By Hollis Wormsby, Jr.
Parkside District Should Serve as Blueprint for City Progress
I can remember a couple of years ago, when folks were speaking of spending over $20 million dollars to bring Railroad Park to a Parkside District that did not yet exist that the naysayers were having a field day exclaiming what a boondoggle the project would become. There were daily comments about the only way to enjoy the Park would be to wear bulletproof clothing, and insinuations within months the thugs would take over and it would look like the rest of Birmingham, just with a brand new $20 something million price tag.
But they built the Park anyway and with the exception of one violent incident the Park has been safe and the anchor that has led to so much further development.
Next up came the effort to lure the Barons back to Birmingham, and to build what would become Regions Field as their new home. Out came the naysayers again. No one will come to downtown Birmingham at night was one of the refrains. You will have to wear Kevlar to the Park, where Kevlar is body armor. Oh, and Birmingham wouldn’t know how to build a pool hall, much less a world class ballpark.
Then along came the 2013 season and the grand opening of the brand new $64 million Region’s Park as their new home. And lo and behold the Barons set attendance records, far beyond any ever envisioned when they were based out of Hoover. Oh, and as for that Birmingham doesn’t know how to build anything insinuation; Regions Park was ranked as the most beautiful minor league field in America by a prestigious sports publication in its first year of operation, with the author of the article calling it the most beautiful ballpark he had ever experienced. I did mention the attendance records, right?
In the afterglow of Regions Park’s success three new mixed used developments have been announced for the area that should bring in over 800 new upscale housing units to the Parkside District along with new retail as well. In fact, several prominent developers are now speculating that the Parkside District has enough new residential development in place to become a spur for more commercial activity in the area, as a core of residents with spending money will attract businesses to serve them.
Much has been made by many, including myself, of the fact that the City of Birmingham took on almost all of the debt and investments to make Regions Field and Railroad Park a reality. But what some of the naysayers are not willing to acknowledge is that with the success of the Barons in their first seasons, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in new development having been stimulated by these investments that the City is already close to or past the break-even point on their Parkside investments.
Why you say? Let’s look at cash in versus cash out. Cash out is the debt service on Railroad Park and Regions Field, whose total debt service should be about $84 million dollars. In the case of Regions Field you get rental revenue from the Barons, tax revenue on ticket and concession sales, and the revenue from additional sales taxes paid by Baron’s visitors when they patronize surrounding businesses before and after the game. In addition, you are getting new property tax revenue from the hundreds of millions of dollars in new development for the area that has been announced since the opening of Regions Field as well as the occupational tax and net sales tax revenue from over 800 new upper income residents. I believe that all of these streams either meet or exceed the dollars needed to service the debt on Regions Field and Railroad Park, and if they don’t they significantly offset it.
The naysayers would have you believe otherwise because the Parkside District really may be the beginning of a new Birmingham. As a resident of the Bush Hills Ensley area I just want to see these same kinds of investment strategies implemented in my community and other long term communities in this City that have long been in decline because of declining population and lack of infrastructural investments. The same things that have worked in the Parkside District could work in other areas if we chose to invest in the same way.
Or at least that is the way I see it.
