Vacant Birmingham gas station site gets $8M makeover

Driving the news: InvestWise Financial, a local wealth management firm with about 25 employees, plans to build a three-story, 9,300-square-foot HQ on the property.

• Plans call for a glass conservatory and a 1,200-square-foot rooftop terrace overlooking Woodward.
• The firm recently broke ground and targets a July 2027 opening.

The backstory: Environmental issues have complicated redevelopment efforts.

• The site's underground tanks were removed after the gas station was demolished, but InvestWise later removed and replaced soil as part of the cleanup.

What they're saying: "We just envisioned a beautiful building being there, kind of the gateway to Birmingham," managing partner Brandon Moore tells Axios.

Worth noting: InvestWise considered public incentives for the environmental cleanup but determined they didn't make sense for the project, Moore says.