A massive, multimillion dollar project just west of downtown will bring new life to two city blocks in the historic Long Lewis Hardware building.

Fitz-Thors Engineering is redeveloping the historic building into a large office park for itself and other complementary businesses. The development will be called Hardware Park.

Matt Fitzgerald and Arnar Thors, two friends who met in college at the University of Alabama, opened Fitz-Thors in 2007. The two worked at ACIPCO in Birmingham before forming their own firm. Today, Fitz-Thors makes custom products for manufacturing and robotics, with clients like Mercedes-Benz.

The company has grown to 30 employees, but is leasing its space in Bessemer. Looking for a long-term home to buy, they found the Long Lewis Hardware building at 811 5th Ave. N., and knew they couldn't give it up.

They closed on the complex in February, which includes five buildings on two city blocks and an adjacent parking lot, for $1.7 million.

At 140,000 square feet, it was a lot more space than they needed. Brainstorming led them to take on turning the building into an office space for several companies in a massive complex called Hardware Park. Fitzgerald said the space was ideal because it has both office space and warehouse space that advanced manufacturers need.

"We were really drawn toward the revitalization of Birmingham, always appreciating the history here, certainly with this facility. Wanting to be part of that, we had the opportunity to take something and repurpose it, and serve the city in that capacity and improve something that once was," Fitzgerald said. "We had the opportunity to revitalize a large piece of property and facility in the area where revitalization isn't happening as quickly."

Right now, Hardware Park has five committed companies: Fitz-Thors, which will occupy about a quarter of the space; Deft Dynamics, a firm that brings engineering concepts to market quickly; Push Product Design, a product consultancy with focuses on science, art and engineering; Local Bicycle Racks, the bike rack maker who makes all the UAB bike racks, among others; and Downstream Logistics, a logistics firm that's already begun working out of the space. There's still room for more tenants.

Fitz-Thors is still developing the master plan for the property, so construction won't begin until next year. But the vision is a sort of campus where complementary firms can share some advanced manufacturing equipment and resources, as well as work with each other on various projects. At the same time, startups and other small companies can develop new technologies; companies can conduct independent manufacturing; the facility can assist in micro-manufacturing; and companies can use the facility to provide hands-on training.

Deft Dynamics Co-owner Ross Wesson said he was interested in the space because Deft's offices are currently in Birmingham while the shop space is in Auburn, and Hardware Park will allow them to have both in one space.

"We're involved in both product development, as well as actually taking ideas to market. Our team has both highly technical people, and also people focused on incubating and accelerating of the business side," Wesson said. "It's really important for them to be in both the same shop space and office space, because if you're on, say, the business side and you don't see how the physical product is being made, and all that's going into the design and all the iterations, you can't appreciate what it is or effectively communicate that to who the end customer is."

The Long-Lewis Hardware company first began operating in Bessemer in 1887. It began selling at the downtown facility in 1929. Tennessee-based House-Hasson Hardware bought the hardware company in 2015, and the store closed to the public, though orders were still being fulfilled out of it until Fitz-Thors bought the building in February.

"With the name of the facility we wanted to honor the history of the building, which was a hardware store," Fitzgerald said. "The thought that Foster [Phillips, Owner of Local Bicycle Racks] had was, we're making actual products here. We're making hardware, tangible things. On the education side of it, a hardware store would have equipped people to build things and give them the tools that they need, so we're playing off those things for the campus as a whole."

Hardware Park also has the potential to house a workforce development program. Adah International, a local firm that specializes in various needs of international businesses that locate in the U.S., is pursuing funding that would allow the company to start a program to train high school students skills in advanced manufacturing. Owner Kirk Atkinson said he hopes to train between 30 and 60 high school students each year.

"These guys are engineers, they are fabricators, they are technicians, and they have all that equipment in this facility," Atkinson said. "We can add a few pieces of equipment that are safer and more forgiving if you make a mistake so a kid can learn on it. Then they progress out of that into working for, perhaps, Fitz-Thors, or one of the startups they are going to have, or maybe somewhere else."

Neither Fitzgerald nor Thors are originally from Birmingham. But both never anticipate leaving the city – they see it as the best possible place for their new business.

"Manufacturing is really what made the United States great, and it's certainly what made Birmingham great. We have the history here, we have resources here, we have the culture here where we're well suited to be excellent at manufacturing," Fitzgerald said. "We can take those same manufacturing concepts and infrastructure and put that toward new technologies that then grow companies that do affect the economy."