Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

We knew aerospace and defense are big in Huntsville but did you know

"Huntsville, Ala.
Huntsville/Madison County and Redstone Arsenal play a vital role in U.S. Army programs for missiles and aviation. More than half of the Army's weapons procurement budget is managed by agencies at Redstone and so are more than half of the Army's foreign weapons sales. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, also at Redstone, is a key to the nation's space propulsion and scientific missions programs. Almost every major U.S. aerospace corporation has a presence in the community, with more than 250 companies employing 27,000 people. In total, more than 44,000 workers are directly involved in the local aerospace and defense industries."

Mobile is also high on the list

This from Southern Business and Development
http://www.sb-d.com/issues/winter2007/features/10GreatPlacesForAviationAndAerospace.asp

[daveyp]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Whole Foods most likely would locate at Bridge Street if they are interested.
This place Earth Fare would be a better fit downtown
http://www.earthfare.com/

yeah, i like earth fare a lot. not quite as much as whole foods though. but i guess it really is more realistic. i don't see whole foods coming to hsv for at least several more years.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by daveyp

yeah, i like earth fare a lot. not quite as much as whole foods though. but i guess it really is more realistic. i don't see whole foods coming to hsv for at least several more years.

Whole Foods IS coming to Huntsville. Originally Wild Oats was to come to Bridge Street but because Whole Foods went and bought Wild Oats, we're gonna see either Wild Oats, owned by Whole Foods or they'll just brand it as Whole Foods from the get-go.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by daveyp

yeah, i like earth fare a lot. not quite as much as whole foods though. but i guess it really is more realistic. i don't see whole foods coming to hsv for at least several more years.

in the meantime this is a great place, probably cheaper and better service
than the big guys. It's local and downtown!
http://www.gardencoveproduce.com/

[daveyp]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

in the meantime this is a great place, probably cheaper and better service
than the big guys. It's local and downtown!
http://www.gardencoveproduce.com/

yeah i actually used to work at garden cove. i love it, but they are so limited by their religion. not open on saturday, weird hours, no beer. and they refuse to expand the store to include prepared foods like you can get at whole foods, greenlife, earth fare, etc. also, the produce is a lot cheaper (and definitely the best in town), but the groceries are a lot pricier than the big guys.

neilson, where did you see that about wild oats/whole foods coming to huntsville? neither one has plans for a new store in alabama according to their sites. and i've contacted whole foods and they said they had not considered huntsville yet.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by daveyp

yeah i actually used to work at garden cove. i love it, but they are so limited by their religion. not open on saturday, weird hours, no beer. and they refuse to expand the store to include prepared foods like you can get at whole foods, greenlife, earth fare, etc. also, the produce is a lot cheaper (and definitely the best in town), but the groceries are a lot pricier than the big guys.

neilson, where did you see that about wild oats/whole foods coming to huntsville? neither one has plans for a new store in alabama according to their sites. and i've contacted whole foods and they said they had not considered huntsville yet.

It was on the Bridge Street Website, regarding Wild Oats.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

another view of Constellation, looking southeast

official groundbreaking today at 3:00 pm

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

official groundbreaking today at 3:00 pm

Two hotels will be new prototype versions of Courtyard and Springhill Suites
by Marriott
Maybe a slight hint in regard to retailers who were not named, the developer said his phone is ringing a lot and mentioned the development is a "target"

[HSVTiger]

a bit more from WAAY TV

"The property on Memorial Parkway between Governors and Clinton downtown will now be stripped and cleaned before construction on a new development begins. "Constellation" will be a mixed-use center comprised of two hotels, 40,000 square feet or retail space, 60,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of restaurants, 70 residential lots and parking for nearly 1,000 cars.


The project will create between 250 and 350 jobs by the time it's complete and will take up about 18.8 acres."

[HSVTiger]

There are reports that "many" developers are seriously looking for land
and projects to put downtown. What exactly is not known but in any case this project and the work that has already been done is getting serious
attention, 150 million will do that for you. McLain has been going to this conference as many do for years, the groundwork and contacts related to this project was established last year. Bridge Street reps also have a lot to attract at the show.

By JOHN PECKTimes Staff Writer [email protected]
Developer confirms Courtyard, Springhill then flies to retail show

Architectural plans are in place and the demolition is nearly complete. Now comes an aggressive search for retail tenants for a planned $150 million development at the old Market Square site downtown.

The proposed Constellation would feature two hotels, restaurants, shops, a condominium or apartment tower, office space and plenty of parking across the 18-plus acres that was the site of the 1960s-era Heart of Huntsville mall.

Huntsville commercial developer Scott McLain planned to travel to Las Vegas today for a five-day retail recruiting blitz at an international conference of shopping centers.

"I hope we'll fill up the restaurant outparcels out there. That's what I hope, for starters," McLain said Friday afternoon after a kickoff announcement of the redevelopment plan.

He was referring to three parcels fronting Memorial Parkway that he hopes to fill with trendy restaurants such as Hard Rock Cafe or Cheesecake Factory.

Marriott Courtyard and Springhill Suites, part of the Marriott family, will fill the hotel sites, officials announced Friday. McLain said he's already fielded numerous calls from restaurant prospects and hopes to meet more along with retail and condo developers at the Las Vegas conference.

Mayor Loretta Spencer, City Council members Mark Russell and Glenn Watson and others joined McLain and McLain's business partner, Manu Patel, for Friday's "groundshaking."

McLain had Spencer wave a magician's wand as a cue for two backhoes - one manned by Watson, the council president - to push over the old mall marquee. The photo-op was delayed a few moments for Watson to gain control of his machine.

"I should have practiced a little bit," Watson said as he walked from the toppling of the aging mall sign.

McLain said Constellation will create a more attractive gateway from the Parkway to downtown. He also hopes that it will provide places that will help boost Huntsville's appeal to young professionals.

Beth Martin, a 36-year-old banker involved with the Huntsville Young Professionals organization, likes what McLain has planned. Martin said she might even be interested in a condo if it's affordable and a fit for her, her husband and young daughter.

"I work downtown, so I'd like to live downtown and play downtown. This would be a great combination of the live, work, shop, play philosophy,'' said Martin, retail sales manager for AmSouth Bank.

Huntsville lawyer Breck Robinson, 29, moved to Hunts-ville after spending five years in Los Angeles and a year in Atlanta. Robinson said Constellation will provide even more places for the younger professional crowd: "I think the mixed-use idea is something that is catching on all over."

Robinson guessed that an affordable range for a condo would be about $200,000. If apartments are offered, $500 to $800 for a single bedroom and $1,000 for a double would seem reasonable, he said.

The hotel additions will bring to 1,000 the number of downtown rooms within easy walking distance of the Von Braun Center. Judy Ryals with the Huntsville-Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau said the additional rooms will help Huntsville book bigger conventions and events.

[HSVTiger]

About as low as you can go, the main thing to holding the state back is ALDOT and high gas prices(nationwide)

From staff, wire reportsHuntsville Times
Local employers add nearly 4,000 jobs last month

Madison County's unemployment rate dropped again in April, falling to 2.1 percent from 2.5 percent in March.

Alabama's unemployment rate in April fell to 3.3 percent, slightly less than the 3.4 percent recorded in March. The comparable national rate for April was 4.5 percent, according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.

County employers added nearly 4,000 jobs in April, bringing the total number of employed workers to 161,589. Only three counties have lower unemployment rates - Shelby (1.8 percent), Baldwin (2.0) and Blount (2.0). Wilcox had the state's highest rate at 6.8 percent.
(remember when 6.8 was low)

The Huntsville metropolitan area, which includes Madison and Limestone counties, continues to have the lowest jobless rate in the state at 2.1 percent.

Employment in the state in April grew by 5,700 over the previous month. Over the past 12 months, employment in Alabama has grown by 30,800.

Gov. Bob Riley said Alabama's good economic fortune can continue if voters approve a constitutional amendment on June 5 to increase the limit on the state's economic incentives fund.

"We have a strong economy in Alabama today, but we can make it even stronger with the approval of this amendment on June 5," Riley said in a news release. "As we've seen just recently, the competition for new jobs is intense. To compete and win, we must be able to offer economic incentives."

The constitutional amendment that goes before voters on June 5 was unanimously approved by the Legislature during a special session in February. It raises the current $350 million limit on the Capital Improvement Trust Fund to $750 million.

The increase will be used at least in part to provide some of the incentives that helped convince German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG to locate a $3.7 billion plant in Mobile County, bringing 2,700 jobs. Louisiana also had been courting the plant.

The Capital Improvement Trust Fund is funded from royalties paid to the state by oil and gas companies that operate off Alabama's coast.

Neal Wade, director of the Alabama Development Office, said the June 5 vote is critical for Alabama's future. "We have the opportunity to set the stage for a decade of growth in Alabama, but only if this amendment is approved," Wade said.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

the biggest blight on southern cities besides Walmart sprawl would have to be
Dollar General. They are like locusts, eat everything in sight and move on leaving destruction and waste.
From The Huntsville Times the sad tale of greed..

"Oak Brook is a beautiful circle of hillside homes worth $200,000 and up on Old Madison Pike just west of Slaughter Road. A handful of those homes, unfortunately, overlook what may be the ugliest commercial building in Madison County: a Dollar General store.

What makes it a candidate for ugliest?

The developer dug out the hillside, paved it, stacked hundreds of white boulders on naked slopes to stop runoff, then put up a metal rectangle whose most-distinguishing feature is the big yellow "Dollar General" sign out front.

That sign shines through Scott Boyett's bedroom window at night. It's what several other homeowners look down on from their decks.

When the subdivision was developed, Boyett says, the builder tried to buy the wooded lot. The owner, an elderly gentleman, had no interest in selling. No intention.

He died, and his heirs thought differently, Boyett says. They could sell, and they did. Capabilities.

When homeowners saw the trees coming down, they got organized. It didn't matter.
Madison "wouldn't claim it, Huntsville wouldn't claim it," says resident Christina Williams.

It turned out the property was a tiny island of Madison County. For newcomers, being in the county means few rules, few limits, few controls.

Residents sought influence, anyway. At least, develop it right, they pleaded. Maybe a retaining wall, they suggested.

Dollar General was interested and willing to help pay, Boyett says, but it never happened. What did happen is a textbook case of legal, but ugly. And after the deed was done, Huntsville annexed the land.

The story has an OK ending for Oak Brook Circle and also some irony. Homes still sell quickly there, and residents credit that to quality and price. A lot of Madison homes cost either $100,000 or $400,000 these days, they say.

But tomorrow, signs go up announcing the closing of the Dollar General, store employees say. Along with several other Dollar Generals in the area, it will go away this summer. Dollar General apparently overbuilt in Madison.

So, the store that toppled the trees, bouldered the hills and lit up the night for nearly three years didn't make it. In a way, it was all for nothing. The residents of Oak Brook might be savoring that bitter irony and poetic justice, but they're not."

You have to wonder what people who make these decisions are thinking? stores less than a mile a part won't make it.
If the entire Dollar General chain went under it would be an improvement.

not sorry to see these go

By BRIAN LAWSONTimes Business Writer [email protected]
Moves are part of restructuring plandisclosed last year

Four area Dollar General stores will close as part of a companywide restructuring announced last year.

The stores slated to be closed by July include those at 7670 Old Madison Pike, 5011 Wall-Triana Highway, 8760 Alabama 20 W. and 93 Hughes Road in Madison, said Dollar General Corp. spokeswoman Tawn Earnest.


Earnest said Dollar General stores typically have six to 10 employees. The company's goal is to reassign affected employees to nearby stores or to new stores that will be opened nearby.
Earnest said the closings typically take eight to 12 weeks to complete.

Dollar General now has about 24 stores in the Madison County area.

[HSVTiger]

more residents mean more houses which means more furniture..in theory,

From staff reportsHuntsville Times
7th showroom in state is near Madison Square

Haverty Furniture Companies Inc. opens its newest store today at 930 Old Monrovia Road in Huntsville with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m.

The showroom is across from Madison Square Mall in a former Food World location. During the grand opening sale, shoppers may register to win a $2,500 furniture shopping spree

[newplace]

Originally Posted by daveyp

yeah i actually used to work at garden cove. i love it, but they are so limited by their religion. not open on saturday, weird hours, no beer. and they refuse to expand the store to include prepared foods like you can get at whole foods, greenlife, earth fare, etc. also, the produce is a lot cheaper (and definitely the best in town), but the groceries are a lot pricier than the big guys.

neilson, where did you see that about wild oats/whole foods coming to huntsville? neither one has plans for a new store in alabama according to their sites. and i've contacted whole foods and they said they had not considered huntsville yet.

I know the owners personally; I used to go to church with them. They are Seventh Day Adventist. The have a health message that they teach that dates back a hundred years. No alcohols, vegetarian diet, refrain from dairy and Sabbath is holy so they close their shop on Saturdays. Gardencove has been there for years, and has done very well, they have a great location. I wouldn’t say limited by there religion, some places close on Sundays, and others don’t open till noon, especially in the southern US.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

not sorry to see these go

By BRIAN LAWSONTimes Business Writer [email protected]
Moves are part of restructuring plandisclosed last year

Four area Dollar General stores will close as part of a companywide restructuring announced last year.

The stores slated to be closed by July include those at 7670 Old Madison Pike, 5011 Wall-Triana Highway, 8760 Alabama 20 W. and 93 Hughes Road in Madison, said Dollar General Corp. spokeswoman Tawn Earnest.


Earnest said Dollar General stores typically have six to 10 employees. The company's goal is to reassign affected employees to nearby stores or to new stores that will be opened nearby.
Earnest said the closings typically take eight to 12 weeks to complete.

Dollar General now has about 24 stores in the Madison County area.

That means only 2 Dollar Generals in Madison will be left. The Dollar General Market at Old Madison Pike and Hughes Road(glad it's staying open) and the Dollar General at Wall-Triana Hwy and Highway 72 next to Star Market.

[HSVTiger]

By JOHN PECKTimes Staff Writer [email protected]
Soaring property values along a once rural stretch of U.S. 72 in west Huntsville are pitting homeowner against homeowner in Beasley Spring Acres.

Decades-old deed covenants restrict many lots in the subdivision to residential use, although that didn't stop construction of a $4.5 million CVS drugstore/office building on a restricted lot near the Village of Providence.

Now, with pressure mounting for commercial development along the seven-lane highway as subdivisions bloom on the western side of Madison County, some homeowners in Beasley Spring Acres with highway frontage are thinking about cashing in.

An unusual proposal outlined in a class-action lawsuit would allow about two dozen residents along the highway to lift the deed restrictions to allow commercial development.

A local real estate expert said lifting the restrictions could fetch property owners up to $600,000 and more an acre.

[HSVTiger]

nice editorial about the Constellation project, thank goodness WalMart was
denied.

Huntsville Times
It could have been a Wal-Mart Supercenter, but it won't be. Whatever builder Scott McLain puts in Constellation, his splashy new development on Memorial Parkway, we dodged that bullet.

The Bentonville, Ark., behemoth wanted the entire site bordered by the Parkway, Clinton Avenue, the Von Braun Center and the city's new "river promenade," McLain confirms.

He told Wal-Mart that it couldn't afford what he would have to charge for the 18.8 acres "and the cost of putting me in the witness-relocation program." It was one of those jokes that's funnier because it's true. Selling to Wal-Mart would have sent villagers reaching for their pitchforks.

Beautiful architectural renderings show McLain's dream for his showplace site. But he makes the point that they're just renderings. The site will develop to fit the eventual tenants, he says.

Surely, he knows better. Build anything less than what we now expect, and McLain has a problem.

This will be fascinating to watch. Think of it as a laboratory where McLain tries to fuse the ideal and the practical. We consumers, of course, want only the ideal.

McLain is a mix of both. He's a visionary who dreams of a retail-residential complex that is nothing less than a beautiful new doorway to downtown. He's fascinated by the rail line between his property and the civic center and will do a graduate-study project this year on how it might become an in-town passenger line some day. (this will happen sooner than later)

But when he unveiled plans for Constellation last week, McLain's first goal was that it make money. It has to be economically feasible. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Because he's not seeking public financing, that means McLain and his partners face a series of temptations to shave a little eye candy here, cut a few frills there.

There's another challenge, too. McLain and city leaders want Constellation to be attractive to young people. But this is some of the most valuable land in Madison County. Will the kind of cool little coffee shops and hangouts young people like be able to afford it? Can young people pay what McLain's condominiums probably will have to cost? At least they could buy groceries at a Wal-Mart.

McLain has roots here. His late father, Gene, was a commercial real estate legend. His mother, Jeri, was the trusted longtime spokeswoman for Huntsville Hospital and now serves as mayor of Mooresville, that picture-postcard village between Huntsville and Interstate 65.

McLain knows that Constellation will be synonymous with his family name for decades. If he can deliver the vision, he'll be enshrined. If he has to compromise too much or, worse, builds just another vanilla shopping center, the family name could come to mean disappointment.

McLain is one of those special people Huntsville seems to create. It's hard to imagine anyone better to trust with a challenge this big. He cares enough to dream.

Here's hoping he can make it work. If anyone can, he's the guy. But McLain is on a high wire in the center ring now. Let's hold our breath that he doesn't slip.

Reach Lee Roop at 532-4423 or [email protected].

[neilson]

It would be very interesting to see if a Light Rail Line could be constructed in Huntsville, reaching from Alabama A&M in the North to Ditto Landing in the South.

I know that a lot of the old L&N track has been dismantled and pulled up from the area north of Max Luther Drive but What sort of costs would be incurred to lay track back down again and actually build a new, fresh from scratch path that would go right to A&M?

[Rail Claimore]

^It shouldn't be too bad as long as the ROW has been preserved.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

^It shouldn't be too bad as long as the ROW has been preserved.

In reality I'm all for a Light Rail line.

Just off the top of my head, here are some practical places for the Light Rail to have stations at(Going from South to North):

-Ditto Landing
-Probably near Hobbs Road
-Probably another station at Mtn. Gap Road or perhaps closer to Willowbrook Drive.
-Gotta have a Haysland/Lilly Flagg Station
-probably the next best station north of there would be just north of Martin Road and allow for easy access to Whitesburg Baptist Church.
-A station at Airport Road
-Parkway Place Station
-Constellation/VBC/Downtown station
-probably one at Pratt Ave. too with relatively easy access to 5 Points via bus or the like.
-An Oakwood Ave. Station
and then it gets tricky till you get up to A&M.

Now, would we be able to "twin" the railway so we can have the light rail have a North and a South track? How much ROW would be needed for that?