By Don Erwin
In 2020 I wrote Buffalo Hunting in Alabama, a novel about economic development.
One of the plot lines involved Alabama competing against other states for a giant, blockbuster pharmaceutical plant. In my novel, the Birmingham metro won the project.
Fiction has now become real life. Sort of. I got the state right but the metro wrong.
Congratulations to Huntsville for winning Eli Lilly’s huge new pharma plant to employ 450 full-time workers, 3,000 construction workers, and invest $6 billion in the Huntsville area. Alabama is fortunate it has Huntsville.
With UAB and Southern Research, many have assumed that Birmingham is the state’s life sciences giant, but that thinking may be living in the past, along with thinking that Birmingham is the state’s largest city.
The Huntsville Metro has less than half the Birmingham metro’s population, but Huntsville has shown it can win anything it wants, from Space Command to Meta to Toyota/Mazda to Eli Lilly.
Birmingham and Huntsville both have some mid-sized pharma operations, but according to published reports, Lilly explicitly cited its proximity to Huntsville’s HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology as a reason for its site decision.
In March 2024, the Waymaker Group did a study to help the City of Hoover focus on the types of companies to attract. Most expected the report would enthusiastically recommend pursuing life sciences companies, since the metro has UAB and Southern Research, and Hoover has Biocryst and Biohorizons, a medical device maker.
Instead, the Waymaker report said the following:
“UAB anchors the ecosystem as a nationally top-tier research powerhouse, securing over $713 million in R&D expenditures, primarily focused on life sciences. However, their dismal technology transfer outcomes lag every benchmark university, reducing their ability to spin out high-value startups that grow locally.”
It continued:
“Meanwhile, the MSA’s early-stage accelerators concentrate in downtown Birmingham, but with inadequate access to risk capital, seasoned mentorship, or structured support programming, they have struggled to translate their work into large raises, exits, or local scale stories.”
It’s hard (and perhaps ungrateful) to criticize UAB because they do so much good for Birmingham. They provide world-class healthcare, lots of jobs, attract research dollars, and generate a huge economic impact. There’s some truth to the old joke that without UAB, Birmingham would be Meridian, Mississippi. Nevertheless, it must be said that UAB is not very good at turning research dollars into products.
Back in 2017, the Milken Institute published a report titled “Concept to Commercialization: The Best Universities for Technology Transfer.”
It ranked UAB 155th in its ability to translate research funding into commercialization, behind Southeastern universities such as the University of Florida (3rd), Georgia Tech (32nd), Duke (34th), Vanderbilt (42nd), UNC-Chapel Hill (44th), Univ. of Georgia (51st), Clemson (57th), Emory (72nd), Univ. of Tennessee (82nd), Univ. of Arkansas (87th), Florida State ( 88th), Univ. of Alabama (135th), Auburn (141th), and the Univ. of Mississippi (146th). UAB did beat Mississippi State (157th).
The overhead from research funding builds tall buildings, employs people, and allows researchers to publish papers, but the ultimate purpose of research funding (especially taxpayer funded) is to create products to benefit humanity.
For Birmingham to be successful, it must:
First, focus on the right things. Repaving streets, demolishing old houses, and persuading people not to camp out in Linn Park are community development, not economic development. Economic development is helping new companies form, helping existing companies expand, and attracting world-class companies that can bring thousands of good jobs. Birmingham must do a good job of both community development and economic development.
Second, Birmingham metro cities and counties must work together. In 1993, Alabama showed everyone what working together can accomplish when it won the Mercedes-Benz project, perhaps the single most important industrial project in the state’s history.
In 1993, Alabama didn’t produce a single auto. Today, Alabama produces more than one million autos/year, and fifty thousand people work in Alabama’s auto industry.
After Alabama won Mercedes, William Dorsey, the head of Mercedes’ site selection company, wrote the following:
“THE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE: The underlying reason for the selection of Tuscaloosa was not cost. Rather, the strong partnership demonstrated by Gov. Jim Folsom, the state Legislature, state government agencies, city and county government, the cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, and the statewide business community virtually assures a successful project for Mercedes-Benz. Enthusiasm and positive attitudes were the primary differentiating elements.” – Site Selection Magazine, April 1994
In 1993, Alabama had many challenges, but those challenges didn’t keep it from succeeding.
Birmingham needs to take a page from Alabama’s 1993 playbook.
Other columns written by Don Erwin you might enjoy:
- Birmingham: Let’s declare a jobs war
- Why Birmingham can’t grow jobs
- Birmingham’s 68,000-job megaproject
- Hey Birmingham, it’s not people versus business here
- Census numbers kick Birmingham in the gut
Don Erwin was an economic developer for twelve years. He is the author of Buffalo Hunting in Alabama, a novel about the competition among cities and states to attract economic development projects. He lives in the Birmingham metro.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
12/22/25
Quote :
“Huntsville Didn’t Need UAB to Win Eli Lilly—And That Should Terrify Birmingham”…
…Uh, no.
Just another one of many “wake-up” calls for Birmingham.
~ Ballard from Huntsville
I applaud Huntsville for landing Eli Lilly and believe that UAB/ Southern Research needs to pay attention and learn. I think it should be noted that this facility will be a top touch robot manufacturing facility,
You say that Birmingham must take a page from the 1993 Alabama playbook, but what about the rest of the players? Why is the blame for the metro’s stagnation always laid at the feet of Bham? It was state representatives from suburban cities who colluded to snatch control of the water works board from Birmingham in a very sneaky and uncooperative way. It is southern suburbs who continue to express no interest in expanding transit services into these areas so that we can have a truly functional system. It is these same suburbs that refuse to come together with the city to advocate in Montgomery for laws that would provide a sustained source of transit funding, key to its success. It is the Alabama state government that consistently expresses little interest in making significant investments in Bham outside of buildings at UAB. ALDOT can’t even get the interstate lights on. It was the state legislature who blocked city efforts to raise the minimum wage to something above basic poverty levels, in a city with a poverty rate of 25%. And what about the powerful and wealthy business community in this city, who all live OTM? Why are they essentially MIA as the metro has languished? Where are their massive efforts to raise and supply capital for local startups? Where is our local Ted Turner of Atlanta, Hugh McColl of Charlotte, Bill Lee of Nashville….a local CEO and business leader willing to fight for their city? I would love to see someone, for once, point the finger at EVERY player in the room and not just Birmingham.
Nashville here, with one correction to your excellent comment. I don’t deny that business CEOs have played a big role in “fighting for their cities.” But Bill Lee ain’t one. Lee & Co. is just a big HVAC company, and one that doesn’t enjoy the best reputation at that. (We studiously rejected using them when we needed to replace our upstairs unit a few weeks ago.) The Ingram family has been much more influential. More to the point, as Governor Bill Lee signed the 2022 redistricting legislation that wiped out TN’s 5th Congressional district—which singularly represented Nashville/Davidson County in Congress. The city is now broken into three districts, all of which are predominantly suburban and rural with little regard for the urban core. Lee hardly had the city’s best interests at heart. Actually we now have three CEOs who are having a much bigger impact in Nashville, and none of them even live in Tennessee: Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison and Elon Musk.
You are right. I meant to say Thomas Frist…the founder of HCA and former governor I think.
Yes, the Frists have been a major force in Nashville. Thomas founded HCA and brother Bill served as U.S. Senator. According to Wikipedia, Thomas is worth $37B. Not in the same league as the other three billionaires I mentioned, but at least he lives here and isn’t just an outsider trying to make money here. Check out what Musk is up to in Nashville.
I meant that the Birmingham Metro should take a page from Alabama’s 1993 playbook. If I had been talking about the City of Birmingham, I would have been saying that various aspects of the City of Birmingham need to work together, and that wasn’t the point of my column.
I agree that as much as possible, we need to either say “City of Birmingham” or “Metro Birmingham” to clarify discussions. This is a constant source of confusion.
As to who is the Birmingham Metro’s Ted Turner, I nominate George Barber. He has spent many tens of millions of dollars to build the non-profit Barber Museum & Park, which TripAdvisor year after year names as the Birmingham Metro’s #1 tourist attraction. It’s located in the City of Birmingham, by the way.
Thank you for the clarification. However, based on what I have observed I do not think Mr. Barber is a particularly enthusiastic champion of Birmingham. Just notice the number of properties around this city that have sat empty, undeveloped, and in various states of neglect for YEARS. I am particularly thinking of that entire tract of land downtown along 1st Ave N from 14th Street to 17th Street..All belonging to Barber, all abandoned and used as a hangout haven for the homeless, all sitting empty (and only for Lease, not for Sale), because Mr. Barber cares more about how much money he can make by sitting on prime real estate than moving this city forward. Same is true for the beautiful building at 20th and 12th Ave South in 5 Points. There are more. We need someone with deep pockets and influence who is unabashed, selfless, and relentless in his efforts to move this city forward. We have Never had that unfortunately.
While I agree with your transit comments, your comments about the water works are a great example of why the Bham area doesn’t move forward. Birmingham is a city of 200,000 people and is not growing in a metro are of about 1 million people that is growing. The water works serves over 750,000. The continued thought that Birmingham should be the tail that wags the dog is taking us nowhere.
I just remember Bruno, McWane, Hulsey, Jemison, Sellers, Thompson, Bashinsky, Blount, Gaston, Johnson, Goodrich, Drummond, Marks, O’Neal, Lee, Brock, Culverhouse…Barber, and many others. Birmingham was awash with local business titans in the 1980-’90s.
So what happened?
We lived in Huntsville for two years in the mid-1980s. But when the opportunity arose, we eagerly moved back to Birmingham for personal and professional reasons (and frankly its stronger sense of place and culture than the Rocket City). We remained in the Magic City for the next 27 years, though we left in retirement.
My main reason for commenting here isn’t to compare the two cities regarding how they were 40 years ago or are today. Each has something to recommend itself. Instead I’d like to name another visionary business leader in addition to the many that others have listed in this thread. You may not be familiar with him. His name is Jim Hudson (I don’t know him personally), and it was largely his vision that led to the creation of HudsonAlpha institute. He successfully recruited Gov. Bob Riley to invest millions of state dollars. He also wisely recruited my lifelong friend and fellow Tuscaloosa High alumnus, Rick Myers, from Stanford to serve as the founding Director of Research at HudsonAlpha. Rick retired a few years ago.
It’s important to note that HudsonAlpha was created as an independent nonprofit, not a government entity. It collaborates with UAB, Southern Research, and UAH, but is free to pursue its own research. From the beginning its mission involved housing and supporting other biotechnology firms and scientists. Their research efforts are aimed at delivering market-oriented results, not primarily academic or clinical ones. As far as I know, HudsonAlpha is a nimble organization; I can understand why Eli Lilly cited it as a main reason for locating near Huntsville in Limestone County. These are such important distinctions from UAB’s origin, structure, and mission that I felt they needed mentioning. Like the two cities, each institution has much to recommend itself.
Birmingham leaders worry too much about Huntsville and other cities. There is no good reason to covet what another person/city has. Birmingham needs to be Birmingham and not try to be something or someone else.
The pharma industry between the two cities are vastly different. Birmingham has mostly CDMO pharma whereas Huntsville has primarily pharma manufacturing. Those are two very different business models.
This article tries to compare SRI and Hudson Alpha which is difficult since one is strictly non profit.
I work in biotech and live in metro Birmingham. I for one am happy Lilly is putting a plant in Huntsville. It isn’t a blow to Birmingham that Huntsville got the Lilly plant, just as it wasn’t a blow when Montgomery got the Hyundai plant.
Huntsville’s success does not lessen Birmingham’s accomplishments. It does seem to invite the green eyed monster of “jealousy”.
“Birmingham leaders worry too much about Huntsville and other cities. There is no good reason to covet what another person/city has. Birmingham needs to be Birmingham and not try to be something or someone else.”
100% spot on. It’s an unhelpful tendency here, but I’ve noticed that tendency is starting to decline. Birmingham can and does shine bright when it authentically embraces its own rich identity without chasing comparisons to Huntsville or anywhere else. We have a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem and lots of world-class talent here.