The demolition of a vacant strip mall got mixed reaction from people who live in Highland and Five Points South on Wednesday. The demolition will make room for new a development. The Birmingham City Council voted months ago to approve a new apartment complex and retail and office space in the lot where the Western grocery store once sat.Residents in the area said they would’ve preferred a grocery store replacing the old one that closed a few years back. This left the area as a food desert, but some see the new development as an asset to the community and believe there’s a much bigger end goal in mind.“They were crushed to have no source of food that they could actually get to,” Birmingham District 3 city councilor Valerie Abbott said. “Western going away was a big deal. It’s a mixed blessing but you still don’t want vacant properties that are unoccupied sitting unoccupied.”Developer Daniel Corporation will bring 270 luxury apartments with 10,000 square feet of office and retail space. People who live nearby are having a hard time seeing it.“To build more apartments to get more people up here on the southside cause we have enough apartments up here to get more people up here but what we really need is more grocery stores up here,” Brenda Curry, who lives in the area, said. “That’s what we really need.”Curry said she has to walk three or four miles just to get to the nearest store.“I can’t get to where I’m going unless I catch a bus or call a cab and they charge you a fortune to go where you’re trying to go,” she said. “And Zip— they won’t even show up half the time.”Abbott said she hopes the new development will include a grocery store, too. There is no word when construction will begin.