Jefferson County Commission / KultureCity / Birmingham — Dr. Michele Kong, co-founder of KultureCity, speaks in the Jefferson County Courthouse. (Nathan Watson / Bham Now)

2025 was a big year for Jefferson County, and even bigger things are ahead, representatives from the county say.

Over the course of the year, more than $400 million in 13 total economic development projects were announced, bringing about 900 jobs with them, according to data from Jefferson County.

The largest projects include:

Alabama Farm Center — $150 million
CMC Steel expansion — $135 million
KultureCity National Accessibility Park — $60 million

It is possible that these numbers could be even larger, Jefferson County Commission Economic Development Advisor Jeff Traywick told Bham Now, after he is able to close out the county’s numbers for the year and gather more info from community partners like the Birmingham Business Alliance.

Regardless of any potential increases, these figures still represent an impactful year of development for Birmingham.

“Every single economic sector has seen significant activity and wages have been seeing significant increases on average. As we wrap up the year with the announcement of Jefferson County’s partnership with KultureCity in their planned $60 million development in downtown, we are moving forward with several significant projects.”
Jefferson County Commission Economic Development Advisor Jeff Traywick, via Birmingham Times

2026 and beyond

Early this year, Traywick said there are expected to be two project announcements that would total more than $814 million in new investment and 160 jobs.

“We should approve the ACIPCO agreement tomorrow and are in the process of finalizing agreements on the other project, which I hope to have on the next agenda.”
Jeff Traywick

Amsterdam-based Nebius Group purchased a chunk of land along Lakeshore Parkway for $90 million back in late September, Traywick highlighted. Nebius is a big mover-and-shaker in the AI industry and an NVIDIA Cloud Partner. The company recently entered into an infrastructure agreement with Microsoft worth at least $17.4 billion.

“Using our estimates on the capital spend, this could potentially have an annual impact of more than $25 million for Birmingham City Schools and more than $10 million for Jefferson County Schools. This wouldn’t even include general fund revenues to city and county and doesn’t include the estimated future investments which includes a technical refresh of all computer equipment every 3-4 years.”
Jeff Traywick

Stay tuned for more big news surrounding development in and around Birmingham for 2026.

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