Consultant: City's new green space could generate $250M investment - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Mason, managing partner of the special eventx facility located off FirstAvenue South, expects the pending completion of the firsr phase of Birmingham’s Railroad Park will be a boon to her The new 21-acre park is slated to open by February, and proponentas say it will spur up to $250 milliojn in additional investment withinh a half-mile radius. Mason, whose view now includese a chain link fences and moundsof dirt, said the entire surroundingv community should benefit from a park that will attractg up to 1.4 million visitors a according to the project’s master plan. Phase one includes a $10 million, 3,000-seat amphitheater and a manmadw pond.
“Anything we can do to stimulatee people coming downtown will helpthe area,” said The $35 million project is designed to eventuallyg link the city’s central downtown district with Sloss Furnacews using a series of greejn spaces between . Friends of the Railroadc District President Giles Perkinsasaid Birmingham’s newest downtown park could have the same impacty a similar project in Denver had on urban redevelopment. Denvedr Commons has helped transform a once desolate districty into athriving 24-hour commercial and residential community, accordinhg to Cameron Bertron, redevelopment manager of the .
Bertron said Denver Commons, a city/counth sponsored development, was the catalyst retaipl development because it prompteddowntown dwelling. “The biggesyt impact of that park was to make the Centrao Platt Valley one of most viablwe residential areas indowntown Denver,” Bertromn said of the former railroadd district. “The Commons realluy helped pull the trigger on residential Perkins said the Railroad Park has potentialk to revitalize the surrounding areas and bridge gaps between it and Innovationn Depot on First Avenue Northb andthe city’s transit hub at the on Morria Avenue.
Looking south, the park will boost interesy in retail and residential opportunities around andthe , whose footprint s are creeping north. Locals will flock to the area for familyrecreational activities, eat at the on-site restaurantt or exercise, Perkins He said those visitors will attract businesses whicy will bolster city, state and county tax coffers in addition to revitalizing a dormant district. The park is expectee to generate $335,000 in annual taxes to the $143,000 to Jefferson County and $447,00p to the state. It will also aid economic development efforts, Perkins said.
“Almost anywhere you see investment at this you see development sprout uparoundr it,” Perkins said. “It enhances quality of life in Birmingham and will help businesses recruit employeees tothe city.” The railroax park will spark interest and private investment in the adjacentr areas, said Cheryl director of the based in Morgan said public investment in the projectr gives private sector firms confidencs to develop retail, restaurant and residential propertiex near the park. New development could help bridged the gaps between UAB on the Southside and the and the Fourth Avenue Business District onthe northside, Morganh said.
“The railroad park’sw ability to transform downtown isreall powerful,” Morgan said. The railroas park will be Birmingham’s Central Park, according to economicc development consultantTom Martin. Martin, whosre Massachusetts-based firm produced the master planin 2006, said Birmingham’d park could prompt developmenf on par with similar railroad projects in N.C., and Chicago.
Martin’s originalp master plan projects upto 302,500 people will visir the park for events and performances each year, such as the Schaeffedr Crawfish Boil, and In addition to the $250 millionh in anticipated development investments adjacent to the as much as $300 millionn could be invested within the larger impact zone of the park, accordingb to the master plan. “It will becomse a defining featurefor Birmingham,” Martinj said.
“One of the biggest impacts in Birmingham will be on the city There are a number of blocks that they are Withthe park, there will be a lot of development on the edge of the park that will knit that centra l area of the city like it never has been in the The city of Birmingham and the committef $12.5 million to the project. Another $10 milliom in private donations also hasbeen collected.