Urban, the Remix

Who would buy a Downtown loft condo isn’t easy to define.

“The demographics of Downtown Birmingham are changing,” says real estate agent Chip Watts. “We’re moving away from the Baby Boomers’ concept of a crime-ridden Downtown with vandals and vagrants to a generation . . . who remember how Downtown used to be and a new generation coming in saying, “We want to be urbanites.’”

RealtySouth agent Pete Graphos says his loft buyers are coming from Helena, Homewood, Mountain Brook and other areas. They are affluent, educated and have a different perspective of the City Center than their suburban friends.

One woman’s affluent friends tried to talk her out of buying in “dangerous” Downtown, Graphos says. But speaking to loft residents helped change her mind.

“It’s ironic that the perception of people in the suburbs is that Downtown is not safe when, in fact it’s very safe. And ironically, people are moving in to lofts because of the safety and security factor,” he says. “You can’t get into a building unless you have the code, and in many cases you can’t use the elevator without the code.”

Generally, developers and real estate agents say today’s urban dwellers fit two main profiles.

One includes 40- to 50-something empty-nesters who no longer want to keep up a big house and a yard. The other is the young professional class, either singles or couples, with no kids and an income to take advantage of all that urban living has to offer.

Demographics aside, the new urbanites fit a similar psychographic profile. They love: old buildings with historical character; diverse people of different ethnicities and social backgrounds; the city’s arts and cultural scene and nightlife; the ability to walk or drive short distances to nearby amenities such as restaurants, City Stages, and farmer’s markets.

They are like architect Tammy Cohen. She and husband Richard Carnaggio were among the first Downtown dwellers, living for 10 years in a two-story building just down the street from the Rekoffs.

“It appealed to us to be in the City, in a building with tall ceilings and windows, and the character of it all,” she says. “We liked it so much that we bought the building next door for our office. So we were able to live next to our work, which was convenient, because we could walk downstairs to meet clients.”

They eventually outgrew their business space and began looking for another place to have their office downstairs and their home upstairs. The location of their two-story live/work space? On First Avenue South in the Seaboard Yard development.

Tammy Cohen and her husband Richard Carnaggio built their home/office building along t he railroad tracks, where their son watches the trains. Their new space is within walking distance of Sloss Furnaces, the Pepper Place Farmer's Market, shops, restaurants and other amenities.

“Omy-gosh,” Cohen gushes when talking about their new location.

“You watch the planes, the trains, the cars, the furnaces. You can see the City lights at night; the sunset is unbelievable! It’s the best view I’ve ever had,” she says. “The trains don’t bother us. It’s quiet indoors. It only gets noisy outside. We’re in a concrete structure with insulated glass. So the trains don’t disturb us when we’re at home or at work. And our little boy loves to watch the trains.”

Not only have Cohen and Carnaggio seen Downtown Birmingham’s transformation; they are part of it.

Their firm, Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds Architecture and Interiors, has designed several redevelopments such as the Kress Building, home of the Wiggins Childs Quinn & Pantazis law firm.

But their biggest and most visible projects will help usher in a new wave of urban living: the $55 million mixed-use (government, commercial, and residential) SoHo development in Downtown Homewood and the $20-million plus loft condo conversion of City Federal in Downtown Birmingham.

“I think the whole move to live back Downtown is upon us like it is in other cities. I think we’re about to reach a critical mass where we have more retail, grocery stores and entertainment for loft dwellers,” Cohen says. “It’s bringing life back to these empty buildings and 24-hour activities and people walking their dogs. Ten years ago, we used to be the only ones walking our dogs. Now we run into many, many neighbors.”

A Whole New World

So Birmingham’s new city dwellers, more simply stated, are more urban than suburban.

“You have a lot of people moving in from out of town who know what downtown living is like and you have a lot of people that are ready for more urban kinds of living,” says Elias Hendricks, a Birmingham City Councilman whose political district is the heart of the new residential district.

He and wife Gaynelle were also among the “urban pioneers” who left their comfortable suburban digs and bought the Transportation Building in 1996. They spent more than $1 million converting it to residential use. Now that the five-year limit has expired on the historic tax credits they used to finance the deal, they are selling off whole floors for more than $400,000, mostly to former renters.

The Hendrickses are keeping their two-story penthouse perch.

“I think that all of the questions have been answered – is it safe, will the kids have somewhere to go to school and all those things. Are the amenities there? Now, we have nightclubs, restaurants and little art galleries. It’s fun to be down here.”

The black city councilman doesn’t worry about his changing constituency, which once included “the poorest zip code in America.” His district now includes Park Place, Birmingham’s first mixed-income residential development that started with a $35 million federal grant in 1999.

“My district is getting younger, and it’s getting more diverse, economically as well as racially. So I think that’s great,” Hendricks says. “This is the beginning of a whole wave. And we’re building a whole new world.

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