I think that having a facility that looks as bad as Bryce does right now is a bad reflection on the state anyways. Honestly, I don't think that losing the facility will hurt that city all that much. It already puts a bit of a black eye on the University when out of state potential students visit and don't understand the relationship between the University and the hospital. They see run down buildings and a fenced off property with run down, cracking roads, leading to outdated buildings. That definitely does not help the school in the way of the students, and more importantly, the parents
I understand what you mean with the prestige detail, and in most cases I would agree. However, the state simply doesn't have the resources, or initiative, to take care of the facilities, and if they don't the University needs to take it one because it does have the resources.
Besides, I'm honestly more concerned with treating the patients better and giving them better lives, which I'm convinced would have more potential to occur if the main facility were in Birmingham. Frankly, Birmingham has much better doctors, a larger population, a larger jobs sector to provide opportunities for rehab. Not to mention that the facility moving to Birmingham would create an enormous opportunity to help educational and research efforts at UAB; and by helping those two things out, you could in turn aid the mental health facility.