The downtown draw

Birmingham has seen a renaissance in recent years with new restaurants, businesses, construction and residents.

As downtown has developed, more young professionals are feeling the pull to move where the action is — and where they already spend most of their time.

Ryan D’Alessio, president of Young Professionals of Birmingham and a real estate investor, lives in Homewood because it is close to the city. In recent years, however, he has started to consider buying a loft and moving into downtown.

“It’s starting to become a real city again,” he said. “It’s got all the different amenities people want to see. It has the entertainment; it has the food; it has the nightlife.”

Since he moved to the Birmingham area five years ago, D’Alessio said he has seen the city develop and bring in new businesses, which helps revitalize neighborhoods.

“A lot of the old buildings that used to be shut down are opening back up again,” he said. “It’s in a progressive stage, so it’s overcoming that identity of ‘there’s nothing there.’”

That growth is continuing and helping bring creature comforts to downtown, something people typically worry they will miss when they leave the suburbs.

“I think that the Parkside area has been and is going to be phenomenal because you’ve got Railroad Park; you’ve got the baseball stadium, and you’ve [got] Publix there,” D’Alessio said.

A boost in downtown activity is one of the factors that motivated Chris Lenart to move from the Chelsea/Inverness area to the theater district. 

“There was just more to do, more going on,” he said. “When I first moved here, there wasn’t much going on.”

As someone who worked downtown and spent a lot of time in Birmingham with friends, Lenart said the commute up and down the U.S. 280 corridor eventually got to him.

“I think all of it is more convenient than it was,” he said. “Having lived farther down 280 than most, it was at least a 20-minute drive even on an easy day. And we all know 280; that’s not usually the case, especially on a weekend.”

After his move, Lenart said his commute dropped from 35 or 40 minutes to about 15 minutes. Spontaneous, last-minute plans are easy to work with, too.

“If someone randomly comes up with, ‘Let’s go to a Barons game tonight,’ I don’t have to worry about going home and coming back,” he said. “Now I can go home, and I can walk, and it takes me 15 minutes to walk to the Barons game.”

While it worked out for him, moving downtown is not for everyone, Lenart said. At 30 years old, some of Lenart’s friends are married, have children and are more comfortable living in the suburbs, where school systems have a higher reputation.

“There’s a give-and-take with downtown versus the suburbs as well,” he said. “If you want a yard, you’re not going to want to be in a loft.”

Moving downtown also means considering which neighborhood would best fit your needs and price range, Lenart said.

Kevin Van Hyning moved to the Birmingham area seven years ago and decided to rent an apartment in Vestavia Hills. The suburban city allowed for a newer apartment with a little more space, he said, and offered more certainty than some older, downtown apartments. 

“I just initially moved to Vestavia Hills because I was kind of uneasy about getting a strange apartment in kind of an older area,” he said. “Those kinds of apartments can be unpredictable.”

He said he always considered moving downtown, closer to where he worked and hung out, but ended up sticking with his apartment because it offered more space for an affordable price. After being burgled twice, however, he made the choice to move downtown.

“When I got robbed within that complex two times, that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.

Van Hyning found through a friend an apartment in Highland Park that was more updated than most of the established downtown apartments and cost the same as his suburban rental.

The move has presented a few disadvantages, Van Hyning said, such as losing out on space. “I do feel like I’m staying in kind of a motel sometimes,” he said. “It’s very tiny. The kitchen is really small, and I also feel like I’m very close to my neighbors — more so than when I lived in Vestavia … That’s a major drawback, but certainly something I can live with.”

The density of Highland Park, however, has its advantages as well. His new apartment is within walking distance of Rojo and Garage, and the walkability of Highland Park means people — including him — get out more.

“It’s also just nice to see people out there doing things in the evening,” he said. “You don’t really see that in Vestavia.”

Moving also cut down on his commute. While living in Vestavia, Van Hyning said he knew he was using a lot of gas to get to work, but the 20-minute drive in the morning and 40-minute drive at night did not seem like that big of an issue.

“I never really thought it was that terrible until I moved downtown,” he said. “You don’t realize how painful it is until you’ve totally been removed.”

Now he is close enough to ride a bike to work if he wanted, and instead of staying downtown before meeting up with friends, running home after work is no longer an inconvenience. When he lived in Vestavia, Van Hyning said he would typically stay home on the weekends to avoid the drive downtown. Now he’s more willing to go out or meet up with people.

Van Hyning signed his lease for a year and said he might consider moving farther downtown in the future, but he’s not looking to move just yet. Looking into another property, he added, means weighing costs and the types of property you could get.

A home in Crestwood or Avondale might seem appealing, he said, but they end up still being expensive and requiring a lot of projects. To Lenart, however, those homes might present a more viable option than a similar home in Edgewood.

“If you’re going to find a three [bedroom], two [bathroom] in the Crestwood/Avondale area, you’re going to spend less than you would in Homewood by a long shot,” he said.

Some of his neighbors have said apartments are filling up at a faster rate than they were a few years ago, Lenart said, but he has not paid as much attention to the market since moving.

Based on trends he saw while looking for a property, Lenart said there is still time to buy and move, but people should start getting their ducks in a row if they are serious about moving to downtown.

“I don’t think the window is as narrow as people would imagine, [but] it’s narrowing,” he said. “Things are moving in a positive direction, and hopefully it continues to do so.”