From Trussville Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM — The pastor at New Rising Star Church in Birmingham has decided to purchase the former Century Plaza Mall in order to create a church and future school.
The building has been kept in immaculate shape inside. With 743,000 square feet of former retail space, 62 acres of land and 1,400 parking spaces, the viability of the structure isn’t at all in question. The question is why?
New Rising Star Church Pastor Thomas Beavers said he believes in the future of Birmingham, and he wants to invest in it.
“New Rising Star Church is heavily involved in Community Development. Community Development is about developing people. Communities are people and not buildings. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need a building, but our vision dictates the kind of building that we need,” Beavers wrote in a guest submission to comebacktown.com. “We develop communities in six ways: education, financial literacy, workforce development, housing, recreation, and the church. When people consider a place to live, they make decisions directly or indirectly surrounding the quality of these six areas.”
Beavers said he was hopeful that by purchasing the property and investing into the community, he could help lead the charge to revitalize East Birmingham.
The plan is to use 200,000 square feet of the mall for New Rising Star Church and Star Academy School.
New Rising Star wants to use the rest of the space to partner with other organizations whose visions intersect in developing the community. These organizations will build state of the art locations inside of the mall to continue to bring vitality back to East Birmingham.
The church has completed environmental studies and property condition surveys, and are pleased with the results.
New Rising Star Church has three weekend services and two midweek services each week. Beavers said more than 1,000 people come for the weekend services.
“This is for the betterment of Birmingham,” he said.
13 Comments
Lydia Christina
Roy Clarkson
Wade Cox
Don’t think Century Plaza is in the City of Irondale but it may be a good thing for the City of Birmingham to have someone in the building
Tracy Hancock
wow, I remember when this mall was state of the art, my grandmother even worked there at on time at JC Penney (wig department). Good to see that it is finding a new purpose.
Lawrence Kerr
I still have a shirt I bought there.
Robert Harper
I didn’t know it was in Irondale
Wade Cox
Whoever wrote the article seems to think it is… smh
Howell Gray
I remember when this place opened it was a shame when all those stores closed up and left,glad someone is going to do something with it
Jay Yarbrough
Joseph Brown IV
Andrea Berneche
Yahoo thinks it’s in Irondale….🙃
Ashley Strickland
Kristine Clarke they are finally doing something with that mall we talk about every Friday lol
Bradley Jones
Ha, I still have a gap hat I bought from there
Kristine Clarke
Yasssss finally!!!
Nancy Jackson Bailey
Hope this happens!