With the sweet sounds of a youth chorus and the crunch of heavy machinery, Red Mountain Theatre Company heralded the construction of a $25 million arts campus in Birmingham.

This week, about 175 people -- theater organizers, city officials, arts supporters, students, staffers and more -- attended a groundbreaking ceremony on the construction site in the city’s Parkside district. Wednesday’s event showcased one of the theater’s missions, training young people in the performing arts, with two performances by a group of about 20 singers. It also offered a peek at the construction process, as parts of two walls were knocked down in dramatic style.

When the project is completed in summer 2021, Red Mountain Theatre Company will have a new headquarters that covers about three-quarters of a block at 1600 Third Ave. South, close to Railroad Park and Regions Field. The location, purchased for more than $5 million, formerly housed Wittichen Supply Co.

“It’s a huge undertaking for the theater, the city of Birmingham and the state of Alabama,” said Keith Cromwell, Red Mountain Theatre Company’s executive director. “For this organization to achieve its maximum potential, it needs a permanent home."

Currently, the nonprofit theater uses about 10 different locations for its productions, classrooms, offices, storage facilities and the like, juggling them in piecemeal style. Organizers have made that situation work for decades, but as the theater has changed and grown under Cromwell’s leadership, the logistical demands have followed suit.

“Because of that spreading out, we just weren’t very efficient in how we produce the works we do,” said Drew Francis, Red Mountain Theatre’s marketing director. “We’d really like to expand our eduction programming, to be a lively kind of campus. And there are people who work full-time who’ll have a place to go every day and create their art."

To the casual observer, Red Mountain Theatre is an energetic company that offers a season of plays, most of them musicals, at two different venues downtown. But the organization also is a school for young performers, an incubator for new works, a producer for Broadway musicals and more.

The theater, founded in 1979 as Summerfest, now has an annual operating budget of about $4 million and a full-time staff of 23 people. It has big plans, far-reaching ambitions and, organizers say, a bright future.

In time, they hope, Red Mountain Theatre Company will join the ranks of regional theaters with national clout, such as the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Connecticut.

For now, though, Red Mountain Theatre’s team is focused on the creation of a 50,000-square-foot campus that will take them one step closer to reaching their goals.

“We’re really at a seminal moment in our journey here,” Cromwell said. “I’m scared out of my mind and elated, beyond thrilled.”

The new campus will include two theaters, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, administrative offices, a bar, a donor lounge, a recording studio, a green room, production offices, back-of-the-house facilities and storage spaces (for sets, costumes and the like). A parking lot is part of the design, as well.

Cromwell described the overall aesthetic as “funky and cool, like you’re in the ‘it’ place,” with design details such as exposed beams and iron pillars. “We’re dedicated to that sort of warehouse industrial feel,” he said.

LIVE Design Group is the architect for the campus; Brasfield & Gorrie is the general contractor. Harbert Realty Services is involved in the project, as well.

To pay for the project, the theater has launched a $25 million capital campaign chaired by local philanthropist Kathryn Harbert. Organizers declined to be specific about the sum raised thus far, but the campaign appears to be well underway, with about 30 individuals and businesses on a donor list that was unveiled at Wednesday’s ceremony.

Harbert and her husband, Raymond J. Harbert, top the list, along with Medical Properties Trust and Gillian and Mike Goodrich. Other donors range from the Alabama Power Foundation to the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

“Our angel donors want the theater to become on par with the food industry here,” Cromwell said, pointing to Birmingham’s thriving restaurant scene and award-winning chefs such as Frank Stitt. “We want to be bold. That’s bold with a capital B, underlined.”

Already, Red Mountain Theatre Company has been among the producers for a handful of Broadway shows, such as “The Bridges of Madison County," “Moulin Rouge!” and “Once on This Island,” a 2018 Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical. Red Mountain Theatre also is one of the producers for the Alabama premiere of “The Scottsboro Boys,” to be recreated here by members of the original Broadway team. The show is set to debut next year at the Princess Theatre in Decatur.

At home, Red Mountain Theatre is in the midst of its 2019-2020 season, which includes holiday-themed shows through the end of the month and musicals such as “Porgy and Bess,” “Bright Star” and “Kinky Boots” in 2020. Summer productions will include “Willy Wonka Jr.” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr.," both featuring kid-centric casts.

The theater also hosts an annual Human Rights New Works Festival, mounting staged readings of plays that cover a wide range of social and political issues. The readings are followed by community conversations with the writers, directors and cast members.

Cromwell said the theater’s journey is “a marathon, not a sprint,” and the groundbreaking on Wednesday has been a long time coming. The theater has considered several other locations in the past, announcing plans for at least one of them: the former warehouse of ABSCO Fireplace & Patio on Fifth Avenue South in Lakeview.

Things didn’t work out for that property, but this time, organizers said they’ve found a perfect fit.

“The programming document fit this real estate to a T,” Cromwell said. “And location, location, location, hello. We couldn’t be happier. We’re in the middle of everything.”