Portions of two downtown Birmingham streets will close as site work continues on the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex stadium.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved the vacation of 23rd Street North and 11th Avenue North and some interior alleys to allow the $174 million open-air stadium to be constructed on what is now four city blocks.

The BJCC will pay more than $262,000 in fees to the city for the vacation.

The stadium will be built adjacent to the existing BJCC complex. The site is bordered by Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard to the south, 12th Avenue North to the north, 22nd Street to the west and 24th Street to the east.

The BJCC Authority, Birmingham, Jefferson County, UAB and corporate partners are funding the stadium construction as well as more than $125 million in renovations to Legacy Arena and other improvements at the BJCC. A 3 percent tax on car rentals in Jefferson County will also go towards the project.

The stadium is expected to be completed in 2021, and the arena upgrades are expected to be finished in 2022.

James Fowler, Birmingham's traffic engineer, said the city is studying the impact the street closures, the BJCC construction and Interstate 59/20 road work will have on downtown Birmingham and how to mitigate it.

"One of the good things about Birmingham is that we have a robust street network," he said. "It gives us opportunities that other cities don't have."

Fowler said the economic impact of the stadium is too great and construction shouldn't be upheld because of possible traffic issues.

Populous, a Kansas City, Mo. design and architecture firm, developed conceptual plans for an up to 55,000-seat stadium as part of the BJCC's 20-year master plan, which was released in 2016. The group projected that the stadium construction would cost $174 million. The renovations of Legacy Arena is projected to cost $125 million.

The sale of bonds to finance the construction of the stadium and Legacy Arena renovations closed on Aug. 7 and generated $313 million in proceeds.

The bonds, which were sold on July 17, included five series of bonds. They sold with a blended interest rate of 3.91 percent.

The stadium is expected to be completed in 2021, and the arena upgrades are expected to be finished in 2022.

The Legacy Arena improvements include adding new luxury suites, a club lounge, upgraded concession stands, expansion of the concourse and exterior updates. The loading docks will also be improved, and the locker and dressing rooms modernized.

Tad Snider, BJCC president and chief executive officer, said a team of architects and engineers have been hired to work on the design of the Legacy Arena upgrades and renovation. He said 30 percent of the design team is made up of local minority-and women-owned firms. The names of those firms weren't immediately released.

Discussions on bidding out the construction work on Legacy Arena won't start until 2019, Snider said.

Regarding the downtown stadium, Snider said the BJCC is in the early design phase. Selection of the full design team, and other pre-construction decisions will be made later this year and or early 2019.

"These are large scale and complex projects," Snider said. "We are pleased with the progress made to date and look forward to the progress ahead. We continue to be grateful for the public and private partners who have helped get us to this point, including the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, the Jefferson County legislative delegation, UAB and the business community."

In addition to the bond sale, a loan from Regions Bank is being backed by corporate supporters of the projects and the lease agreement with UAB.

UAB will lease the stadium for its practices, six to 10 home games and post-game play for 20 years. Rent for the first 10 years will be $25,000 per regular season game, $15,000 for any post-season game and $10,000 for the UAB spring practice game.

UAB and corporate partners will also provide $350,000 in marketing and naming rights for the stadium.