Even as a Birmingham company is spending millions to spruce up buildings that make up a half a mile along First Avenue North in Avondale, a vacant building across the street is as ugly as ever.

But Adam Eason, asset manager and broker with Cushman & Wakefield EGS Commercial Real Estate, wants to change that.

EGS is investing $10 million to transform old industrial buildings into the new Avondale Works project between 39^th Street and 41^st Street on the north side of First Avenue North. There are no redevelopment plans for the building that sits on the south side of the street.

So Eason called the owner of the building and asked if an artist could paint a mural on the building.

“He called back within 15 minutes and said, ‘Sure,’” Eason said.

Eason estimates it will cost about $5,000 to turn the eyesore into art. But that got him thinking.

Adam Eason challenges businesses to help beautify Birmingham from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

“All of a sudden, what was a vacant building now becomes a piece of art,” Eason said. “It becomes a conversation piece and it makes you realize, ‘Somebody had to put time into that. Someone kind of left it all up there on the wall, quite literally.’ It makes you appreciate that there is somebody like that in the city who thought to make a piece of art that is not hanging in somebody’s house – that they want it there for public consumption for people to see.”

So, when Eason was addressing members of BirminghamCREW this week to share plans about Avondale Works, he came with a challenge for the companies represented at the luncheon.

“If we had 20 companies spend $5,000, that’s 20 art projects and 20 more instances where tens of thousands of people can look at something and say, ‘That’s cool! I’m glad I live in a place like that,’” Eason said.

Eason said companies shouldn’t have to wait on the city to do something about vacant buildings when it has higher priorities. He said it also doesn’t take forming some official nonprofit group to address the issue.

Rather, Eason said it’s something businesses should want to do to show support for what is happening in the city.

“I love Birmingham,” he said. “I was somebody who always felt that Birmingham was always doing everything wrong. And then, you move back here and then you see this kind of undercurrent of people and authenticity and just a real diverse group of people who have moved back into the city and you realize that there is a lot of talent there and a lot of pride in Birmingham.”

Cushman & Wakefield EGS Commercial Real Estate is investing $10 million to transform old industrial buildings into Avondale Works. (Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds)

Eason said when he moved back to Birmingham from Charlotte, he started going to events like the Market at Pepper Place and he would see people wearing shirts and hats proclaiming how proud they are of Birmingham.

“It’s like a groundswell of pride in the city,” he said. “While we can have potholes fixed and we can have some landscaping done, that heart in the city is really not conveyed as much unless you’re out there with the people.”

Businesses also have a vested interest in how the city is perceived by others, Eason said.

“We have visitors come into the city and they drive around,” he said. “They see these pockets of really cool stuff like at Avondale or Lakeview, but then they have to drive to somewhere like Regions Park or something like that. You pass a little bit of blight on the way there and that sometimes can spoil the mood a little bit.

“We want to try to transition that drive into something that showcases the heart of the city,” he added. “One of the things about art is that everyone can appreciate it. Everyone can see it. Everyone can have an opinion on it. But it also means that there must be something else going on.”

Eason’s Birmingham beautification crusade won’t stop with murals, he said.

“I would love to snatch up every Birmingham Beautification Award and refurbish them, re-stencil them and give them to the city and say, ‘Please make all of the landlords reapply for these things,” he said. “Let’s try to make that mean something again.”