BJCC to renovate parking deck at future Birmingham amphitheater site

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — The Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (BJCC) is moving ahead with plans to renovate a large parking deck for the new amphitheater being built on the former Carraway Hospital site.

The Birmingham City Council approved the sale of the deck for $1.00 on Tuesday.

BJCC CEO Tad Snider said the plan is to redevelop the four pre-existing parking decks on the hospital campus to support both the amphitheater and Star Property events.

Snider said Tuesday’s action mainly revolved around getting permission to take over the rehabilitation of the largest deck so they can meet their timing targets on the project.

According to Snider, Parking Deck Number 3 will cost upwards of $5 million to update and will add roughly 700 parking spaces.

“All this does is take that plan, which is going to rehabilitate all four decks and take that from being led by the developer of the Star through the city, facilitate the transfer,” Snider said. “Now the BJCC’s going to renovate that deck just to be sure that everything’s moving on the timeline that it needs to.”

While the program will be a significant investment, Snider said it’s less expensive than a new build.

Last week the BJCCA Board awarded the contract to build the new amphitheater to Stone Building Company which came in with the lowest bid for the project at just over $46 million dollars. The contract sets a deadline of completion by next summer.

Snider said they plan to hold a groundbreaking at the end of the month or during the first week of June. He’s hopeful they’ll be able to hold concerts at the new amphitheater by next summer.

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