The Liberty National building's owners are in the process of breathing life back into the 80-year-old building.

A Delaware limited liability company called Liberty Redemption LLC is working with lenders, lawyers and renovation experts to revive the building, a representative for Liberty Redemption confirmed to AL.com.

The old Liberty National building on 20th street between Third and Fourth avenues south has been sitting vacant since 2010. The 80-year-old structure is riddled with asbestos, and one of the walls had begun to buckle. Last year, bricks and debris began falling off the building and onto the sidewalk below.

A group including Scott Bryant of Scott M. Bryant & Co. and Dick Schmalz of RGS Properties - the pair that developed the Publix-anchored 20 Midtown - bought the building in late December for $3.6 million from Pembroke Academy Investments LLC.

Liberty Redemption bought the rights to redeem the building out of foreclosure and executed that right last month. Liberty Redemption was incorporated on March 21, records show. Liberty Redemption said none of the building's previous ownership is involved with the current project.

"The primary reason we bought the property is we feel like that building needs to become a contributing member of the city, and we intended to do that," Schmalz said. "If anyone comes in and makes that building functional again safely, then I'm all for it, because that's going to help the area, help the city, and help what we're doing."

Liberty Redemption is working with Renasant Bank on the project. It's using Bradley for legal services and has retained the Birmingham office of Johnson Controls International to evaluate renovation of the building including heating, air conditioning, ventilation, energy efficiency, fire safety and security. The company is in the process of interviewing firms for engineering, architecture, marketing, branding, leasing and property management.

Schmalz told AL.com in January that investigators had determined the cost to safely eliminate the asbestos in the Liberty National building would be upwards of $10 million.

"Details will be forthcoming as final decisions are made," the company said in a statement.