Nine-story building eyed for Woodward, Maple

By Grace Lovins

Ryan Companies, a national construction, development and architecture firm, gave a pre-application presentation at the Birmingham Planning Board meeting on Wednesday, March 22, unveiling plans for a potential nine-story, mixed-use building for the long-vacant southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Maple Road.

Matt Stevens, project designer for Ryan Companies, explained the proposed project will be a nine-story building with step downs to eight and six-stories, along with a few amenity decks. The building will be a mixed use of residential and retail and will be LEED certified – a globally recognized sustainability symbol, per the U.S. Green Building Council.

On the first level, as currently designed, there would be 10,000 square feet of retail along with pedestrian access, residential entry and amenity space. Level two would have parking only for residents, with access to the residential units. Levels three through nine are designed to have all have residential units, for a total of 210 units, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

The vice president of development from the company’s Chicago office, Toby Veit, said the company hopes to have a 24-month build, putting the project completion date in the first quarter of 2025.

According to Veit, the company does not manage residential properties, only commercial, and is looking to partner with operators of Village Green, a national apartment company, or Greystar, a global property management company. Once everything stabilizes, he said, the company will then exit.

The company currently manages about 20 million square feet of commercial property across the U.S. and has developed 13 communities, according to Veit. They have completed several major mixed used projects in Washington state, California, Missouri, Arizona and Illinois.

“This [will bring] economic vitality to an underserved intersection which has been not developed in several years. In our discussions with a lot of the community members, I think a lot of people are excited to see something finally go here,” Veit said. The project will bring approximately $130 million in investment to the community.

The property had been owned for several years by Ken Koza and Group 10 Management.

Board members said they were impressed with the building and offered they were excited to have a new project for the intersection.

“This a beautiful project. I’m thrilled to see somebody with this sort of strength and history being involved,” chairperson Scott Clein said. “…I love the fact that you’ve got a diversity of the product. That, to me, is extremely important. If you haven’t seen our draft master plan, we talk about just that, adding residential units to the Triangle District, a diversity of product.”

The project will be up for preliminary site plan and design review during the board’s upcoming meeting.