Opening the western front: Parkside boom reaches all the way to I-65 with new Denham Building

The Parkside District downtown has been booming for several years, ever since the opening of Railroad Park in 2010 and Regions Field in 2013.

That boom continues, with a dozen projects announced or in progress in the area, including more multi-family residential developments and a $25 million arts campus for Red Mountain Theatre Company.

Between 2010 and 2018, Parkside saw over $200 million in investment, but there will be more than $300 million in investment in the area in 2019 and 2020 alone, according to REV Birmingham President & CEO David Fleming.

Now a new frontier has opened up in Parkside — the western portion of the district from 14th Street South west to I-65.

Long dominated by warehouses and light industry, that area — like the rest of Parkside — is welcoming housing, bars, restaurants and other amenities.

Parkside’s Western Front gets a big jolt this summer with the opening of the Denham Building. The mixed-use development at 1143 First Ave. S. will include 81,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space, along with 59 loft apartments.

Atlanta developer Third & Urban began construction on the approximately $30 million project in summer 2018 and should be finished in August, according to company principal Hank Farmer. 

The Denham Building, which measures about 140,000 square feet, is named after its original architects, Denham, Van Keuren & Denham. It opened in 1927 as the Merchants and Manufacturer’s Terminal Building.

The project is an important addition because it “anchors one end“ of the Parkside district, according to Fleming. In addition, the redevelopment of the historic structure “takes Birmingham adaptive reuse projects to the next level,” Fleming said.

Third & Urban is “taking advantage of the existing building and the site in ways that are creative but also true to the building that is there,” he said.

It was fun to do a project in a unique, 1920s-vintage structure like the Terminal Building, according to Farmer. “Being from Atlanta, we have an unfortunate history of tearing buildings down,” he said.

He compared the Denham Building to the old Sears and Roebuck building in Atlanta that his company turned into Ponce City Market.

Farmer is also pleased to be in Parkside. When he first visited the area about five years ago, he was impressed by its location between downtown and UAB. He also liked the “vibe and feel” of the area, with Railroad Park, Regions Field and growing pedestrian traffic.

With the Denham Building, Third & Urban is “trying to keep the momentum going in bringing people down there and getting people living there and creating amenities,” Farmer said. The developer seeks to bring in at least two restaurants and a brewery at the development and build on the foundation laid by such Parkside establishments as Good People Brewing Company and the recently opened Mile End Delicatessen.

There is an outparcel building at the development that can accommodate one of those food or beverage tenants.

“We need to get more people to think of Parkside District as a place to hang out during the day, as a place to go get dinner,” Farmer said.

“Development in that area is not competition, it’s all collaborative,” he said, referring to all of the property owners in Parkside. “The more we can get people working and living down there, we can create a critical mass of retail.”

The Denham Building has already spurred investment in Parkside, including the area’s western fringe, according to Fleming.

“The announcement of the Denham project and its marketing strategy has given even more confidence to the market and attracted other investors,” he said.

Farmer agrees the Denham Building is helping drive more investment in the district. In fact, Third & Urban “is pleased at how fast it’s moving,” he said. “We thought it might take four or five years.”

Farmer is also pleased to see the area between the Denham Building and 14th Street South filling in.

“There’s a lot of momentum of connecting from Bakers Row over to us,” he said, referring to a mixed-use renovation of the old Merita Bakery on 14th Street, completed in 2015 by Corporate Realty.

The western area of Parkside is “the most dramatically changing area” in the district, Fleming said.

“At our last count, approximately 1,400 residential units will be added to Parkside, and the majority of those are in this [western] area,” Fleming said.

For example, the Novare Group — another Atlanta developer — will build 268 apartments and a parking deck on First Avenue South between 13th and 14th streets south. 

Among other projects in western Parkside, Corporate Realty recently announced a mixed-use development on 14th Street dubbed “Baker’s Row II.” The project will include 228 apartments to be marketed primarily to UAB students..

A local group of developers is turning a 21,000-square-foot former macaroni factory at Fourth Avenue South and 14th Street into 20 condos.

A developer from Colorado recently purchased and is exploring the redevelopment of the Sherman Industries concrete plant, located in the 1100 block of Second Avenue South near the Denham Building.

The Denham Building was the first project for Third & Urban outside of Atlanta. But it won’t be the last, according to Farmer.

After it gets the Denham Building “over the finish line,” Third & Urban will look for other projects here. “We want to be in Birmingham long-term,” he said.

There will likely be other out-of-town investors doing projects in Birmingham, “especially from a multi-family perspective,” Farmer said. These investments are a good sign of their confidence in Birmingham, according to Fleming.

However, Fleming said he is “equally excited” to see local developers, such as Daniel Corporation, Corporate Realty and Harbert Realty, getting involved. “Sometimes it is most difficult to convince ourselves that we are a good city for investment,” he said.

The city also needs some “additional economic drivers” — in other words, additional large employers like UAB — to stimulate “job growth and population growth and allow us to absorb all this office space we are delivering,” Farmer said.

There is ample room for more office space in the City Center, with a lot of older buildings that can be redone, according to Farmer. “There is plenty of exciting building stock,” he said.

Creature, formerly Golden + Appleseed Construction is leading the design build for the Denham Building.

Arlington Properties will manage the property and lease the residential space, and Colliers International will lease the commercial space.