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Until recently, Brookwood Village shopping center in Homewood, Ala., was like many aging malls around the country. Built in 1973 by the Shepherd family, the building was reaching the end of its useful life and was losing business to newer, sleeker shopping centers. When Birmingham, Ala. based Colonial Properties Trust bought the property in 1997 for $35 million, it decided to change all that with a $50 million renovation.
Readers - outside the South - may think of Birmingham as a sleepy southern town, but that could not be further from the truth. The area surrounding Brookwood Village has the highest per capita income in Alabama, more than three times the state average. Colonial knew, with the right approach, it could take advantage of that prosperity.
Colonial wanted a distinctive look for this project, and to do so the company worked with Street-Works, the Arlington, Va.-based urban design wing of White Plains, N.Y.based PEG/Park LLC. Renowned for its...