Huntsville updates

[marvingardns]

Breuggers closed downtown.

The city and developers are reading the market all wrong. It takes upwardly mobile 20-30 somethings to give them (and us) what we are looking for. Building 350k condos is not going to get them there.

[HSVTiger]

Photo by Dave Dieter / The Huntsville Times

In this photo, on the left is the Madison County Courthouse, on the right
Huntsville City Hall which is having problems with the marble slabs possibly
coming lose. Talk is leaning toward building a new city hall if it is too expensive to repair. The downtown fire station that is in this building is already moving to a new station about a mile west on Clinton.

Both of these buildings are like 5000 years old or so it seems.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by marvingardns

Breuggers closed downtown.

The city and developers are reading the market all wrong. It takes upwardly mobile 20-30 somethings to give them (and us) what we are looking for. Building 350k condos is not going to get them there.

well I imagine this will put an end to Triads feeble attempt to put an afterthought restaurant at the top of the Big Spring Summit and an end to the
poorly executed Ovation project. But sometimes these devlopers pull something out at the last second. Breuggers may have bailed too soon with the new Downtown YMCA opening across the street. I expect to see somebody take over that space soon.

[HSVTiger]

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer [email protected]
Company also raises starting pay and adds benefits

Verizon Wireless' Huntsville call center and state headquarters, which opened in September, continues to ramp up hiring, with about 500 customer service employees in place to take calls on technical and billing matters.

"We plan to hire another 600 by the end of the year," said Connie Howell, the center's manager of human resources. "Our capacity (for call-taker positions) is around 1,300," she said Friday.

The company has also raised the annual starting pay for employees at the Huntsville office and others in the South from $26,000 to $27,000, effective Jan. 1, in addition to benefits, such as tuition assistance and health and dental coverage. Verizon Wireless periodically conducts market surveys "to see if we're paying fairly and competitively with the area," she said.

[HSVTiger]

Connors Steak&Seafood is now open at Bridge Street

http://www.thechophouse.com/connors_index.html

PF Changs tenative opening is Jan. 25th.

[HSVTiger]

Coming soon

In the next month in the former Rosie's location will be Phil Sandoval's Mexican Restaurante. Interesting to see how it will fare going head to head with Rosies.

[HSVTiger]

Saturn V news

The Davidson Center will officially open to the public Feb. 9.

Also, the upright Saturn V will be lit at night again, Capps said.

"We had to move the lights while we moved and built the Davidson Center," he said. "So on Jan. 28 we are going to flip the switch and people will be able to see the rocket across Huntsville and along (I-565) now for the first time in more than a year."


Photo by Dave Dieter / The Huntsville Times

[HSVTiger]

St James Place planned for Jones Valley. This will be just east of Bailey Landing and Brusters Ice Cream on Cecil Ashburn Dr.

[HSVTiger]

This is interesting, their son is on the UAH hockey team and his parents are a bit famous.

"According to the Huntsville Times, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, the parents of UAH freshman goaltender Wyatt Russell, have purchased a condo in Huntsville."
http://www.uscho.com/news/college-hockey/id,14552/ThisWeekintheCHANov12007.html

The condo has been rumored to be one of the Westin residences but some have said it was 301 East downtown. Maybe they will do some more investments in town.

[TimCity2000]

I actually like the modern design of city hall. I hope they don't tear it down.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Connors Steak&Seafood is now open at Bridge Street

http://www.thechophouse.com/connors_index.html

PF Changs tenative opening is Jan. 25th.

The word is now PF's will open Jan. 21 and the Five Guys location at Research
Park on Enterprise will open Jan. 19th. The Valley Bend location is already open.
Anthropologie opens Jan 31

[HSVTiger]

A lot of job opportunities at Bridge Street

http://www.bridgestreethuntsville.com/jobs.html

[marvingardns]

I actually like the modern design of city hall. I hope they don't tear it down.

Same here. Cool complex.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by marvingardns

Same here. Cool complex.

yes I've thought the design of the building has always been modern and good looking. I don't think we will see it torn down and hopefully if sold a buyer would bring it back as it was when new. Fo a 45 year old building the
architectural design is really quite impressive. Something that is not too common in Huntsville.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/120047856081460.xml&coll=1

The nine-story municipal building is beginning to show its age. A recent inspection found cracking marble wall slabs and failing sealant in the 45-year-old building. The council recently approved an emergency resolution to fence off threatened areas and build a high-strength protective awning over the main entrance.

City General Services Director Jeff Easter said the safety measures may be in place for up to a year while a firm specializing in marble exteriors conducts analyzes the building's exterior.

Kling said he will push for repairs such as replacing the marble panels unless the job is too costly.

Watson said Tuesday a new building might make better sense than spending millions of dollars to fix a building that has a history of expensive repairs. He suggested selling the municipal complex and turning part of the site into park space if the building won't be reused.

"The existing site should be worth an awful lot of money," he said

[marvingardns]

So Triad has until the 8th of February to sign on a restaurant? I thought that deadline passed in early December. I say don't count on it.

It will be interesting to hear what Lowell Barron has to say today at the Holiday Inn.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by marvingardns

So Triad has until the 8th of February to sign on a restaurant? I thought that deadline passed in early December. I say don't count on it.

It will be interesting to hear what Lowell Barron has to say today at the Holiday Inn.

From WAFF

"The Summit office building is a nice office building, I just wish it was located across the street instead of in the park itself," says District four City Councilman Bill Kling.

Kling had his concerns from the beginning. When The Summit Project first began, they were required to include a three-thousand square foot restaurant.

Owner William Stroud was given until February of 2008 to meet those requirements. That still hasn't been fulfilled.

"I'm disappointed that the office building was opened without the required 3,000 square foot restaurant," says Kling.

Kling says a large restaurant would have helped the project. Now he's siding with the geese, ducks and park-goers.

"When it expires, I am going to ask them that no more second chance given, let's just leave Big Spring Park as much as possible for the public."

The building is NOT in the park, it is sitting on top of the existing parking garage space, which must be in the park as well according to Kling.

Anyway this deal is dead which is good in this case.

[HSVTiger]

Veterans Memorial Downtown set to begin soon. This will be at the current
Gateway park across from the railroad roundhouse.



WAFF
The Madison County Veterans' Memorial Foundation officially kicked off its fundraising campaign for the new veterans memorial in downtown Huntsville.

Donors have already contributed more than $150,000 to the memorial campaign.

Board members also announced that Cathy Anderson, of Woody Anderson Ford, will lead community fundraising efforts.

She said she is thrilled and wants to start building soon.

Cathy Anderson said,"we are looking forward to building it. We want to do it 2008. We want to raise our funds, have a groundbreaking then and then in 2009, we want to be ribbon cutting."

Anderson told us the memorial will cost about 4 million dollars to build.

[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

City General Services Director Jeff Easter said the safety measures may be in place for up to a year while a firm specializing in marble exteriors conducts analyzes the building's exterior.

Kling said he will push for repairs such as replacing the marble panels unless the job is too costly.

Watson said Tuesday a new building might make better sense than spending millions of dollars to fix a building that has a history of expensive repairs. He suggested selling the municipal complex and turning part of the site into park space if the building won't be reused.

"The existing site should be worth an awful lot of money," he said

Sounds similar to what happened to the Aon Building here in Chicago about 20 years ago. It's currently our second-tallest building. The exterior was originally clad in marble, till it began falling off the 1136-ft tall building. They recladded the whole building with granite, and it wound up costing half as much as constructing the whole original building.

[HSVTiger]

Huntsville Museum of Art expansion to begin soon


Photo courtesy Fuqua & Partners Architects

Renderings from Fuqua & Partners Architects of Huntsville won location, character and extent approval Wednesday by a city planning subcommittee.

Plans call for a 22,750-square-foot addition that would add several galleries, a 300-seat multipurpose auditorium, a covered outdoor stage facing Big Spring International Park and some parking spaces below a canopy of a walk-in terrace featuring a sculpture garden.

Construction is expected to begin by June, with a targeted opening in summer 2009, according to architect Joe Fuqua.

In all, the total cost of the project is estimated at $11 million, including $2 million from a city special tax district. The remainder will mostly come from donations, according to museum President and CEO Clayton Bass.

Since announcing the plans for a museum expansion two years ago, Bass said, the museum has raised about $10 million.

[HSVTiger]

Sometimes the best development is none at all

By STEVE DOYLE
Times Staff Writer [email protected]
Organization now has 112 acres on Berry Mountain

One of Maysville's founding families has made sure that the community will always have green space.

Jean Berry and her daughter, Lynne Berry, recently donated 19 acres on Berry Mountain to the Land Trust of Huntsville & North Alabama. The mountain was named for Jean Berry's grandfather, J.T. Berry, and his brother Ephraim Jacks Berry, who settled in Maysville after the Civil War.

The wooded property northeast of Huntsville includes Berry Spring, an important water source for Indians long before the Berry family arrived.

Cynthia Parker, the Land Trust's executive director, said the Berry tract gives the nonprofit group a total of 112 acres on Berry Mountain that won't be developed. It is not open for hiking because the lone access road crosses private property, she said.
Meantime, Parker said the state's Forever Wild conservation program is close to buying 154 acres on Monte Sano's north slope from the Terry family. The deal is expected to be completed in the next six weeks, she said.

Located off Bankhead Parkway, the L-shaped property will connect a corner of Monte Sano State Park to the Land Trust's Monte Sano Preserve. It would be the biggest expansion of the state park in nearly a decade.

Forever Wild has agreed to pay 90 percent of the purchase price, with the City of Huntsville chipping in $50,000 and the Land Trust adding $25,000.

The land is owned by Monte Sano resident Bob Terry and his sister, Sue Driskell of Louisville, Ky. The purchase price won't be disclosed until later, Parker said.

"We'll be working in the future to add property in that vicinity so we can hopefully have an access point" to the mountain, Parker said Wednesday.