The BBA takes a leadership role in building business growth by implementing an aggressive program for economic development for the seven-county region, which includes Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby and Walker counties. The BBA builds a strategy around “target clusters” making them applicable to elements of the economic development process, including business retention and expansion, workforce development, infrastructure improvements and more. The target clusters are in areas where Birmingham is the strongest and where there is the most potential for growth: automotive; finance and insurance services; information technology and analytical instruments; life sciences; machinery manufacturing; metal manufacturing; aerospace; and chemicals.
Birmingham’s XpertDox seeks investors
Birmingham’s XpertDox has raised nearly $400,000 from local investors to fund its future growth, helping the tech startup and 2016 Alabama Launchpad winner quickly reach half its goal of $800,000 in venture capital.
Automotive supplier MöllerTech begins hiring in Bibb County
German automotive supplier MöllerTech is on the road to securing talent for its $46.3 million manufacturing facility in Bibb County, with five to six Operator positions already filled, according to AIDT. The company is expected to create 222 jobs upon completion of the facility.
Birmingham Has Notable Year for Foreign Investment
Birmingham region gained 2,000 jobs, $587 million in investment in 2016
The Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) reported that 75 economic development projects were announced in 2016, accounting for 2,014 jobs and $586,539,076 in capital investment in the Birmingham region in 2016, during its 2017 Economic Growth Summit this week, presented by Sirote & Permutt PC.
Brian Hilson, president and CEO of the BBA, presented economic development highlights from 2016 and talked about Birmingham’s strengths, challenges and areas that require improvement.
In 2016, he said, MollerTech in Bibb County had the highest number of announced jobs, with 222, followed by Eissman Automotive (200), Atlas RFID (110) and BLOX (114). Auto supplier Gestamp had the largest capital investment of the year, with $131.7 million.
Of the 75 announced projects, 51 percent were manufacturing companies, while 15 percent were in the life sciences and information technology, and 13 percent were in finance and insurance. The report also illustrated that 56 percent of the jobs created were in Jefferson County, and 37 percent were located in the City of Birmingham.
Birmingham received 42 national media accolades in 2016, and 138 since 2011, a record in rankings and positive mentions for the region.
Also during the summit, Dr. Ray Watts, president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and 2017 chairman of the BBA, updated the crowd of more than 300 on Innovate Birmingham, the initiative to create an innovation district in Birmingham. Volunteers led the charge in 2016 to get the initiative off the ground, he said, and an official launch of Innovate Birmingham is expected in May.
“Technology touches every business,” said Dr. Watts. “We’ve created the Innovate Birmingham Initiative to boost opportunities to grow businesses and help prepare students in the technology field. There are 1,000 IT jobs that have gone unfilled in Birmingham. We need to prepare young people graduating from high school or college for these opportunities.”
Hilson said the BBA will continue in 2017 to also focus on four areas to boost continued growth in the region: availability of financial capital, infrastructure improvement, workforce development programs and the Innovate Birmingham initiative.
Don’t miss the BBA’s 2017 Regional Economic Growth Report, which details the 75 projects announced in 2016 and more. Also included in the report is Birmingham’s performance metric comparison to its peer cities, where the Magic City improved in nine of 12 economic indicators such as employment, population, degree attainment, cost of living and personal income.
Birmingham is a top city for affordability
Birmingham continues to be an affordable place to live. New scores from the 2016 Cost of Living Index showed Birmingham’s annual average cost of living score decreased over the previous year – from 91.7 in 2015 to 88.5 in 2016 (a lower score = lower cost of living; a score of 100 = national average) – and outpaced many of its peer cities.
Birmingham tech training program impacting local workforce
When Haley Blackburn graduated from the University of Alabama in 2013 she worked as a wedding planner and later at an IT staffing firm. But the work she had prepared for in college and had been educated for wasn’t fulfilling and she lacked passion.
That’s when she found Covalence, the software and web development training boot camp in Birmingham that was formed at incubator Innovation Depot to fulfill the skilled talent needs of companies housed there and beyond. Two years after it started, it has become a bridge between underemployed and unemployed individuals and some of the best and brightest companies in Birmingham.
Publix Super Markets’ New Distribution Center to Create 300 Jobs in Jefferson County
Publix Super Markets celebrated its first day of processing at its new 638,000-square-foot distribution center in McCalla this week with an opening celebration and media tour. The facility will consist of 600,000 square feet of warehouse space and 38,000 square feet will be dedicated to cafeteria space, where workers will receive a free meal each day. The expansion is expected to create 300 new jobs by the end of 2017.
BBA: Birmingham’s existing business growing at a steady rate
The Generation Initiative: Preparing Birmingham Talent to Reach Their Dreams
The first round of Generation Initiative training in Birmingham is full, ahead of courses beginning on February 13. The initiative will help underemployed and unemployed youth gain access to job interviews with local companies, IT certification assistance and career coaching.
Birmingham makes prestigious New York Times travel list
Where will you go in 2017? If you follow the advise of The New York Times, Birmingham, Ala., should be on any traveler’s list. Birmingham was named on the New York Times’ list of 52 Places to Go in 2017. The national publication cited the revitalization of Birmingham neighborhood Avondale as a main attraction. “Birmingham’s nickname, ‘The Pittsburgh of the South,’ seems apt anew, thanks to the revitalization of the Avondale neighborhood, where artists, restaurateurs and young entrepreneurs are taking over brick warehouses and Queen Anne cottages.”
Workforce development resources explored at BBA workshop
Secondary and post-secondary educators, administrators, counselors, career coaches, career services professionals, human resource managers and recruiters from around the Birmingham region attended the Birmingham Business Alliance’s Managing the Talent Pipeline Workshop at the Alabama Workforce Training Center last week.
BBA Celebrates Innovation, Announces New Officers
The Birmingham Business Alliance 2016 Chairman’s Luncheon focused on the central component of growth in most cities today: innovation. Bruce Katz, a Brookings Institution Centennial Scholar, delivered an address centered on how Birmingham is already moving in an innovative direction and provided insight to how city leaders can keep this surge going.