City Council approves zoning change for Century Plaza site

The Birmingham City Council voted unanimously July 14 to approve a zoning change for the long-vacant Century Plaza Mall at 7680 Crestwood Boulevard in the Eastwood area, thereby clearing the way for the construction of a new package distribution center.

The zoning will change from CB-2, or Contingency General Business District, to “Q” I-1, or Qualified, Light Manufacturing District.

The old shopping mall will be demolished and a new single-story building measuring about 200,000 square feet will be constructed. 

Birmingham Business Journal reported in May that Stonemont Financial Group in Atlanta had the property under contract and was proposing to build a new delivery center with Amazon as the tenant.

Schoel Engineering of Birmingham filed the zoning request, representing the owner, Edwin B. Lumpkin Jr.

Martin Evans, a local attorney representing the developer, said in arguing for the zoning change that the site is “not surrounded by any residential uses. They are only commercial uses.”

“This is a very highly developed area,” he said.

He said that the mall has sat vacant since 2009 and that it is a difficult, expensive project to take on. “Only a very specific type of business can go in and redo this,” he said. The cost to remediate the asbestos alone will be about $1.5 million, he said.

The developers are also not asking the city for any incentives to complete the project, which should create more than 300 jobs, he said.

The project could be complete by mid-2021.

The Eastwood Neighborhood Association voted 6-5 in May to recommend that the city deny the zoning request. 

Elaine Kinnaird, vice-president of the neighborhood association, appeared at the hearing today to argue against the rezoning. Allowing industrial zoning in the neighborhood will reduce the property values of homeowners, she said.

Hunter Willams, who represents the district, acknowledged that the item did not pass the neighborhood association. However, he said that his office has “received tremendous support for this project.”

“I think anytime we can further move in a economic development way, both adding jobs and furthering that corridor so redevelopment can continue to occur at no cost for the city of Birmingham, it's a win-win-win — for the city, for the people getting jobs and bringing service to the city that we currently do not have.”

The item was recommended by the city’s Zoning Advisory Committee and the Council’s Planning and Zoning Committee.