Demolition is underway at the former Brookwood Village mall, while the redevelopment plan for the 57-acre site remains in development. Work is expected to continue through December, according to Homewood Star.
Fairway Investments, which partnered with Atlanta-based Pope & Land Real Estate to buy the property in 2021, expects to announce more project details later this year, per the same Homewood Star report. The concept under consideration would replace the enclosed mall with a walkable, open-air mix of medical, office and retail space around green areas. Fairway previously described the shift away from the traditional indoor mall model to WBRC.
Mountain Brook Mayor Graham Smith told Homewood Star that the developers are still working on the project and that nothing has been finalized. Smith said Fairway has considered the area’s history and village character, including how to avoid drawing business away from nearby small businesses. Smith and Homewood Mayor Jennifer Andress both said they want new retail at the site to complement existing local shopping.
Mayors Push for a Voice in the Process
Andress told the outlet that residents will have opportunities to weigh in at multiple stages and that project decisions are not being made behind closed doors. She and Smith have emphasized design, traffic, green space, trails and community support as priorities. Andress said she hopes the finished project will be “engaged, used, loved, beautified and natural,” and serve the wider region.
Andress also raised the idea that a hotel could accompany the redevelopment and said she'd like to see green space, a trail, public gathering areas and midsize meeting facilities included in the final plan. The property spans three jurisdictions — Mountain Brook, Homewood and Jefferson County — and according to Homewood Star, those municipalities have yet to work out how they'd share revenue from any new development on the site.
Sims Garrison said Fairway wants the project “done right rather than done quickly,” according to Homewood Star. Fairway has said the mall building’s age, configuration and infrastructure made adaptive reuse impractical for the options it evaluated, according to Pope & Land. WBRC identifies Birkdale Village near Charlotte and Avalon near Atlanta as inspirations for the firm; Homewood Star reports a long-term vision that could bring retail, lifestyle and employment uses together.
Demolition and the Andrews Sports Medicine Anchor
Demolition officially began March 16, with crews removing the former Macy's building, the mall's interior space and large surface parking lots, according to WVTM 13. About half of the existing structure is being spared the wrecking ball and repurposed for the upcoming Andrews Sports Medicine facility, which Homewood Star reports is expected to open in 2027.
The former Belk store is slated for conversion into a 135,000-square-foot Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center, with the project's cost reported differently across outlets: AL.com put the figure at $124 million, while WBRC earlier reported it as a $110 million project. The planned facility is expected to include about 18 operating rooms, per the Homewood Star's earlier reporting on the project.
Separately, Fairway and Pope & Land sold a portion of Brookwood Village to Creekside Brookwood LLC, with the new owners planning to redevelop roughly 40,000 square feet of that section into new offices and retail space, according to Bham Now. The Brookwood Village project team has said it is continuing to consult with Homewood, Mountain Brook and Jefferson County as plans develop, and the site's own project materials describe a goal of restoring the property as a community gathering place through a thoughtful, coordinated plan.
A Regional Pattern of Mall Makeovers
Brookwood Village isn't the only aging Birmingham-area mall facing a reinvention. A six-month feasibility study presented to the Hoover City Council recommended a $240 million redevelopment of Riverchase Galleria, according to AL.com's prior reporting, with a plan that would replace some big-box anchor space with apartments, single-floor retail and a performing arts center seating up to 1,200 people. That proposal, laid out in two phases starting with demolition of the former Sears building, cited a 33% drop in foot traffic at the Galleria since 2019 as part of the rationale for change.
A Huntsville Mall Redevelopment Precedent
Huntsville offers a separate Alabama example, though it is not a blueprint for Brookwood Village: the City of Huntsville says its City Council approved amendments to the Mid City development agreement on Dec. 29, 2016, for the 100-acre Madison Square Mall redevelopment. The agreement set design guidelines, limits on public-infrastructure funding and requirements that retail tenants be new to the market. That was a single-city agreement for a larger site, unlike Brookwood Village’s 57 acres across three jurisdictions; the cited account documents the approval and conditions, not the site’s eventual uses.
Brookwood Village's own decline accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the property's website, which points to a sharp rise in vacancy rates in the years that followed. For now, the Birmingham suburbs are left watching two major malls try to reinvent themselves at once, with Homewood and Mountain Brook officials making clear they intend to have a say in how Brookwood Village's next era actually looks.
