Burton-Katzman seeks approval for Birmingham Place plans

Senior citizens will soon have a choice on where they want to live in downtown Birmingham if plans for the proposed Birmingham Place building are approved this fall.

Bingham Farms-based Burton-Katzman Development Co. wants to build a four-story apartment building for senior citizens on the 100 block of Brown Street between Pierce and Henrietta streets. It would join The Regency at Elm as the second senior-oriented residence in downtown Birmingham.

"It's a senior building that is oriented toward seniors that want to stay in an urban environment," says Chuck DiMaggio, senior vice president for Burton-Katzman. "That way they can avail themselves to all of the amenities that downtown Birmingham has to offer."

The idea is to offer the building's residents the opportunity to be within walking distance of everything that in downtown, providing for a cosmopolitan lifestyle.

The 60,000-square-foot structure will have 17,000 square feet of ground floor retail space with 50 rental apartments on the three floors above it. The ground floor space will be available to a variety of uses, including traditional retail, restaurant and office spaces. Birmingham Place will replace a couple of one and two-story office buildings that will be razed.

Burton-Katzman, which is also behind the 325 Old Woodward building in downtown, hopes to get site-plan approval for the project this fall and begin construction as soon as next summer. Construction is expected to last 12 to 14 months. Since Birmingham Place is already being used as the name of another building, Burton-Katzman is working on a new name for the structure.

Source: Chuck DiMaggio, senior vice president for Burton-Katzman
Writer: Jon Zemke

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