Temperatures in the low 40s and a brisk wind did little to cool the enthusiasm over a coming residential development, part of The Star Uptown development that will grow from the former Carraway Hospital.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday rezoned property next to the land where the hospital once stood to allow for the new rental development that will have townhouses, cottages and duplexes, with work on the first component to begin early next year.

“We always wanted to start with residential,” CR-Endeavors CEO Robert Simon said during a chilly press conference outside at 17th Avenue and Carraway Boulevard. “We felt that residential was the key component to all the other things that we needed to do, reestablishing what is and was a great neighborhood, coming in with quality housing and affordable housing in many different ways, shapes and forms.

“Today, with the rezoning of the land that you see behind us, we will commence in the first quarter next year with our first project, which will be cottage housing on this site,” Simon continued. “That will be Phase One of two phases of the cottage housing. Additionally, we’re working on workforce housing on the opposite end of this site — on the southernmost end of this site — so we can have a multitude of affordable housing components.”

Phase One will include 64 homes. It stretches from 17^th Avenue North to 19^th Avenue along Carraway Boulevard.

The long-announced plan for The Star Uptown is for a mixed-use development that includes retail outlets as well as the Coca-Cola Amphitheater that opened earlier this past spring. The CR-Endeavors CEO said more residents in the planned residences will help reel in those retailers.

“You have to have additional heads in beds in order to get certain retailers to look at the area,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing.”

Birmingham City Councilors LaTonya Tate and Brian Gunn shared the podium with Simon. She recalled having grown up near the spot where she stood.

“It’s a little cold, but I’m really warm on the inside,” Tate said. “I grew up right here on this very street, went to that very school, F.D. McArthur School on 25th Street North. I’ve still got a lot of ties to this community.

“I never, ever dreamt that coming back to Birmingham, after spending almost 12 or 15 years away from here, that I would ever see this site transform into what we’re being able to see now,” she continued. “Transforming this whole community is going to bring vibrancy to this community. It’s going to bring the legacy with the new (residences) to the community and attract new families to come into the community, to have that same experience I had when I grew up here.”

Gunn, who has been on the Planning Commission for the past few years, said he’s seen first-hand the work that it took to get to this point.

“Redeveloping a site of this size and magnitude is not easy,” he said. “Before any demolition happened, before any tax liens were cleared, before any urban renewal districts were created for this project, neighborhoods met, committees voted and people kept showing up. The developers, the city and especially our neighborhoods, their persistence is why we’re here today.”

The rezoning request came with endorsement from the Evergreen, Druid Hills and Norwood neighborhoods. Initially, a commercial element was part of the requested zoning. The commercial aspect was withdrawn.

Barbara Thomas, president of the Norwood Neighborhood Association, said it’s exciting to be where demolition is wrapping up and construction will begin.

“I’m especially glad to see houses,” Thomas said. “Why? Because at the end of the day, a community is made up of people. I look forward to having new neighbors across (Carraway) Boulevard. Even though there are challenges sometimes living near the biggest entertainment district in the city, the Northside is so happy to see this site being transformed because it’s bringing value to our community.”

Janet Maycock, president of the Druid Hills Neighborhood Association, said it seems like just yesterday that the project began.

“It’s been several years ago,” she said. “But this project has come. It’s just coming along. And I tell you to imagine affordable homes here and multi-family dwellings right here to add to our community. One of the things that we know is in order to bring some of the other things we want to Druid Hills — the retail and shopping and more entertainment — we’ve got to have a lot of diversity and new people. We’re excited about that.”

Simon refers to The Star Uptown as the pebble in the pond.

“When you drop a pebble in a pond, you get ripples,” the developer said. “What we hope is that what we do on this side ripples out into the community and you see more and more development. Again, development in the best way possible, re-establishing homes. You’ve got great housing stock in both of these neighborhoods (Druid Hills and Norwood) that need to be rehabbed. And we’d like to see those done.

“We’d like to see new housing,” Simon continued. “We’d like to see new retail, more robust retail. The neighborhood needs services, but when you look at certain aspects of that, retailers have different demographics that they look at. You’re just trying to build that base where you can get it so they have better choices.”