Photo courtesy of Mike Kalasnik at Wikimedia and flickr.com.
A photo from 2012 of the vacant Century Plaza Mall located at the intersection of Crestwood Blvd. and Oporto-Madrid Blvd. in the Eastwood neighborhood.
There is a plan to redevelop Century Plaza, which has been closed for over a decade, as a logistics center measuring 200,000 square feet.
The proposed facility — designed for a package delivery service — could create more than 300 jobs, according to a May 8 news release from the Birmingham City Council.
“One thing residents on the eastern side of Birmingham have been asking for is the repurposing of the old Century Plaza Mall,” said Councilor Hunter Williams, who represents District 2, in the release.
The release contained no details about the prospective tenant.
However, Birmingham Business Journal reported in May that Stonemont Financial Group in Atlanta had the property under contract and was proposing to demolish the old mall and build a new delivery center with Amazon as the tenant.
Williams noted that various options for Century Plaza have been discussed over the last decade but that the cost of rehabbing or demolishing the old mall has been prohibitive.
“This new facility, along with the VA Center that is currently being developed just down the street, will bring hundreds of jobs to Birmingham, creating a huge synergy to the Crestwood Blvd. corridor,” Williams said.
Williams is referring to a mental health clinic that the Birmingham VA Medical Center is planning to open on Crestwood Blvd. in fall 2021.
The logistics facility at Century Plaza is to have more than 1,400 delivery drivers coming to and from the site and about 320 associates and managers working on the premises.
The facility will be a class-A, single-story building with concrete walls and glass features at the entry and could be open by June 21, 2021.
Williams said the City Council will need to rezone the property before construction can proceed.
The Eastwood Neighborhood Association voted 5–4 against the rezoning, the release states.
However, Williams said his office has received calls from dozens of residents who live in that area and other nearby neighborhoods who are in favor of the project.
The project was approved by the Birmingham City Council Planning and Zoning Committee June 10 and will go before the full council July 14, according to a report by the BBJ just before press time.
Opened in 1975, Century Plaza originally included over 100 tenants. It closed in 2009.
