Parkside District

The Parkside District is a mixed-use district in Birmingham's Southside bounded by 13th Street and 20th Street, north of 4th Avenue South to the Railroad Reservation.

The northwest corner of the district is taken up by Railroad Park and Regions Field. To the south is Children's Hospital and the expanding UAB campus.

In the 2004 City Center Master Plan Update, the planned Railroad Park was made a central element in a large "Technology and Cultural District" which the planners envisioned connecting the theater and entrepreneurial districts north of the tracks with the expansion of UAB and related research and technology development in Midtown and Southside. The plan proposed that 14th and 17th Streets and 1st Avenue South be transformed into tree-lined "green corridors". Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio prepared designs for Children's Hospital for a pedestrian corridor linking its campus to Railroad Park along 17th Street. Implementation awaits funding commitments from the city and property owners.

Studies made during the development of Railroad Park suggested that it could spur $150-$200 million in related development projects on adjacent properties. Those projects would be supported by master planning work, infrastructure upgrades and economic incentives from by the city.

In 2005 Corporate Realty Development proposed a $40 million residential project overlooking the park at 1st Avenue South and 18th Street. That project stalled as park construction was delayed. The property was later sold to LIV Development and used for their 225-unit LIV Parkside complex.

CRD's Robert Simon also led efforts to construct a downtown baseball stadium, which was approved by the Birmingham City Council in November 2010. At the time, the stadium was expected to sit to the west of Railroad Park and provide a link toward redeveloping the entire area between downtown and Titusville, across I-65 and including the Trinity Steel site now owned by the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority.

The Rotary Trail, extending Railroad Park's greenway eastward through the 1st Avenue Cut, was constructed in 2014-15. As part of the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail system, the greenway may someday extend to Sloss Furnaces to the east and to the Birmingham CrossPlex to the west, along a projected "Cross to Sloss" trail.

A signage and branding plan for the Parkside District was commissioned by REV Birmingham along with Children's Hospital and the City of Birmingham in 2015.

In November 2019 Orchestra Partners and landscape architect Tom Leader announced conceptual plans for a major walkable development extending east and west of Railroad Park along Powell Avenue, including the Powell Avenue Steam Plant and Block 113C.

Public projects

• Railroad Park, opened September 2010
• Regions Field, opened April 2013
• Negro Leagues Museum, opened April 2015
• Rotary Trail, greenway redevelopment of the 1st Avenue South railroad cut.
• Public/private multi-story parking deck at 19th Street and 1st Avenue South.
• LightRails art installation with colored LEDs in underpasses under the Railroad Reservation at 14th, 18th, 19th and 20th Streets.

Private developments

• University House, 496 student apartments, opened May 2007
• Railroad Square, redevelopment of the former Nabisco building for office space by Shannon Waltchack
• Bakers Row, adaptive re-use of former Merita Bakery
• Venue at the Ballpark, 236-unit, 6-story multifamily development with views into Regions Field
• LIV Parkside, 228 apartments, and a 290-space parking deck along with 3,000 square feet of retail space facing Railroad Park, opened January 2016
• Redevelopment of the Powell Avenue Steam Plant and adjacent Block 113C by Alabama Power Company
• The Stockyard at Railroad Park mixed use development by Shannon Waltchack
• Renovation of the Wood Wade building for Beer Engineers (stalled)
• 20 Midtown renovation of the former Adamson Ford and Firestone building for a mixed-use development with 36 apartments and retail space anchored by a Publix supermarket
• The Denham Building, renovation of the former Swalley Building by Third & Urban, a $30 million mixed-use project with 59 apartments and 81,000 square feet of retail and office space (late 2019)

Businesses

• B&A Warehouse, event venue, opened in 1999
• Good People Brewing Company, opened May 2010, renovated and expanded in April 2015
• Peanut Depot, moved to 1539 3rd Avenue South in 2016
• Monday Night Brewing, leased space in The Denham

References

• Tomberlin, Michael (February 25, 2014) "Millions in private development expected to transform Birmingham's Parkside District." The Birmingham News
• Poe, Kelly (March 13, 2015) "Signs, decorative crosswalks to go up downtown as groups aim to make Parkside a destination." The Birmingham News
• Van der Bijl, Hanno (November 8, 2019) "Tom Leader details plans for Parkside, Powell Steam Plant." Birmingham Business Journal
• Chambers, Jesse (December 18, 2019) "The Parkside Connection: Master plan to fuel Parkside growth, connect it with neighborhoods to the east and west" Iron City Ink

External links

• Parkside District at CorporateRealty1.com
• Parkside District at Orchestra-Partners.com