New and expanding industry invested a record high $1.2 billion in the metro area in 2015, the Birmingham Business Alliance revealed at its annual chairman’s luncheon today.

Announced economic development projects will amount to 3,000 new jobs before this year ends, said Brian Hilson, CEO of the BBA. Hilson said the BBA researched past years and the $1.2 billion in announced new investment has never been reached before.

“It’s the biggest year this community has ever had,” he said.

Five years of results from Blueprint Birmingham.

One more achievement will be marked Wednesday when STERIS Corp. marks the opening of its new headquarters for its Specialty Services division. The company, which purchased Birmingham’s Integrated Medical Systems last year for $175 million, has completed an $8 million renovation of the former U.S. Pipe headquarters building.

Walter Rosebrough , CEO of STERIS, was the keynote speaker at the BBA chairman’s luncheon. He said there were many other cities vying for the new headquarters but it was the proactive approach of Birmingham Mayor William Bell and the professionalism of “Team Alabama” led by the Alabama Department of Commerce that won the project for Birmingham.

“That outreach effort spoke volumes to us about the kind of reception we would have here in Alabama and in Birmingham,” Rosebrough said.

The new headquarters, which anchors a 15-acre campus in the Sloss Business District near Sloss Furnaces, will be home to 200 workers. The first 100 are being relocated from an IMS facility in Homewood and an additional 100 jobs are being created.

A new Blueprint

It’s notable that 2015 marks the end of the BBA’s first five-year strategic plan, Blueprint Birmingham. Hilson said the numbers reflect the success of the plan over those years.

Between 2011 and 2015 there were:

• 333 new and expanding industry announcements
• 13,571 new jobs announced
• $2.9 billion new capital investment announced

There was an average of 67 announcements, 2,714 jobs and nearly $581 million in capital investment each year during those five years.

Moreover, Hilson said Birmingham has improved its competitiveness against other large cities in the state and benchmark cities across the country like Atlanta, Austin, Nashville and Charlotte.

Among 15 key measured categories, Hilson said Birmingham improved its standing in 11 of them in 2015 compared to peer cities. In the remaining four categories, Hilson said Birmingham remained steady for the year.

“There is no question that those numbers have moved, all of them, in a positive way. So we are encouraged about that,” he said. “But, again, because this is a long-term process we also know that the process will never end and we’ve got a long, long way to go to get to where I would consider Birmingham – with all of the great potential that it has – to be reaching that potential and then staying at that level over a period of time. We think we’re heading in the right direction.”

The new direction will be Blueprint 2020, a new five-year plan that will guide economic development in the metro area into the next decade, Hilson said.

BBA CEO Brian Hilson on 2015 and Blueprint 2020 from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Details of Blueprint 2020 will be unveiled at the next Blueprint Birmingham Summit in 2016, but Hilson said it will key on targeted industry clusters as well as better preparing the region to be more marketable to industry.

“There are other parts of the Birmingham economy that are still our strengths where we think there is much, much more potential,” Hilson said. “One of those is science and technology companies, especially those that are attracted to growing in Birmingham because of UAB and Southern Research, where we think there is tremendous potential and I’m especially excited about growing that.”

Mark Crosswhite, CEO of Alabama Power, addresses the 2015 BBA chairman’s luncheon. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)

Blueprint 2020 will have as its aim to see growth accelerated faster than experienced with Blueprint Birmingham, he said.

“What we want to see as a result of that is growth in those numbers,” Hilson said. “Birmingham’s rate of improvement has been good, but we’re looking for a steeper growth rate than what we’ve seen.”

Blueprint 2020 will be unveiled under a new BBA chairman.

Today’s luncheon ended with the passing of the gavel. Outgoing BBA Chairman Mark Crosswhite, president, chairman and CEO of Alabama Power, gave the gavel to Dr. Ray Watts, president of UAB, who will serve as BBA chairman for 2016.

Crosswhite thanked BBA members and staff for their support during his chairmanship and said he is encouraged about the future of the region’s economy. He said Watts will be a great leader for the organization.

“I’ve never been more excited or optimistic” about the Birmingham metro area, Watts said. “I know we’re going to accomplish great things in 2016.”