BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Downtown's Thomas Jefferson hotel, commonly known as the Cabana Hotel building, has been sold.

Chip Watts, president of commercial real estate company Watts Realty Co., announced the deal via Twitter.

"The TJTower will rise again soon," Watts Tweeted. "Looking forward to the new life it will have."

Efforts to reach Watts this morning were not immediately successful.

The 1920's-era, 19-story building at Second Avenue North and 17th Street was once among the city's finest hotels, and numerous jazz greats played its ballroom. It's been vacant for most of the last three decades, however, and has often sheltered the homeless.

A California developer's effort to renovate the building at a cost of $23 million, renaming it Leer Tower, stalled when the economy faltered. Economic development officials have said that the state's new Historic Tax Credit, passed by the legislature in May, likely would make a renovation affordable.

The tax credit is worth up to $5 million over four years for qualified projects.

In order to qualify for the incentive the rehabilitation expenses for a property must exceed 50 percent of its purchase price or $25,000, whichever is greatest.

Structures certified as historic by the Alabama Historical Commission or those built before 1936 and that meet other requirements may qualify.