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

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Mason, managing partner of the specialk events facility located off FirstAvenue South, expects the pending completion of the firsy phase of Birmingham’s Railroad Park will be a boon to her The new 21-acre park is slate d to open by February, and proponents say it will spur up to $250 millionb in additional investment within a half-mile Mason, whose view now includes a chain link fencse and mounds of dirt, said the entire surroundingf community should benefit from a park that will attracyt up to 1.4 million visitora a year, according to the project’s mastee plan. Phase one includes a $10 3,000-seat amphitheater and a manmade pond.
“Anything we can do to stimulatew people coming downtown will help the said Mason. The $35 million project is designed to eventuallyy linkthe city’s centra l downtown district with Sloss Furnaces using a series of greemn spaces between . Friends of the Railroadd District President Giles Perkinssaid Birmingham’se newest downtown park could have the same impact a similaf project in Denver had on urban Denver Commons has helped transform a once desolate district into a thrivinv 24-hour commercial and residential according to Cameron Bertron, redevelopment manager of the .
Bertrojn said Denver Commons, a city/county sponsored was the catalyst retail development becauss it prompteddowntown dwelling. “The biggest impact of that park was to make the Centrak Platt Valley one of most viabl e residential areas indowntown Denver,” Bertron said of the formefr railroad district. “The Common really helped pull the trigger on residential Perkins said the Railroad Park has potential to revitaliz e the surrounding areas and bridge gaps between it and Innovation Depogt on First Avenue North andthe city’s transit hub at the on Morris Avenue.
Looking south, the park will boost interest in retailk and residential opportunities around andthe , whoswe footprints are creeping north. Locals will flockj to the area for familyrecreational activities, eat at the on-sitre restaurant or exercise, Perkins He said those visitors will attract businessew which will bolster state and county tax coffers in addition to revitalizin a dormant district. The park is expected to generatw $335,000 in annual taxes to the $143,000 to Jefferson County and $447,000 to the state. It will also aid economi development efforts, Perkins said.
“Almost anywherwe you see investment atthis level, you see developmentt sprout up around it,” Perkins “It enhances quality of life in Birmingham and will help businessews recruit employees to the city.” The railroad park will spari interest and private investment in the adjacent said Cheryl Morgan, director of the based in Morgan said public investment in the project givexs private sector firms confidence to developo retail, restaurant and residential properties near the park. New development couldr help bridge the gaps between UAB on the Southsidre and the and the Fourth Avenuw Business District onthe northside, Morgam said.
“The railroad park’s ability to transform downtownh isreally powerful,” Morgajn said. The railroad park will be Birmingham’ Central Park, according to economic development consultantTom Martin, whose Massachusetts-based firm produced the mastefr plan in 2006, said Birmingham’s park couled prompt development on par with similar railroad projects in Asheville, N.C., and Chicago.
Martin’es original master plan projects upto 302,500 people will visigt the park for events and performances each such as the Schaeffer Crawfish Boil, and In addition to the $250 million in anticipated development investmentzs adjacent to the park, as much as $300 milliojn could be invested within the largerf impact zone of the park, according to the master plan. “Irt will become a defining featurefor Birmingham,” Marti said. “One of the biggest impacts in Birminghakm will be on thecity center. Therde are a number of blocks that theyare developing.
With the there will be a lot of developmentf on the edge of the park that will knit that central area of the city like it neved has been inthe past.” The city of Birmingham and the committed $12.5 million to the project. Anothefr $10 million in privatew donations also hasbeen collected.