Artist rendering of the redeveloped Ramsay-McCormack Building (City of Birmingham)

The long awaited redevelopment of the former Ramsay-McCormack site in downtown Ensley is moving forward.

Approved

In a unanimous vote, the City of Birmingham Design Review Committee approved the construction plans for a new five-story, 30,000-square-foot commercial office building at 508 19th Street.

“This is a great step forward for the neighborhood of Ensley and for the city of Birmingham,” Richard Mauk, chair of the Birmingham Design Review Committee told Bham Now after the meeting. “We believe this is going to breathe new life into the city and I applaud the administration for helping push this through.”

Demolition of Ramsay-McCormack

Ramsay McCormack 2 New Ramsay-McCormack redevelopment in Ensley moving forward

Three years ago, in the midst of the pandemic, the historic 10- story Ramsay-McCormack building was slated for demolition. Work to tear down the building began in October 2020 and lasted till the summer of 2021. Today, the footprint of the building awaits construction.

“This is a step that gets us closer towards vertical construction for the project, so we’re very pleased that the design review committee has approved us to move to the next step,” said Llevelyn Rhone, Project Manager for Ensley District Developers. “We are moving towards permitting. Once permitting is completed, then we will actually move into construction.”

Construction Possibly by End of Year

Depending on the speed of the permitting, Rhone said they hope to start construction by the end of the year, if not sooner.

“The project, overall, started before there was a pandemic which clearly impacted it,” added Rhone. “In addition to that, we’ve run into some engineering challenges, which we’ve resolved. As was mentioned during this design review, the new building will sit on the newly created platform of the old building.”

There has been strong interest with a number of potential tenants, according to Rhone.