Common Bond: Officials solicit plan for Civil Rights District and Innovation District to grow and prosper together

The Birmingham Civil Rights District downtown, which includes the Historic 4th Avenue Business District, is a special part of the Magic City.

Some of the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s took place in the Civil Rights District, which includes such iconic facilities as Kelly Ingram Park, 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The area attracts more than 350,000 tourists each year, according to Main Street Alabama.

In January 2017, President Barack Obama designated a portion of the area as the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.

The business district — a critical social hub for African-Americans in the days of segregation — was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and boasts one of the largest concentrations of African-American-owned businesses in America.

In addition, the Civil Rights District is directly adjacent to the Innovation District, an emerging regional tech hub that is currently home to more than 100 startups, some of them housed at the Innovation Depot on First Avenue North near 14th Street North.

Now, two local nonprofit development agencies — Urban Impact and REV Birmingham — are joining forces to chart a common path and boost future development opportunities for the Civil Rights District and the Innovation District and help them grow together in the 21st century in a way that reflects a new, more unified Birmingham.

The agencies announced on Dec. 17 at an Urban Impact year-end event that they were soliciting proposals for a master plan for the northwest quadrant of downtown, which includes both of the districts. The deadline to submit proposals was Jan. 31.

The northwest quadrant is bounded by 18th Street North to the east, Interstate 65 to the west, Interstate 20/59 to the north and Powell Avenue to the south.

This quadrant is important because it includes or is linked to such long-underserved neighborhoods as Fountain Heights and Smithfield, said Ivan Holloway, executive director of Urban Impact.

“Those areas have not been a part of the growth we see happening in Birmingham” and have also “been physically separated from the City Center by interstate highways,” Holloway told attendees at the event.

The quadrant also has numerous “vacant and underutilized spaces,” Holloway said.

The plan will offer “specific, actionable steps” to make sure the Civil Rights District and the Innovation District “are growing together intentionally,” Holloway said. “It also focuses on building important linkages to neighborhoods adjacent to the City Center.”

The new plan for the area will build on the new City Center master plan that was released in December and on other recent market assessments, according to Holloway.

It will also “help people who feel a sense of ownership over these areas benefit from the district’s growth while also allowing room for new stakeholders to become part of the area, as well,” said REV Birmingham President and CEO David Fleming in a news release.

PARKSIDE PLAN

The announcement comes on the heels of the recent reveal of another potentially transformative master plan for a downtown district, one that also includes Urban Impact — established in 1980 and long active on Fourth Avenue North — and REV Birmingham among its project partners.

On Nov. 7, local development firm Orchestra Partners announced it is collaborating with acclaimed landscape architect Tom Leader to create a master plan for Parkside.

The plan, which was featured in Iron City Ink in January, includes a mixed-use redevelopment of Alabama Power’s historic Powell Avenue Steam Plant and several vintage warehouse buildings west of Railroad Park near Good People Brewing Company.

Like the new plan for downtown’s northwest quadrant, the Parkside plan is about breaking down old barriers between the City Center and other areas, said Hunter Renfroe, founder and principal of Orchestra Partners.

The master plan is about “physical and economic connections to our neighborhoods to bring our city together,” Renfroe said when the plan was announced during a media event at the Steam Plant.

Holloway told attendees at the event that the Parkside plan is more than just another real estate development. “This is an opportunity to nurture equitable development,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the development can truly benefit the adjacent downtown neighborhoods.

A BRIGHT FUTURE

Officials are optimistic about the prospects of the Civil Rights District. “The future is extremely bright for the district and its surrounding communities,” said Elijah Davis, who serves as Urban Impact strategic growth manager, citing a list of upcoming projects in the area during the year-end event.

He said officials expect the historic Masonic Temple on Fourth Avenue North to undergo a $29 million renovation beginning early in 2020.

Urban Impact is also “exploring concepts and ideas to enhance the area’s cultural identity and to add to the tourism experience of Birmingham,” Davis said.

For example, the nonprofit announced plans in the fall for Freedom Walk, a series of district activities and outdoor displays along the 16th Street corridor from the proposed City Walk to Railroad Park and intersecting with Fourth Avenue and a proposed 4th Avenue Back Alley Entertainment District.

The agency has created a separate 501(c)(3) — The Taste of 4th Avenue Inc. — which will offer year-round cultural and entertainment while continuing to stage the annual The Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival.

In June, Urban Impact achieved a major goal when the Fourth Avenue North commercial area became the first African-American business district in the state to be chosen to take part in the Main Street Alabama program after a rigorous application process.

Cities or districts in the program receive assistance such as market studies, economic development strategies, targeted technical assistance and quarterly training.

Mary Helmer, state coordinator for the program, said in The Birmingham Times that Urban Impact had done extensive community engagement, built strong partnerships and garnered support for a vision for the district.

Much of that work by Urban Impact began in April 2017 when the nonprofit set out to learn more about the district, said Darryl Washington, the director or programs at Urban Impact.

This involved one-on-one meetings, charrettes, community engagement events and “a lot of listening,” Washington said at the December Urban Impact event.

“We listened to the vision that our community stakeholders had for the district as well as what our supporters and our partners shared,” he said.

CARVER THEATRE AND GASTON MOTEL

One key piece of the revitalization of the Historic 4th Avenue Business District is the renovation of The Carver Theatre at 17th Street North.

The former movie house, built in 1935, is also home to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (AJHOF), which manages the facility.

In 2016 the City Council approved $4.3 million for the renovation, and the interior demolition and remediation of the facility has been completed.

However, all of the bids submitted by contractors for the second phase of the renovation have exceeded the amount the city appropriated, even after the project was scaled back, said Leah Tucker, AJHOF executive director.

At press time, the city was reevaluating the bids, and a date to restart the renovation work was to be announced early in the new year, Tucker said.

In addition, fundraising for the Carver was to “kick off again in full force for the new year,” Tucker said. “This money will definitely have a strong impact to help move our project forward.”

Before it closed, the Carver was already drawing a lot of people to the district for plays, movies, workshops and jazz concerts.

When the facility reopens, it “will increase traffic to the neighborhood and perhaps encourage other businesses to pop up in the neighborhood and especially some more food places to pop up,” Tucker said.

“The Carver Theatre and the Civil Rights District in general will be the potential money maker for the city of Birmingham, because most of the people who visited us in the past came from all over the United States and around the world, and they really come to learn that civil rights history,” Tucker said.

Another important project is the city of Birmingham’s restoration of the historic A.G. Gaston Motel on Fifth Avenue North. The project should be completed by December 2021, officials said.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders relied on the motel — closed since the 1980s — as an important meeting place during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963.

“The motel is on the comeback to be restored to the look and feel that so many people remember it,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said in June.

‘A COMMON BOND’

The new plan to join the fortunes of the Civil Rights District and the Innovation District is perhaps a way for the city to move toward a more cooperative, inclusive future, organizers said.

“We share a common bond,” Holloway told event attendees in December. “We share a common dream. I believe we share a common vision.”

The plan also reflects a desire to move beyond the city’s troubled past, which was fraught with racial divides, Fleming said.

In the past, Birmingham had a tendency to “draw lines” that divided people geographically, Fleming said.

The new initiative “is an opportunity to build something together where we are sort of crossing lines and saying, ‘Hey, how do we grow together?’” Fleming said. “Each district’s growth should be complementary to each other.”

“I think this is an opportunity to truly show who Birmingham is and what Birmingham should be,” Holloway said.

To learn more about the master plan, go to northwestdowntownbham.com.