Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 100 lofts will fill Brown-Marx

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100 lofts will fill Brown-Marx

By Gilbert Nicholson
Birmingham Business Journal

Jul. 28 —

The Brown-Marx Tower, one of Birmingham's oldest and tallest skyscrapers, will be converted to more than 100 loft apartments by its Atlanta owner, making it the largest downtown building dedicated to residential living.

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The 97-year-old, 16-story high-rise at the corner of First Avenue and 20th Street North - once a bustling haven of law, insurance and financial offices - is owned by Inman Park Properties Inc.

Also under consideration is the conversion from offices to lofts of another Inman holding directly across 20th from the Brown-Marx, the 15-story Empire Building, home to a ground-floor branch of Colonial Bank.

Meanwhile, several Brown-Marx tenants have relocated across First Avenue to the Commerce Center, formerly owned by the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and bought by Inman president Jeff Notrica last year for $1.1 million. Plans are to leave the Commerce Center mostly an office building. Also in the discussion phase is construction of a multi-level parking deck adjacent to the Brown-Marx that will resolve the critical issue of parking for loft tenants.

"We are working with Inman Properties to develop a plan for the conversion of the Brown-Marx Tower to residential," says Michael Calvert, president of Operation New Birmingham. "This will be a positive step in establishing a critical mass of people living downtown, so we have more people on the sidewalks, more consumer purchasing power to support (retail and restaurant) establishments that to this point have been supported mostly by downtown workers."

Harvey Fast, Birmingham point man for Inman Properties, along with local real estate broker Bill Arant, who represents Notrica, referred questions to Notrica and Inman executive Danny Glusman in Atlanta. Notrica and Glusman did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Calvert, however, says Notrica apparently is interested in solidifying the Commerce Center first, then renovating the Empire Building, and tackling Brown-Marx last. He estimates renovations on the Empire and Brown-Marx likely will begin in the next year or so.

"We're working with them on their whole series of properties. We're optimistic they will revitalize all three," Calvert says. "The sequence (of which comes first) is not necessarily set."

'Functionally obsolete'

Notrica's purchase of three large, historic downtown high-rise buildings within one block raised questions with some real estate observers, who wonder if the Atlanta developer would take the absentee owner route and let the buildings languish. But his actions have led to positive reactions.

"Having someone with the vision and capability of taking these older, historic, beautiful buildings and redeploying the space so they are actually meeting demand is great," says Dallas Whitaker, vice president and marketing officer for the Birmingham office division of Colonial Properties Trust and president of the Alabama chapter of the Certified Commercial Investment Member association.

Whitaker says older downtown buildings such as the Brown-Marx, which actually is a 'u'-shaped building with a huge reservoir of empty space in the middle and a diminutive footprint of 5,000 to 10,000 square feet per floor, are "functionally obsolete from an office use standpoint." Modern office buildings have 25,000 to 30,000 square feet on each floor.

"Brown-Marx Tower will never be a viable downtown office alternative again," Whitaker says.

"We're confident his (Notrica's) ownership will be a plus for downtown," Calvert adds.

Originally called the Brown-Marx Building after Eugene Brown and Otto Marx, the structure went up in 1906 as a three-story building, with additions made in 1908 and 1930. Combined with the Empire, the 18-story Hand Building (now home of The Bank) and the 10-story Woodward Building (now National Bank of Commerce) facing the First Avenue-20th Street intersection, the area was billed at the time as the "heaviest corner on earth" in the early 1900s, surpassing even downtown intersections in Manhattan.

Jim Wilson of Wilson Jewelers moved to the Brown-Marx in 1982 and says it was a tough to relocate to the Commerce Center after such a long stay.

"There was a little emotion to it," says the 64-year-old Wilson, whose father, Vernon, started the jewelry manufacturing and repair business in the Woodward Building in 1936. "But I didn't need as much space as I had there. I'm interested in staying in same neighborhood, and I enjoy downtown. I'm happy here."

Although the entrance doors to the Brown-Marx Tower currently are locked, three retail businesses remain open on the street level: loan company First Financial, Sabor Mazatlan Mexican restaurant and Nextel Communications. Four bays are vacant. Alexander Insurance Agency is leaving next month.

Meanwhile, Calvert says the demand for downtown lofts exceeds existing capacity. Jemison Flats and the Goodall Brown buildings opened last fall, and all 92 lofts were filled by January, he says.

"We'll see over the next few years several hundred new loft apartments in the city center, and we're anticipating there will be some new residential construction as well," he says.

Copyright 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

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