BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A $2 million state grant intended to help Birmingham prepare major industrial sites for redevelopment is giving new momentum to hopes for a stronger future across the city’s west side, where neighborhoods including Bush Hills have spent years pressing for investment, preservation and community-led improvement.
The City of Birmingham received the funding through Alabama’s Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy, or SEEDS, Act program. The money is designated for the first phase of redevelopment work in the Western Corridor, including a master plan, environmental studies and other site-readiness work involving about 500 acres at the former U.S. Steel Ensley Works site, as well as improvements at Birmingport.
City officials have framed the broader Western Corridor initiative as a potential driver of job creation, economic opportunity and long-term neighborhood revitalization in west Birmingham.
“This $2 million investment is about positioning Birmingham for long-term economic growth,” Mayor Randall L. Woodfin said in announcing the award. “We’re taking deliberate steps to prepare the Western Corridor for the next generation of industry.”
For Bush Hills, the prospect of renewed attention to west Birmingham comes after years of residents organizing their own efforts to preserve the neighborhood’s character and create places for neighbors to gather, grow food and build community.
Established in the 1920s, Bush Hills is known for its winding streets, historic homes and proximity to the former Birmingham-Southern College campus. The neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024 after an effort that began nearly a decade earlier, led by the Bush Hills Neighborhood Association with support from the city and the Alabama Historical Commission.
The historic district is roughly bounded by Princeton Parkway, Third Avenue West, Bush Boulevard, Interstate 20/59, Eighth Court West and Eighth Avenue West.
One of the neighborhood’s most visible examples of renewal sits at the former Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. The building closed in 2008, and the property remained without a new use for years. Bush Hills Connections, a nonprofit that grew out of the neighborhood association’s work, has since helped turn the site into a community complex, garden, orchard and USDA-certified urban farm.
The farm produces about 50,000 pounds of food each year, according to the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Its harvest includes vegetables such as okra, squash, sweet potatoes, beans, collards and corn, with Bush Hills residents, particularly seniors, given priority access. Excess food is donated to food banks and soup kitchens.
Bush Hills Connections President Joanice Thompson said the organization’s work grew from residents’ concern about limited access to fresh food and their desire to create change from within the neighborhood.
“It’s got to start with the community — with the people that live, work, and play in the neighborhood,” Thompson said in a Botanical Gardens profile. “It must start with these people.”
That local history matters as Birmingham looks to redevelop larger industrial properties farther west.
Ensley Works was once a major source of jobs for Birmingham. The steel mill, first operated by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. and later acquired by U.S. Steel, ceased production in 1976. Its closure contributed to major job and population losses in surrounding communities.
Birmingport, meanwhile, has operated since 1920 and includes five barge docks at a rail-port facility serving industrial users, including automakers west of Birmingham.
The city says its new planning work will examine opportunities for logistics, manufacturing and other employers that could take advantage of access to highways, rail lines, air travel and waterways.
But the announcement also lands in an area where residents and business owners have repeatedly voiced concerns about long-standing disinvestment, vacant properties and redevelopment proposals that never came to fruition.
BirminghamWatch reported that a series of previous efforts to redevelop Ensley Works, including port, industrial-park and automotive-supplier proposals, did not materialize. Business owners interviewed by the nonprofit newsroom described frustration with years of limited investment and empty promises.
That history creates both skepticism and urgency around the city’s latest investment. City officials say the work will focus on developing sites that can compete for employers in advanced manufacturing, logistics and green-energy technology, with an emphasis on jobs, local hiring and workforce development.
District 8 Councilor Sonja Smith said the grant is an important step toward expanding opportunity in the Western Corridor.
“By focusing on smart development, we’re positioning our district to attract major employers and create real opportunities for residents,” Smith said in a city statement.
For Bush Hills, the work already underway offers a more immediate picture of what neighborhood renewal can look like: a closed school repurposed as a community hub, vacant land producing fresh food and residents preserving a historic neighborhood while investing in its future.
The SEEDS grant will not by itself restore every neglected block in west Birmingham. But paired with the work residents have already done in Bush Hills and other communities, it offers a new opening for the city to turn long-promised investment into visible, lasting progress.