The paint’s dry, the furniture’s assembled and the front door is ready to be open to visitors at Shift WorkSpace this evening. One of Alabama’s first coworking space (and our new offline home) will host a grand opening event tonight (May 28) beginning at 5 p.m. The space and its founder, Drew Jones, has garnered a great deal of press recently, including a follow up brief about tonight’s opening in the BBJ and a story in today’s edition of The Birmingham News (it’s in the business section). There’s still time to RSVP, though at this point, you may just want to come on over and see what the excitement’s about.
Category Archives: Business
Party at Shift WorkSpace tonight!
Posted in Business
Tagged AL, Alabama, Birmingham, coworking, grand opening, information, link, open house, opening, RSVP, Shift WorkSpace, technology, website
Climbing comes to Birmingham’s Southside
An emergency room nurse, a fifth grade teacher, 15,000 screws, 5,000 t-nuts, 145 sheets of plywood, 2,100 square feet of eight inch padding, and thousands of pounds of steel is turning a 6,800 square foot warehouse on Birmingham, AL’s Southside built in 1911 into modern rock climbing gym with 3,900 square feet of climbing surface.
Joe Ortega (the ER nurse) and Adam Henry (the teacher) have been creating the 16-foot-tall bouldering walls out of steel beams and plywood since January. The new rock climbing gym, called First Avenue Rocks, is due to open in the second week of June at 2417 First Ave. South.
Tagged Adam Henry, AL, Alabama, Birmingham, Bob Farley, bouldering, facility, First Avenue Rocks, gym, information, Joe Ortega, opening, rock climbing, southside
UPDATE: What does “brain drain” mean in Birmingham?
UPDATE: 5.14.2009, WBHM has posted audio from an interview with Jerry Hartley conducted by their own Andrew Yeager. Their piece also contains additional side notes to the story.
Yesterday’s Five Points South Merchants Association meeting on Birmingham’s Southside apparently became a little “contentious” towards the end as it looks like The J. Clyde owner Jerry Hartley and Mayor Larry Langford appeared to have different opinions about the term “brain drain” and what it means for our region’s future.
I’ve got an opinion and I’ve posted it over on My Birmingham.
We’d love hear your thoughts about whether or not Birmingham’s suffering from a brain drain over on Magic City Question.
Tagged AL, Alabama, Birmingham, brain drain, Larry Langford, opinion, The J. Clyde
A real groundbreaking on Southside
Workers dig a trench along 21st Street & Second Ave. South on Wednesday morning as work begins on the CiTYViLLE BLOCK 121 mixed-use development on Birmingham’s Southside. City officials (including Mayor Langford) and the developer gathered later that afternoon for the ceremony. The development is slated to include 255 apartments and more than 21,000 square feet of retail space, both of which will undoubtedly lead to a transformation of that part of the city.
Check out the press release from the mayor’s office sent on Tuesday announcing the groundbreaking ceremony.
Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo
Posted in Development
Tagged AL, Alabama, Birmingham, Bob Farley, CiTYViLLE BLOCK 121, development, groundbreaking, information, mixed-use, photo, residential, southside
Owner of Century Plaza files for bankruptcy
General Growth Properties (GGP) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this morning, as first reported by The New York Times and as announced via press release on GGP’s website. The release states that day to day operations will not be affected by the filing in New York. The New York Times’ blog post also speculates about the company looking to sell off properties to help emerge out of bankruptcy as soon as possible. It is reportedly the largest real estate bankruptcy filing in the nation’s history at $27 billion.
Birmingham’s Century Plaza is on the list of properties included in the filing. GGP also operates the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, however it was not included in the list of properties since the company only serves as a management agent for one of Alabama’s top shopping destinations.
In February it was announced that the last anchor store at Century Plaza, Sears, had planned to close at the end of May – its already done so.
Posted in Business
Tagged AL, Alabama, Birmingham, Century Plaza, Chapter 11, filing, General Growth Properties, GGP, information, mall, Riverchase Galleria, shopping
Emageon sale complete; layoffs follow
The long planned acquisition of Emageon by Boston-based AMICAS, Inc. was completed on April 3. As part of the purchase agreement, Emageon’s board of directors resigned their posts (scroll down). Shareholders concerned about the details of the merger filed a lawsuit in Boston early last month. A settlement agreement was reached on March 27 according to The Birmingham News.
Yesterday, employees at the Emageon’s Birmingham headquarters learned that it would be closing. According to buzz on Twitter beginning yesterday afternoon, they also learned of more than 100 planned layoffs (many in Birmingham) to take place by September 30.
Posted in Business
Tagged acquisition, AL, Alabama, AMICAS, Birmingham, Boston, Business, Emageon, jobs, layoffs, MA, Massachusetts, merger
Job fair’s still going strong til 7
If you’re looking for a job (or ways to expand your knowledge base) during these difficult economic times , you’ve got a great opportunity to take advantage of a one-stop shop in downtown Birmingham until 7 p.m. tonight!
Cox Radio, NBC 13 and the City of Birmingham want to make sure that you know about the Career Summit presented by Virginia College at the Boutwell Auditorium.
Want to know some of the businesses planning to be present today? A list follows the jump:
Posted in Business
Tagged Alabama, April 6, Birmingham, career summit, information, participating businesses
