A new star is rising over Birmingham.
Corporate Realty today announced that the planned mixed-use development at the former Carraway Methodist Medical Center will have a name paying tribute to its past.
The development will be called The Star Uptown, with a logo featuring a star against a backdrop of the Birmingham skyline.
Plans call for the actual Carraway star, the hospital’s distinctive blue emblem, to be preserved and used on site in the new development.
Corporate Realty President and CEO Robert Simon, in an announcement, said preserving the star as an emblem was important to community members.
“When we began working on this development, the first thing people wanted to know was what we planned to do with the star,” Simon said. “That star was one of Birmingham’s most recognizable landmarks, and it meant something to people. We want to honor that past even as we build a new future at this important site.”
The Star Uptown logo will preserve the distinctive star of the old Carraway Methodist Medical Center.
In a lunchtime address to the Birmingham Rotary Club at Harbert Center, Simon said the choice of the star was brought about by discussions with community members.
“The star kept coming up,” Simon said. “It’s our Northern star, our beacon. What it was in the early days is what it will mean to us.”
Corporate Realty finalized the purchase of the property in late 2020.
Construction on a multi-use development with office, retail, entertainment, hotel and residential space is scheduled to begin early next year. The Birmingham City Council in December approved a $13 million incentive package for the project.
The former medical center site, which closed in 2008, is a 52-acre tract in North Birmingham near the downtown nexus of Top Golf, the BJCC, Protective Stadium and Uptown, with access to Interstates 59, 20 and 65, Red Mountain Expressway, U.S. 280, and U.S. 31.
The project calls for a five-year buildout which includes rehabilitation of the former medical center’s four existing parking decks.
Simon said Corporate Realty sees the project first as a residential project, with market rate houses, as well as workforce housing in rehabilitated parts of the former medical center. Demolition of some structures on the site could begin the final part of this year.
“This name and this vision are the result of literally years of conversations and meetings with neighborhood groups, city councilors, city staff and many others with an interest in what happens at Carraway,” Simon said. “We all have the common interest in removing this blight and making sure the property is once again a shining star for the surrounding community and for Birmingham overall.”
This post was modified at 2:31 p.m. to correct the name of the speaker at the club meeting.