Downtown is undergoing a revitalization that spreads throughout multiple districts and is being driven by several mix-use developments that include retail, office and multifamily. Birmingham has almost 2,000 apartment units in the pipeline, and that has attracted retail projects like Publix and Starbucks,along with high-end restaurants downtown. We recently caught up with REV Birmingham CEO David Fleming who talked about …

  According to a study by 24/7 Wall St, Birmingham’s largest suburb, Hoover, ranks as the 28th best city to live in the United States. The study compiled data from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Bureau of Investigation and a number of real estate research sites to come up with the 50 most livable U.S. cities with more …

{ full article here } Erlanger hospital officials plan to build more than a state-of-the-art children’s hospital — they plan to build a new children’s and women’s hospital that will revitalize Third Street’s hospital corridor, channeling the spirit of Chattanooga’s vibrant downtown development. Erlanger invited Chattanoogans to “Re-Imagining Erlanger,” a public event held Tuesday night that filled the auditorium of …

{ full article } The pace of rent growth for U.S. apartments is accelerating despite an uptick in construction of new dwellings, as the economy steadily improves and vacancies remain stubbornly low. Rental rates increased 1% during the third quarter to an average of $1,111 a month nationwide, according to Reis Inc., REIS +1.27% a real-estate research firm that collects …

{ full article } A key supplier to Volkswagen’s Chattanooga assembly plant has started construction on its $70 million Enterprise South industrial park plant, and it has begun initial hiring of its workforce that’s slated to hit 184 employees by mid-2015. The plant expects to employ about 300 people within about three years, said Marc Cornet, chief executive of the …

{full article here } ArcelorMittal MT -1.62%’s hulking green-painted steel plant in rural Alabama is at the heart of Big Steel’s response to aluminum in the battle for one of the metal industry’s best customers: carmakers. The aluminum industry made strides this year with Ford Motor Co.F -1.00%’s announcement that it would make the new F-150 principally out of aluminum. The metal–which …

{ Full Article Here } St. Vincent’s Health System is planning a large expansion of its One Nineteen facility. The St. VIncent’s One Nineteen campus on Cahaba Valley Road near U.S. 280 will undergo a $15.6 million, 40,000-square-foot expansion that will include an ambulatory surgery center, an urgent care center and additional office space. The project is expected to begin …

{ full article here } The Birmingham-Hoover metro area economy was one of the 50 largest in the nation in 2013, new data show. Each metro area’s productivity can be estimated by calculating its gross domestic product, which captures the value of all goods and services produced by that area’s residents. On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis published …

{ full article here } Loveman’s department store on Market Street in Chattanooga closed its doors in 1993 after almost a century in business, another victim of a nationwide decline in downtowns that hollowed out so many US towns. Now the opulent building is buzzing again, this time with tech entrepreneurs taking advantage of the fastest internet in the western …

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