Category Archives: Business

Time to choose who reigns supreme

Posted on December 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Birmingham's Best 2010 logo. Courtesy of The Birmingham NewsWe’ve been looking for a reason to use that headline for some time (it just doesn’t seem to be the same without The Chairman though). Anyway…

Today’s the last day for folks to nominate their favorites for The Birmingham News‘ Birmingham’s Best Readers Poll. If you’re planning to vote you’ve got to make nominations for at least 10 of the 80+ categories listed.

Don’t worry if you don’t see this until Thursday morning – come Friday they’ll share the five finalists in each of the categories and you’ll get another chance to vote again.

Incidentally today’s also the last day to vote for the finalists in this year’s Mashable Awards. There’s also still time to nominate people for the Birmingham Business Journal‘s Top 40 under 40 Awards too (until January 6 to be exact).

Think of it as a warm up for this fall’s municipal elections…

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Southwest’s slip could be Birmingham’s gain

Posted on December 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Southwest Airlines logo. Courtesy of official website.A report released earlier this week could give loyal customers of low-cost airline Southwest Airlines here in Birmingham, AL a reason to hope, though it could still be a long shot.

The latest U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report shows that Southwest has dropped to eighth place for on-time arrival performance, its lowest finish since the government began to collect the information in 1987 (see page 6 for the rankings).

A couple of weeks ago WBHM’s Andrew Yeager filed a piece about what the planned acquisition of AirTran by the Dallas-based airline may mean for The Magic City.

Considering that several reports about the results suggest the airline’s expansion into larger airports is a major reason for the drop, it gives more credence to the idea that shifting flights from the major hub in Atlanta to Birmingham might help them regain their on-time bragging badge of honor over the long term.

Time will tell…

Image: Southwest Airlines logo. Courtesy of official website.

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New hope for independent film fans in Birmingham

Posted on October 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s only been two weeks since the annual Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival took place in downtown Birmingham, AL. It appears that some are preparing to take advantage of momentum from projects like Railroad Park to provide a year-round venue for locals to enjoy independent film in the immediate metropolitan area while a new movie theater on the city’s east side has recently pledged to fill that need, at least partially.

A Facebook group appeared shortly after the festival, inviting people to become fans to help build support and interest in a new art house theater. Birmingham Indie Film Supporters appears to be loosely affiliated with the film festival’s parent organization, the Alabama Moving Image Association.

It’s interesting to note that in the midst of this recent wave of Facebook activism, Birmingham’s newest independently owned cinema complex, The Edge 12 located in Eastwood, told reporters for CBS 42 in August that they were planning to dedicate two screens to independent, non-commercial films.

BhamArchitect reports that one of the two screens is currently showing 2009’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, keeping in line with CrestwoodNorth’s tweet that only half of the screens were currently being used.

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Could Homewood be poised to land a Target?

Posted on September 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Targets in metro BirminghamThe Birmingham Business Journal is reporting that the city of Homewood is providing $10.4 million in incentives to Colonial Properties Trust – $1.4 million for road improvements and $9 to help Trust potentially lure Target to their Colonial Brookwood Village development (located along Lakeshore Drive between Highways 31 and 280).

The $1.4 million had been previously brought before Homewood’s City Council earlier in September though no action had been taken at that time. Representatives for Target in a story filed by The Birmingham News mid-August stated that no plans had been announced for a location in Homewood, Another story filed during that period suggests that the discount retailer was being sought by Colonial.

It would definitely reduce travel time for those located in metro Birmingham’s core. There are Super Targets located in Hoover (as of this posting the country’s largest),Trussville, and along Highway 280 and “regular” locations in Fultondale and Bessemer. Using our offices as a starting point, it would reduce our drive to the closest Super Target (280) by 5 miles and to the Fultondale location by three.

It would also not be the first time that future plans for the development had been discussed including a period in late 2006 when it was believed that a Westin hotel would be built on the property; despite an announcement, plans never materialized.

Map: Courtesy of Target.com search function.

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Birmingham abuzz about Blueprint

Posted on September 28, 2010 | 2 comments

Blueprint Birmingham logo The Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) was hoping for a great deal of buzz after the official unveiling of their Blueprint Birmingham last Thursday, their five-year strategic plan recently adopted by their board. There has indeed been a great deal of conversation about the plan, including tonight’s live chat hosted by The Birmingham News’ Eddie Lard beginning at 6 p.m. on al.com. There is also limited seating at the actual event this evening at Alabama Power headquarters; it is presented by the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists and the BBA.

There are countless ways to review the plan and to be exposed to the campaign underway to secure general support for the principles mentioned within. The plan’s official website (complete with the full plan and all supplemental documents) is joined by a promotional campaign website that provides links to signs similar to the billboards that say that “we’re open” to moving the region forward and a Facebook page. There’s also an official hashtag for folks talking about the plan on Twitter – #blueprintbham.

Columns by Joey Kennedy and Lard speak of the plan, as do the co-chairs of the committee tasked with creating the plan. Area bloggers have started multi-part series looking at what needs to be fixed or offered analysis of the plan (I’ll finally be adding my two cents to the matter in the coming days on Dear Birmingham). It will not be going away any time soon (in fact, it will be the topic of tonight’s #bhamchat on Twitter, starting at 7 p.m.).

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Operation New Birmingham changes food truck stance

Posted on August 20, 2010 | 1 comment

Spoonfed Grill. Courtesy of Operation New BirminghamEarlier today Operation New Birmingham sent out a tweet that referred followers to the front page of its website. There, it posted the following statement about the issue of food trucks in the city, most recently represented by the situation involving the Spoonfed Grill:

“ONB President Michael Calvert has advised Mr. Jason Parkman, the owner of the Spoonfed Grill, that ONB no longer opposes food trucks in downtown. Comments from Mr. Parkman’s customers and supporters and subsequent conversations with several downtown restaurant owners indicate that food trucks do indeed contribute to the choices available to people working downtown and add to the urban experience for visitors. Calvert has apologized to Mr. Parkman and acknowledged that he made a mistake.

Current City ordinances do not permit food trucks or other private vendors to do business in a public right of way such as the loading zone in front of the Wachovia Building. ONB has pledged to be supportive of Mr. Parkman in his efforts to have ordinances modified to allow properly licensed food trucks to operate in the public right of way.”

Photo: Spoonfed Grill. Courtesy of Operation New Birmingham

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More microbrews for Birmingham

Posted on June 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Avondale Brewing Company under construction. Via Fan Page on Facebook.In case you haven’t been able to tell, Birminghamians truly love their beer. We’re also becoming a home of some rather tasty brew with many of us supporting Good People Brewing Co. whenever possible (incidentally they’ve announced that their new equipment (including canning) should be here by October.

We have blog dedicated to our love of the stuff here in The Magic City (read: Beeringham). We’ve got an incredible annual beer tasting event that just celebrated its third year earlier this month. The metro area’s even the home of Free The Hops.

So you can imagine just how easy it would be to let folks know that you’re planning to open the second brewery in town in two months… very.

Avondale Brewing Company announced their existence via Facebook one week ago today; it now has nearly 1,200 fans 2:15 p.m. It was featured in The Birmingham News just three days after its Facebook debut. They’ve even got their own Bhamwiki listing and a few followers for their Twitter profile (though they can always use more).

They hope to be open no later than the beginning of next year. I even enjoyed using it to talk about accentuating the positives of the city late last week…

Photo: Avondale Brewing Company under construction. Courtesy of their fan page on Facebook.

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