Orchestra Partners Principal Hunter Renfroe Discusses Urban Development

This week the Rotary Club of Birmingham welcomed Hunter Renfroe, Orchestra Partners Principal. He shared how the company bridges the gaps between city officials, community leaders and property owners to deliver innovative urban development projects such as Founder’s Station, Mercantile on Morris, and The Hive. Renfroe discussed the institutional and historical factors that have contributed to migration away from city centers and how a course at Birmingham-Southern College combined with experience living an urban lifestyle for two years in Boston inspired his mission to bring restoration and development to Birmingham’s city center.

“I was floored, honestly, by how walkable and accessible our city is on foot, and yet how vacant it was 15 years ago,” Renfroe said. “I thought, ‘Why are we building new buildings 20 minutes away from downtown when this is the city center, this is the original historic center of the city? Why wouldn’t we bring these buildings back to life?’ That seems more economically efficient and it also just seems right.”

Renroe explained the importance of connectivity between downtown Birmingham and surrounding communities through projects like the Red Rock Trail System. He shared how connectors like New York City’s Highline, Miami’s Underline and Atlanta’s Beltline have transformed surrounding urban environments.

“There’s a problem in our world, in the U.S. in particular. We have overemphasized the car and the infrastructure that supports the car. We built highways going right through the middle of cities, we destroyed a lot of cities and divided a lot of communities with highways. It’s about accessibility and building infrastructure that connects people to one another in a way that everyone can access. We can work together to steer the ship, to build communities that people want to live in. That’s our goal at Orchestra, to turn our tide.”

Renfroe shared his excitement for upcoming projects such as The Urban Connector and Urban Supply, which will transform the Powell Avenue Steam Plant into a mixed-use retail, restaurant and commercial space with walking connections from Rotary Trail to Regions Field along Railroad Park, effectively connecting nearby communities in the process.

“It’s about the connections that stitch together neighborhoods that we otherwise have been disconnected. That’s what cities are all about—connecting people.”