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Photo by Jon Anderson.
Tareka Slaughter is the community director for the 270-unit Livano Liberty Park apartments in The Bray at Liberty Park Vestavia Hills.
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Photo courtesy of Liberty Park Joint Venture.
The Bray Town Center at Liberty Park in April. The 270-unit Livano at Liberty Park apartment complex and adjacent 180-unit The Filmont apartment complex for people ages 55 and older are in the center. The large grassy area at the right of the photo is slated for a hotel with at least 100 rooms.
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Master plan courtesy of Liberty Park Joint Venture.
The master plan for The Bray Town Center at Liberty Park.
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Photo by Jon Anderson.
The outdoor pool is one of many amenities at the Livano Liberty Park apartments.
Residents are beginning to move into the 450 apartments in The Bray at Liberty Park, marking a major milestone for the 700-acre development.
And talks are actively underway for commercial development in The Bray Town Center, including a higher-end hotel with at least 100 rooms and additional spots for retail, medical or office development.
APARTMENTS
The first building in the Livano Liberty Park apartment complex was scheduled to open May 29 with 111 units with one to three bedrooms, along with two manor homes with eight apartments each. On July 31, the second big Livano building with 107 apartments is scheduled to open, along with 16 townhomes and nine duplexes (18 units), Community Director Tareka Slaughter said.
Photo by Jon Anderson.
The outdoor pool is one of many amenities at the Livano Liberty Park apartments.
As of mid-May, 23 Livano apartments had been pre-leased. The goal was to have 27 to 40 leased apartments in Livano by the beginning of June, Slaughter said.
Right next door, The Filmont apartment complex is being built. It will offer 180 units exclusively for adults 55 and older. The Filmont is scheduled to open July 15 and already had more than a dozen units leased by mid-May, Community Director Angela Hollingsworth said.
Livano Liberty Park has a pool, fire pit, gas grills, gazebo with seating and TV sets, full-service coffee shop, fitness center, game room with foosball, billiards and ping-pong, market, resident lounge, meeting room, pet park, dog day care and on-site veterinary service, and co-working spaces for 10 to 15 people, Slaughter said.
Rental rates at Livano start at $1,699 a month for a one-bedroom unit, $2,150 for two bedrooms and $2,899 for three bedrooms.
Residents of The Filmont will have access to amenities at Livano Liberty Park, plus their own pool and grilling stations, a golf simulator, hair salon, nail salon, art studio, movie theater, putting green, meditation garden and an on-site lifestyle coordinator to plan events and activities, including cooking classes, social hours, fitness classes and a weekly community breakfast, Hollingsworth said.
Rental rates at The Filmont start at $1,955 for a one-bedroom studio apartment, $2,150 for larger one-bedroom apartments and $2,750 for two-bedroom units. Some premium units are priced as high as $4,000 per month, she said.
A lot of the people leasing at The Filmont so far are downsizing and trying to get closer to children and grandchildren and get rid of lawn maintenance responsibilities, Hollingsworth said.
Photo courtesy of Liberty Park Joint Venture.
The Bray Town Center at Liberty Park in April. The 270-unit Livano at Liberty Park apartment complex and adjacent 180-unit The Filmont apartment complex for people ages 55 and older are in the center. The large grassy area at the right of the photo is slated for a hotel with at least 100 rooms.
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
Development also is continuing for the 100-acre Bray Town Center. Construction on the planned 2-acre “great lawn” area in front of the apartments should start this summer, said James Parsons, who started as the new president of the Liberty Park Joint Venture in February.
Phase one will include a large grassy area, sidewalks and trees, Parsons said. In the future, more could be added, depending on what other development comes in the commercial sector, he said.
Existing retail in The Marketplace at The Bray includes Publix, ARC Realty, Nail Boutique, Planet Smoothie, Birmingham Martial Arts, HaMi Boutique, Starbucks and South Mountain Dental Care. Parkside Pet Hospital has announced it is coming soon to the same area.
On the other end of the town center sits the Chevron gasoline station and liquor store, Anytime Fitness and On Tap Sports Café.
Looking ahead, one parcel has already been sold to an early education center at the corner of South Liberty Road and Brayfield Lane, and another lot has been sold to a high-end day spa, but Parsons said he was not clear to name them yet.
There are about 5 acres of retail space next to On Tap Sports Café, 2.7 acres between the day spa and gas station, 20,000 to 25,000 square feet of additional retail space east of Starbucks and about 8 acres between Publix and Interstate 459 for another commercial site, Parsons said.
But a big piece of the puzzle is the acreage set aside for a luxury hotel. Parsons said the Liberty Park Joint Venture is in active discussions with developers aligned with major hotel brands about bringing a 100-room hotel to the property. He’s envisioning something comparable to the Valley Hotel in Homewood or Grand Bohemian in Mountain Brook, but he hopes to have more to say on that later this year, he said.
Also still under development across Liberty Parkway is the new headquarters for Medical Properties Trust, which had an initial budget of $150 million and which Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes has described as the most expensive commercial building ever built in Vestavia Hills. Hoar Construction’s goal has been to get that building completed by the end of this year.
OTHER RESIDENTIAL
Other than apartments, The Bray at Liberty Park has about 120 or so homes already built in The Brayfields neighborhood, Parsons said. There have been 46 townhomes sold, and Harris Doyle Homes is continuing work in The Brayfields, which will have about 170 homes at the end of this phase, Parsons said.
Coming next will be cottage-style homes — probably 100 to 150 — on the south side of the apartments before development begins for more traditional single-family homes, he said.
Master plan courtesy of Liberty Park Joint Venture.
The master plan for The Bray Town Center at Liberty Park.
In total, there probably are 600 to 800 homes left to build in The Bray, Parsons said. That depends on the market demand in terms of home size and final layout plans due to the terrain, he said.
Much of the land is hilly and difficult to develop, and there are environmental concerns, he said.
“We’re in a highly sensitive watershed,” Parsons said. “All of this property drains into the surrounding creeks and rivers above the Birmingham Water Works Board intake. And so managing that process and managing our erosion sediment control is a very challenging thing to do and something that we take very seriously and that the Water Works Board and the state — ADEM — takes very seriously.”
Environmental groups certainly are interested in what the Liberty Park Joint Venture, other developers and home builders are doing in Liberty Park, Parsons said.
“We're trying to respond to that with design of storm water management both for during construction erosion and sediment control and then long term post-construction,” he said. “We’re paying attention very carefully to how we design those things and how we best balance the interests and goals of all parties involved through very thoughtful and innovative stormwater management design both during and post construction.”
OTHER FEATURES
The Liberty Park Joint Venture also has plans for a pool and clubhouse facility in The Bray, as well as 15 acres set aside for the Vestavia Hills school system. Whether that land will be used for an elementary or middle school has yet to be determined, but the land is committed, Parsons said.
Also, South Liberty Road, when fully extended, will connect with Sicard Hollow Road about a half-mile away from Blue Lake Drive, Parsons said. That means, when the road network is complete, it should be just a 10-minute drive from The Bray Town Center to U.S. 280, he said.
Overall development of The Bray has progressed slower than initially expected, but “we expect it to pick up,” Parsons said. “I think simply being in the city of Vestavia Hills and having the opportunity for new construction — purchasing and building new construction — puts us in a very unique position here.”
