Development Catalyst

Brooks says successful mixed-income Hope VI developments usually spur more private investments, especially in markets where demand for intown housing is strong.

"Over the next several years Birmingham will see a lot of investment on the east side of Downtown," he says. "I think people look at the amount of investment being made in Park Place . (and that) makes them more comfortable about making investments in those neighborhoods."

Even before Park Place began taking shape in the blighted northeastern quadrant of Downtown, several private developers announced plans to turn vacant buildings nearby into loft apartments and condominiums, says Michael Calvert , head of Operation New Birmingham (ONB).

He says Ed and Leo Ticheli are building lofts and condominiums in long-vacant Downtown buildings, including the 12-story Stonewall-American Life Insurance building at 23 rd Street and 4 th Avenue North . It's one of the big, blighted relics that is on ONB's 12 most wanted list for redevelopment.

Calvert says other loft and commercial projects are filling the gap between the historic loft district area, on Morris Avenue and First Avenue North , and Park Place , which starts on Sixth Avenue North .

"So that the whole east side of Downtown is going to become an urban neighborhood that will have a mixed-use component and have some commercial activity as well as have a real neighborhood feel to it," Calvert predicts. "Private investment is flowing into that area in a way that I don't think it would if Metropolitan Gardens was still there."

Even as workers continue building it, Brooks is confident in calling Birmingham 's first Hope VI project a success, along with others in the country.

"Hope VI isn't an experiment any more," he declares. "It's been successful in so many places now. Low-income people are living next to people with higher incomes. You don't have to look any further than Atlanta to see that it's successfully done."

One of Park Place 's primary developers, The Integral Group, cut its teeth developing the first Hope VI project in Atlanta , Centennial Place , in 1994.

Using the Atlanta Housing Authority's Hope VI grant, The Integral Group was the first developer to structure a funding model that blended public monies with private debt and investment dollars to successfully create a mixed-income, mixed-use community.

Atlanta 's Housing Authority officials saw its grant as an economic redevelopment tool to build safe, high-quality housing for public housing residents living in the toughest, most economically-depressed areas of downtown Atlanta . The idea was to also make those areas attractive to people who wanted to live downtown and to businesses who could invest there.

Even then, there were strong national critics who said the Hope VI wouldn't work, Egbert Perry, The Integral Group's Chairman and CEO, told a group of partners and supporters during the recent groundbreaking ceremony for Park Place .

"The Centennial Place development in Atlanta triggered an additional $1 billion worth of development within six blocks of the site, a site that had no investment for decades and had the highest crime rate in the city," Perry said. "Today, nobody talks about crime. It's just a great community. Two years ago, it was announced that a brand new $300 million aquarium and a $200 million museum to Coca Cola would be built near a site that never would have seen that kind of investment."

Perry predicted the same kind of transformation would happen around Park Place . "I can assure you, without equivocation, that within a few years, we will look back to this development as having been the stimulus for revitalization of this section of the city. And all of you will have had a hand in that."

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