6 Burst results for "Thai West"
600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
"Business travel looking pretty good as things are on the uptick in our area, right? Well, it's looking better than it was that by a wide margin If you go back to earlier this year, January February, business travel was really a very low low point. Just coming out of the pandemic of leisure travel really kind of kick started the travel industry recovery. You saw hotels. You saw the airlines, particularly in leisure destinations. They were doing well. The airlines they spoke when they're bringing back light. They focused on the year destinations. Places like Orland. Go or Hawaii or Places with fun and sun places like that that people were going, uh, it took a little bit longer for business travel to get back, and we saw that like in our numbers here in Birmingham, uh, getting closer to the summer, though you started to see that, finally starting to take up, you start to see more more hotels and airlines. They were getting busier as more companies started approving corporate travel. And then obviously the Delta area hits and that's kind of pulled. People back a little bit. Unfortunately, so you've seen the airlines, hotels and the airlines frankly, airline reducing their flight schedules here in Birmingham and the fourth quarter of the year because of the delta there, so it's been kind of a rocky Choppy recovery for the business travel industry that has a lot of impact here in central Alabama. On our on our hospitality sector are restaurants, our hotel, so it's something to watch and some things you hope is going to get back because Birmingham's tourism between in particular was on a very high point going into covered 19 You hope we're going to give you get back to that point well with business travel, and so many things changing during the pandemic as far as remote working and Companies making that you know happen and also do well for a lot of people. Do they ever anticipate the business travel to get back to where it was pre covid? I think that's kind of the million dollar question and I think people are. I think if you talk to people in the industry, they would tell you they're optimistic about that. But they're obviously in the industry. I think if you talk to kind of analysts We might get back to the numbers in terms of revenue, but it's going to be different. It's going to look different people that are people have found that. Hey, you know, we don't have to do all these trips we can do. Some of these meetings that we are doing is trucks via zoom. I think what you'll see is people, particularly the airlines, and the hotel is getting a little bit more creative. They'll start. The term we keep hearing bandied about is leisure travel, so a combination of business and leisure where you're kind of piggybacking, the to see people get creative and try to continue getting people to spend money on travel and and moving forward like that, But it's going to be is going to be different. Wouldn't you have people who are on the office? Three days a week? You're probably not going to see as many traps trips, right? All right, switching gears. Let's talk about what's happening at the inner city of Alabama as they have launched a billion dollar fundraising campaign. What do they looking to do with all that money? Yeah, This is This is big big news for the whole state, but also particularly Tuscaloosa area, so they're looking to raise $1.5 billion and private donations. It's gonna This is going to support all areas of campus, so it's going to focus on the school's strategic plan is going to focus on increasing access to scholarships. They're going to be doing more endowment support on research, but it's also going to promote. Uh New and expanded facilities, and it also kind of his coupled with a $600 million campaign. I guess it's part of that 1.5 billion. That's the Crimson Standard, which is really focusing on athletic facility enhancements, scholarships and athletic, uh, campaign. So this is a very big kind of comprehensive campaign going to be something you hear about a lot in the years ago. Well, there's a lot of people hearing scholarships for more athletics and athletic sponsorships and growth in that area. What about the nonathletic side of what's happening at the University of Alabama? They're going to be benefiting from the billion dollar fundraising campaign. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is just that's a big part of it. I mean, that's the most of it. I think that the Athletics is only I think about 600. Millions of the rest of it is about 900 more than 900 billion can be focused on the other aspects of campus. So you're going to see more larger increase in terms of scholarships. I think they're going to add 1000 new scholarship. They're going to add about 75 new faculty endowments. It's also going to impact about 500,000 square feet of, uh, facility space across campus. So yes, Most of this money is not athletic in nature, and they've already made some strides towards getting I think, since the campaign began counting kind of diet donations in the quiet days they've already raised about 53%. Of that one point 5,000,000,010 year campaign goals. So something to watch moving forward. All right? Very good. Thai West Birmingham Business General. Thank you. Tie. All right. 6 47, Alabama's Morning News boy, a good news story here. I thought I'd share some good news with us this morning. A mother has been reunited with her daughter who was abducted. When she was six years old, back in 2007 Angelica. So Gado says she was contacted by her daughter, Jacqueline Hernandez on a social media platform. Said she was in Mexico. She asked her mom to meet at the port of entry in Laredo, Texas, and that's when they were were reunited rather, after 14 years, That is just incredible. There. How they got back together. Could you imagine not being around your kid for 14 years because they've been abducted, and you're not sure what's going on. And next thing, you know? Oh, my gosh. They're back. Oh, that's just such good news. Praise God on that. Reuniting 6 48. Alabama's morning news up next. Always good to check in with Wendy.
600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
"About something really cool. A lot of cities are doing now with some tax credit. If you decide to introduce some historic renovations, and we've got one here in Alabama tie How's it going? Well, it's been going really good. I mean, they brought this back kind of in the mid 2010 the historic renovation tax credit. It had a huge success if we're Birmingham and for Alabama, which was really, really good, and we saw all that downtown with projects like the position to building the TJ Tower, the Lyric Theatre, So we saw all these different examples well lawmakers earlier this year Extended the program again, and we talked to some experts about kind of what can we expect now? Because you know, looking at downtown Birmingham. A lot of the big historic buildings have already been redeveloped, and that's great. But what they told us is, you might start to see some more kind of expansion of this credit out of out of some other areas. I mean, obviously around the state places like Tuscaloosa Gas and in places like that, but even within downtown Birmingham Are within metro Birmingham start to see them go into more in places like best summer, and some of these places that just have more more of a more places that you could redevelopment utilizing historic building. Well, that's such good news, and I'll tell you what it brings a lot of good value to the the community and the neighborhoods and then, uh, it just kind of domino effects and spread throughout other areas than two, right. Yeah, I mean, that's that's been the thing with this is what you've seen in some of these projects that come in. They redo a building Well, then all of a sudden, somebody comes in and does the building next door. They don't get attacked credit, so it it had a huge impact brought a lot of new jobs brought a lot of new businesses and a lot of tax revenue to the places that you've seen these projects. So I know there's going to be a focus moving forward on some rural areas and some more outlying areas. But guiding news for Metro Birmingham to see this credit, get extended again and looking forward to seeing what it does, and some new projects that come about Yeah, that is great news. It can only go positive. I think. Let's talk about real estate. We've seen how the housing prices soared and inventory seems to be low. How is it in our area in Tuscaloosa and gas in the Birmingham surrounding areas? I mean, really, no matter where you look at all those cities you mentioned Tuscaloosa gassed in Birmingham. I mean, you're seeing, uh, you're seeing a situation where inventory is 20% in those cases lower than it was. I mean, if you compare inventory to what it was over the five year average, you're usually seeing it down at least 20%. Those are just incredible numbers, but that's driving prices higher. And it's leading to some of these these trends that we're seeing in the market. The big question is, when are we going to get kind of a tipping point? And if you look around the nation, you see that there are some signs that maybe the housing market certainly cool off a bit, And I would say cool and that senses is a relative term. It's still very hot Prices are still very, very high. Nobody's saying that that there's a bubble that's bursting or anything like that, at this point what they are saying, though they're finally starting to see that inventory, climb up and get a little bit more ballots. Which is probably healthy, frankly, because what we're seeing now or houses are getting old before they even really hit the market. Your gate 30 offers for some of these houses. It's not really sustainable situation is also pricing a lot of people out of the market. So you're starting to see and some other areas of the country a little bit more ballots, but nothing that at the same level here you quite yet. That is good news, I think and the more inventory that starts to pop, the better. I think with the prices so high, everybody's like, Well, if I sell my house, where am I going, But if these prices are coming down just a little bit now, all of a sudden people are thinking. Okay. Now I can sell, make some money and he actually go find something pretty good. Absolutely. I mean, prices are still going to be high. I mean, I think over the past 10 years, I think as a median prices in Alabama of nearly $100,000. I mean, that's that's an incredible amount. So prices are still going to be historically high, even if things cool off just a bit stuff. All right. Very good. Alright, Very good. Thai west Birmingham Business journal. Thank you. Ty Murray. Thanks All JT Alright 6 46 Alabama's Morning news by the we'll talk a bit more about this with the sales manager from the gusty goal is real estate group coming up. At 8 20. Jonathan Chamness will join us, Um, interesting here. Wallet up, just came out with their picks for the best and worst places to retire in the United States. Here's your top five best places to retire. Minneapolis, Minnesota at number five, followed by Tampa, Florida. Scottsdale, Arizona. Charleston, South Carolina. In Orlando, Florida number one on the list, by the way, the top five worst places to retire in our country. Rancho Cucamonga, California Spokane, Washington. Bridgeport, Connecticut. Number three Newark, New Jersey, number two and the worst place to retire in this country. San Bernardino, California Would imagine it's a little pricey there. U A B nurses have some legitimate concerns. We'll talk more about this coming up in three minutes after traffic and weather together, stay with us. I want to introduce you. The Thundercats Technology. Thunder Cat Technology is a premier provider of I T solutions not only for government organizations but educational institutions and commercial enterprises as a leader in cybersecurity infrastructure, unified communications and cloud.
600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
"Morning news. I'm JT Tie West joins us now from the Birmingham business general talk about a couple of things happening in our area Thai Good morning, so it looks like a traffic starting to rebound at Birmingham International Airport. What's going on? Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, a lot of things are kind of getting back to some symbols, The normalcy. It's not exactly the same as it used to be. But that includes the airport. So we are seeing. We did a pretty deep dive into the numbers at the H M. Or we're seeing the traffic is getting back to something more closely resembling what it used to be, Uh, flights are coming back. Airlines are adding flights to the city level and passenger coming back that The one kind of issue we're still having here. And this isn't just Birmingham. This is everywhere. Business travel isn't coming back. Stronger. The right you're seeing. Leave your travel come back. You're seeing a lot of airline to add flights, for instance, to kind of warm destinations in the South and the Caribbean in places like that, really, the night that involved airports around the country. These business travelers. They're not getting back at the same route, and some people don't know if that's going to if it's ever going to get back to the way it used to be a lot of companies over the course of the pandemic realized, you know we can save money and not send people off and out of the area as much. We can just use tech tools like zoom and teams and other type of tech tools. So there's some concern there just in the airline industry in general about what that could mean. But the local airport officials are optimistic that you'll start to see some type of rebound. Hopefully in the next Over the next few months in terms of business travel. Yeah, we're seeing other industries like commercial real estate suffer. Some of those consequences as well as more people are working from home and remotely Now airlines not seeing as many business travelers. What percentage of air travel is business versus leisure tied, you know? You know, I know we don't have any good, like good numbers on that this kind of tricky sometimes to, uh, to determine that, especially if you're looking at one specific airline or airport because some people kind of blend the two and then there's kind of some gray area there A lot of times. What we do know is that like, obviously, last year we saw travel. Just take a huge hit. I think last year, I think in April Traffic was down 94.9% of the airport. You're getting back to where we're closer. Getting closer that the capacity being, uh, it's trending in the right direction now, and it's that trend is accelerating, which that's it? That's a good time to say. So you hope that you hope that as we get towards the end of the year, you hope that things kind of continue to calm down a bit, and you got to kind of start to see that build back up. Companies get into 2022. They're more maybe more out to budget in some travel, and hopefully that's going to, additionally to fuller planes and and more flight to be a gym. Absolutely alright. I talking about local progress here work beginning on an affordable housing project downtown Birmingham. What's affordable. What's the definition there? Yeah, You know, that's that's one of those things is kind of the definition is is in the eye that who you're talking to, But what this is is this is another kind of what we called market rate market rate housing. Type project, and this is going to be an exciting one. That's a pretty big building downtown has been the subject of redevelopment talked for a while. It's the former Red Cross building. It's on Third Avenue Yours and They've talked a lot about this really don't over the past decade. What can we do with this building? This is a giant building. So developer Jelly is getting close to breaking ground on this project. He says. It's about 90 per 91% leased, which is which is very good. That's going to be called market loss on third and in terms of like what you mean by affordable. This is not really this is not a affordable housing, and it's not public housing. Uh, it's a housing that if you just have a normal job, you're not like a high earner. Uh, it's going to range from $680 a month up to $1200 a month. So these aren't the really the luxury type apartments that we've seen so many of being built in downtown Birmingham, the ones that you see over there by railroad park in that area. Those those are typically chase kind of more of a luxury renter. This is something that's designed kind of for your just your average middle class worker. You're young, professional who's downtown. So everybody we talked to says we need more of those types of elements. Downtown chicken. You continue kind of that growth of this urban center. We have So this is good news. It's good to see a project. Let's move forward. It's also good diseases. The building has been vacant for so long, coming back to life expectations on the date when people can start moving in. Yes, that's something you know as the historic renovation, Sometimes he so as you see, Uh, you see these projects where they take a little bit more longer than normal. So it's kind of hard to peg. I guess the exact date on this time because as you get started early projects, um sometimes it takes you discover something you didn't know, And that's pretty. That's been the case with a lot of the historic project, so you'll have a formal like opening date on this. But based on what we've seen from past historic project, I mean, you could see it taking anywhere from 18 months to three or four years. It just it just kind of depends on how things progress is construction gas. Very good Thai West Birmingham Business Journal. Thank you Tie. All right. Thanks. 86 47 Now NewsRadio one. Oh 55 WRC Criminal Defense attorney Chris Tritico will join us next to you, Uh, Is going to take a look at the legal side of some of the stories in our news after traffic and weather together, just about three minutes with City cruises by Hornblower. Everything is better on the water from sightseeing to fine dining. Brilliant sunsets, too lazy afternoons watching the skyline drift by However, you choose to cruise with us. Look today at city cruises dot com. No place like a cowboy place in no time like a cowboy time ain't no way like the cowboy. We have a cowboy candidate here when.
600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
"Story, a little bit taller building that sits behind the property that used to house the bill kind of the big main five points building on 20th Street, where the hotel is Right behind that Do 17 storey apartment tower to be ascent. So people have been watching very closely for this property project of some sort of happened here. So now you have a developer is going to put pump $40 million into it and turn into workforce housing, which is basically apartments that are Kind of about market rate apartments, not Tim, the luxury type apartments we've seen that have been built in recent years. So that's something everybody says downtown just needs more of is just Basically about housing for middle class people and not something that's not a luxury. Something is not a luxury project, something that you could just be working a normal job that you can afford, so that's something that people have been saying. We need more of downtown, and it's good to see a property like this. That really needed a higher use than it's been. It's been banking for years to to get redeveloped for this so very, very exciting project for Birmingham. Right here is the entire building will be used for housing, or is the first floor going to be retail and other things? Um, it sounds like it. You're going to have more probably amenity space on the ground floor, so it probably won't be like retail is open to the public. It would be more like amenities for common areas for the bill. People who live in the building, but you're right. I mean, a lot of the projects come online have had that retail space in recent years with this one sounds like it's going to be more focused on amenity through the workers or for the people who live there. Is this an isolated incident? Do you think or is there now? A trend that the five points areas five point south, seeing some rejuvenation? And this is just some more of that? Yeah, I mean, it's been happening for a bit. I mean, you've seen kind of a lot of turnover in the retailers and five point south over the past 10 years, But once you've also seen is a lot of large investment. In terms of both office project an apartment projects. I mean, you got to set new two brand new 17 storey towers down there you have. You may be doing some projects that are getting closer and closer to five points out in many cases, or whether it's just redoing a small rehab of property, Yale or in some cases, some of their do new dorms and those project of kind of edge closer there, and it's really creating a nice kind of A nice kind of energy down there on that part of town, but then also the other factor that's driving all this in the area. Around five point South is what's happening in Southtown, the public housing development where you're seeing that redevelopment. That's triggered a lot of developers about property in the surrounding area, at least a lot more deals and a lot more projects. All right. Let's talk about another project happening out near the summit here with a $29 million ticket on this one. What's going on? Yes. So this is a very interesting interesting deal as well. So we've reported previously that an apartment developer head bolts of property kind of that property. That's across to 80 from the summit, uh, near the old AT T and T operate album Operations Center. We reported about that Previously, and now it seems like another developer has acquired kind of a piece of that property about 6.5 acres. This is a company called Graced Our real estate partners. South Carolina firm known for doing doing multi family is due to Howard. So They haven't confirmed exactly what they're doing there, But it's multi family development in the area that we know is that kind of targeted personal apartment so you might be might be some additional apartments going over there right across from the summit. Across to 80 so that the more development for that area, which is certainly the share of project going back in past 10 years. What's the timeline on this project? Not really Sure. At this point. We're kind of early to the game on this. We kind of call women's property deal and found out multi family developer over. They have not confirmed their timeline. Given a project like this, they're going to have to go through some Some different approvals and and kind of get that down the line, But no no firm details on that yet. All right. Very good. Thai West Birmingham Business Journal. Some good news in our area. Thank you, Ty. Thanks. Alright, 6 57 Now Alabama's morning news top of the hour news in just about three minutes, plus traffic and weather together. Oh, coming up. Stay with us. Hey, we get it. You don't want to be hearing a progressive commercial right now. So let us tell you something You do want to hear. No one is funnier than you people laugh. Just thinking about the things you've said I'm laughing and one of them right now. Co workers repeat your jokes at the office,.
600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
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600 WREC
"thai west" Discussed on 600 WREC
"Who's actually on the road today? Enjoying some vacation in Michigan but still wanted to touch base with us? I'm so glad you took some time out. Are you? Are you on a yacht? Somewhere on Lake Michigan? What are you doing? Tai? We are not on a yacht. Actually, we're just out and Douglas Michigan kind of a nice going to like that down, right? It's been really nice. They're very cool. All right. Well, let's talk about what's happening in our area. Here is home prices. We know around the country no doubt here in Alabama for sure surging right now, But there's some some surprising areas that are doing exceptionally well. Right? Yeah. I mean, that's the interesting thing. I think if you look all across the region, you're seeing home prices really surge, really? From Tuscaloosa to gas and and everywhere in between. We're seeing this giant appreciation that we want to kind of curious in Birmingham. We're going to take a look at what thing what was happening in the city of Birmingham and some of the neighborhood. You historically maybe haven't seen the same type of appreciation. We've seen some of the suburbs always found it. Prices are really surging, really in several portions of the city of Birmingham, which is great news of people kind of building wealth in those communities. You've seen a lot of people who live in those communities, making some investment in properties. You just do the land bank or through their own investment, really, just Turning them around and making them revenue, producing copper properties and helping build that wealth in the community. So it's really great news. I mean, we're seeing a lot of growth, for instance, in home prices and places like Bush Hills, the areas in and around kind of North Birmingham, basically near the B. J. C. C in the new stadium, Norwood especially, uh, some of the spots in eastern Birmingham. You're seeing this really across the board to see Huge gains, and they coincide in many cases with kind of commercial revitalization effort. So very exciting time for several neighborhood in the city of very, um, you know, you've seen this in a lot of different cities around the country. I witnessed it in Pittsburgh when I was growing up and they built three Rivers Stadium there and along the river there in certain neighborhoods. You know these older like row homes that you see From the 18 hundreds. There's actually incentive financial incentive from the county in the state and the city. Two people come in and buy them for 50 grand and will match your give you 25 grand on top of that to do some renovations and these homes have gone from, you know, value of, you know $80,000 to over $400,000 at this point, But is there going to be any incentive in these types of areas to help? You know, regrow the the I guess the attractiveness of those neighborhoods. Yeah, I think there's one thing the land bank is doing so the land bank is basically taking properties that have been tax delinquent. Or maybe abandoned properties are kind of overgrown lots in the past, and they really create a mechanism for either the people who border those properties or for others who just want to invest in city of Birmingham. It's going to take those properties that were tax delinquent or or there were nuisance properties in terms of having overgrown weeds. They take them over and then they and then they fix them up either put it out there or just keep the lot up and helped raise property values across the board, And that's the biggest kind of incentive that we've seen. I think you've seen some kind of more some smaller, targeted stuff, but so far I mean, it's coinciding. It's tough to say how much is the initiative and how much is kind of the way the market's going because I mean, as we just we discussed several times. The whole housing market is kind of going crazy right now, because the lack of inventory because some other factors, so either way, it's good news because it's good to see wealth getting built in these communities. All right, Switching gears. The fortune 500 list is out. Where does Birmingham stand on that? Well, we still only have one company. He was actually on the Fortune 500 list, which is regions financial. They've been on there for for many years. The good news is we're getting to companies that are getting very, very close. Getting on that coveted list and that encompass health and Vulcan materials both kind of rank now in the mid 500 on the list, so they're just getting closer. Bulking it just this week made a very, very big purchase A very big acquisition, and that feels like that are going to help him get close and encompass has really just been Building hospital after hospital and all that's going to add to the revenue. So you might have a case in a few years, depending on how things shake out and other M and a activity that we might have three companies on the fortune 500, which would be great, I mean, it really is, in many ways. It's just a status symbol. Um, but also having large companies is very important for our community. It's important for philanthropy. It's important for Kind of status and how people perceive Birmingham. So you hope that will continue to grow and have more companies going to end up on the list, and hopefully some of our very successful startups that we have here? Well, one day in on that left, I was surprised you, A B is not on that list being the largest employer in the state. That's really comes down to how to list is measured, so nonprofit entities aren't really so that be somebody. That's a public entity like a hospital. They're not considered in that this This looks like public company revenue. So that's why you wouldn't see them on there. But yeah, if you're doing the largest employers list good chance in, um would be on that because they are such a key part of our economy. Right? Alright. Good news, Thai West Birmingham Business Journal. Thank you tight and enjoy your vacation. Pretty alright? 6 57. Now Alabama's morning news on the way next hour. Going to be checking in with J. Rad left lots to talk about. We'll go over that jobs report last Friday. And also Bitcoin Conference coming up in Miami. What does this mean for all of us, So J.