The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday agreed to convey 5 acres near the former Parker High School for a housing project that will bring 151 multi-family units to the area.

“We’re incredibly excited to be at this point today, and it is just a miraculous coalescence of opportunity and preparation getting us to where we are,” Kelvin Datcher, deputy director of housing, said to the council Tuesday.

The measure is part of a project to redevelop the west Birmingham neighborhoods of Smithfield, Graymont and College Hills and to create 1,000 affordable housing units. The hundreds of millions of dollars needed for that construction will be leveraged by a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood program.

According to the department’s website, the program “leverages public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing.”

Birmingham was awarded the grant in 2023. The homes created by the Choice Neighborhood program are meant to replace the 900 units of Smithfield Court, the city’s oldest public housing site, which was built in the 1930s with Works Progress Administration money.

The council on Tuesday voted unanimously to give the land — which is on 10th Avenue North, Third Street North and 10th Court North — to Smithfield Phase II LP for $1,000.

Cory Stallworth, senior deputy director of community development for the city, said Smithfield Phase II LP is simply a tax credit entity that includes the Housing Authority of Birmingham and the developers, the Atlanta-based Integral Partners and Rural Enterprises.

Stallworth said Tuesday’s land transfer is necessary for the project to receive a tax credit through the state’s Workforce Housing Credit program. According to the program’s website, the credit “is intended to increase the number of affordable housing units available to Alabamians seeking employment in areas of economic growth.”

In July, the City Council approved a $3.5 million loan for a nonprofit seeking to redevelop the former Graymont school to create housing for more than 100 senior citizens.

Stallworth said city leaders are waiting to get approval from the state finance authority for assistance with the Graymont project. While they wait, he said, they are moving forward with the Smithfield project, which is the second of seven construction phases planned between now and 2030.

Stallworth said the total cost of the Smithfield development will be about $52 million, and the city will provide $6 million in gap funding for the project. The city’s portion will come from a combination of grant money and a low-interest loan, both from HUD programs.

“I want to congratulate everyone involved. This example shows how important this tax credit tool is for affordable housing development,” Councilor Carol Clarke said. “These projects can’t happen without these tools from the state, and I think this a great blueprint for how we can move forward in this space, especially if we can prove the efficacy of this program.”