingham News
• Bryant, Joseph D. (January 29, 2015) "Major overhaul coming to Birmingham with $70 million planned housing redevelopment." The Birmingham News
• Bryant, Joseph D. (February 3, 2015) "Dueling for dollars: Here's how a Birmingham City Council vote today could jeopardize a $90 million project to overhaul Loveman Village." The Birmingham News
• Godwin, Brent (February 23, 2016) "How a $19M project will transform Loveman Village." Birmingham Business Journal
• Hu, Lydia (March 25, 2016) "Multi-million dollar Loveman Village transformation could start by summer." WBRC.com
• Poe, Kelly (June 3, 2016) "Loveman Village redevelopment gets $17 million tax credit approval." The Birmingham News

External links

• Housing Authority of the Birmingham District website