Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by PSMadison

Nothing firm from Volkswagen yet, but rumors are looking positive:

From WHNT:
http://www.whnt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8624543&nav=menu108_1_7

Reuters, citing the German automobile newsletter Automobilwoche, says Alabama will likely be the home of the new North American Volkswagen plant. The article uses confidential sources but says the sources are senior Volkswagen officials. The article also says the announcement will come before July 21. But many involved in the process say the announcement might be confirmed on July 8.

And Reuters:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUKL0544222520080706

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Alabama will be the likely home of a new Volkswagen manufacturing plant, beating two other states, German industry newsletter Automobilwoche said on Saturday, citing senior company sources.

Most of this info is in the VW Alabama thread, but if the site in Huntsville is chosen then I guess future posts about it could be in this thread. I would not be surprised if there are some surprises to come in this thing. I can't imagine VW would allow "leaks" to occur without them wanting it to.
I wonder how long officials have been working on this deal, probably 6 months to a year without anyone really knowing it.?

[HSVTiger]

Quite a bit of work beginning on the large lot on Governors Drive just west of Triana Blvd. Anyone have any ideas of what it will be? Brasfield and Gorrie
is the contractor it looks like.
Also some earth moving next to Landry's Seafood Restaurant on Bob Wallace.
Maybe another hotel or restaurant?

[mp7123]

someone said a while back that it was going to be a Thompson Caterpiller dealership. Don't know about next to landry's

[HSVTiger]

more work at the airport on the way

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer [email protected]
92-acre site will double the park's warehouse space

A Connecticut developer's plans to build more than 2 million square feet of office and warehouse facilities in Jetplex Industrial Park South would double the park's warehouse/distribution space.

J.A. Green Development, based in Greenwich, Conn., said it will buy 92 acres in the park and soon begin building an air-cargo and distribution building of about 100,000 square feet. The 92-acre site will house about 1 million square feet of office/warehouse space eventually, according to the company.

[HSV79]

Well I'm gonna let this leak before the actual press announcement later today. I'm sure they will make this seem worse than what it is. But the info I'm about to say is 100% truth from Toyota Motor Corporation. First off TMMAL which stands for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama builds the V8 for the Tundra and also builds V6 for the Tacoma. They actually have two V8 engines one is a 4 something liter older V8 and of course the new 5.7 liter V8 which goes in the new Tundra trucks. Well with the downturn in the economy and a new model 09 engines coming the 08 engine will cease. What does this all mean? Well starting August 08 production on the two V8's will stop for 3 months. All Toyota Team Members will STILL be employed but they will not build engines for that time period...they will work on other projects in the plant and will make way for new and exciting things coming down the pipeline. The V6 engines will continue to be produced and is not affected at this time. Now some other news TMMI which is the Indiana plant will shift it's production of the Tacoma/Tundra to TMMTX the Texas plant.
So the Texas plant will only produce trucks and the Indiana plant will continue to make Camry's and the planned Highlander plant in Mississippi known as TMMMS will not make Highlanders as planned but will instead produce a brand new vehicle to the United States. They will produce the Prius Hybrid Sedan. So the planned Highlander will go to the Indiana plant. Now come November TMMAL will start to produce the 5.7 liter V8 for the Tundra again making that engine the 09 model. And well what for the older V8? We shall see.....

[HSVTiger]

interesting stuff about Toyota

Some funding for local transportaion projects most of these are already underway.

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommitee bill now goes to the full Appropriations Committee for consideration. It includes:

$1.646 million for UAH's intermodal facility and $500,000 for the school's office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Logistics Research. The three-story intermodal center will include parking space, connection to city and campus bus services and campus police offices. It is expected to be open this fall and will cost a total of about $9 million.

$1.372 million to build an intermodal center in Cummings Research Park.

$274,000 for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's tramway system, which ultimately will connect with the Huntsville Botanical Gardens, "allowing tourists convenient access to both attractions," Senator Shelby said in a statement.

[marvingardns]

Quite a bit of work beginning on the large lot on Governors Drive just west of Triana Blvd. Anyone have any ideas of what it will be? Brasfield and Gorrie
is the contractor it looks like.
Also some earth moving next to Landry's Seafood Restaurant on Bob Wallace.
Maybe another hotel or restaurant?

I had heard from a business owner about 3 -4 months ago on Triana that surveyors were operating in his neighborhood. He's a bit off from where this site prep is going on, but it may be one in the same. I'll see if he's got any more details.

[marvingardns]

I rode through Five Points a few days ago. I drove up and down every street from Maple Hill to Oakwood and counted 32 houses up for sale! Asking prices were running from $150/sqft from Maple Hill to Beirne to $130 north to at least Stephens. I did not cross over west across Andrew Jackson so I don't know what housing prices are there. Construction still going heavy on Rison.

[HSVTiger]

Latest census figures show Huntsville is the fastest growing city in Alabama, showing a population increase of more than 3,000 since last year. The city has grown by more than 11,000 since 2000. Huntsville city now stands at 171,327. The city of Madison which is adjacent to HSV has 38,275 up from 37,469.
http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2007-04-01.csv

[HSVTiger]

The world's largest bookseller, has opened a new bookstore in Bridge Street Town Centre on July 9 at 300 The Bridge Street, Huntsville, Alabama. Concurrently, the existing store at 5850-A University Drive will close. The new store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee. The new Bridge Street Barnes & Noble will be open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. The Barnes & Noble Cafe will open at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. The new store will employ approximately 40 people from the community.
From MarketWatch.com

[jonnie256]

So what going on with the Constelation project, and also the SweetWater project,and also the Madison/countyline rd. project and whats going on with the Huntsville height limit issue???????sorry for all the ?'s LOL,just tryin to find out some up dates?

ps~ What is going to be developed on the corner or Jeff rd. and U.S Hwy 72?

[g-man435]

Sweetwater project is on hold from my understanding. I think Bass Pro Shops is still moving forward though. I thought Constellation started construction last year. Shows how much I know.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Here's the latest on Sweetwater. Decatur officials and developers finally stopped their stalling and are now moving forward. There were some problems with the hotel involvement. I wasn't able to read the article, so I don't know what's going on. Hopefully, I'll be able to read the paper online in a few days.

http://decaturdaily.com/stories/14362.html

[g-man435]

That's good news. Be sure to post the entire article here when you get it because I can't read it either.

[HSVTiger]

From WHNT

NewsChannel 19's Barry Hiett Reports:

It's a vacant field right now next to Interstate 65. It's where the proposed Sweetwater project will be built.

But this time next year you can expect to see A Bass Pro Shops store on the Limestone County land.

"Other than trying to close the deal in a time frame that will let the store get opened at the right time for them, Bass Pro has indicated they would like to open in the early summer time frame to get out of school buying season, vacation and lead into the fall hunting season," says Decatur Mayor Don Kyle.

Bass Pro officials have indicated all along they want to be part of Sweetwater even though several folks from north Alabama visit the nearby Nashville store.

Julie Schuster is the promotions manager for the Nashville Bass Pro Shops store.

"Probably today if you look at our parking lot, you'll see Alabama license plates. We get a lot of business from down there."

With Bass Pro seemingly a lock, Decatur Mayor Don Kyle says the next order of business is to get a major hotel lined up for Sweetwater.

"The big hotel company that once pulled out is still the leader in the negotiations, they're in the picture."

Still,Kkyle says, Sweetwater is not officially a done deal.

"I think we're 12 to 15 words apart between lawyers in having the binding document finished. We're very close to this point to having all the little fine points taken care of and presenting something to the council."

But Kyle quickly adds, it's only a matter of time.

[HSVTiger]

Decatur Daily article update Bass Pro/ Sweetwater
The council will accept public input about the project later this month.

After months of delay, they have set a date for the City Council to consider binding documents for the development's 125-acre first phase.

If approved, the contracts would guarantee the construction of a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and a hotel and convention center at Alabama 20 and Interstate 65 in Decatur.

According to a legal notice provided to The Daily, the council will host a hearing to solicit public input at its next regular meeting at 10 a.m. July 21.

The council is set to vote on contracts to formalize the deal at a called meeting July 28.

In addition, according to an inter-office e-mail obtained by The Daily, the council is expected to consider follow-up house-keeping measures for the development at its Aug. 4 meeting.

"There's a great amount of relief to get to a point where the council can consider documents binding to all the parties involved," said Mayor Don Kyle. "This is great for the intermediate and long-term future of the city."

Final drafts not finished

Despite the announcement, attorneys were not finished with final drafts of the contracts Friday. City attorney Herman Marks said he anticipates those to be ready for the council to review early next week.

The project was announced in mid-March and officials were expected to hold the first groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed 536-acre, $1.3 billion development more than a month ago.

But Sweetwater's viability has been in question since May, when hotel developer John Q. Hammons backed out of the project, taking with him a $60 million hotel and convention center to be built adjacent to Bass Pro.

Without the hotel and its tax revenues, some city officials said they could not afford to be involved in the development.

Hotel included in plans

Those concerns apparently have been alleviated. Language in the legal notice includes guarantees from Sweetwater developer Genesis U.S.A. that a 250-room hotel and a 60,000-square-foot conference center would be constructed.

The notice does not specify who would build them.

The notice also contains financial and legal assurances on behalf of the developer and Bass Pro, guaranteeing that tax revenues generated at the development will be sufficient for the city to repay debt associated with millions in incentives it would provide to Bass Pro and Genesis.

If approved, the contracts would call for the construction of a 130,000- to 150,000-square-foot Bass Pro and the hotel and convention center, according to the legal notice.

They would not guarantee the construction of an additional 225,000 square feet of retail space that were originally proposed for the project's first phase, nor would the contracts guarantee completion of any succeeding phases in the Sweetwater development.

According to the legal notice, Genesis "has agreed to use its best efforts to ensure" that 225,000 square feet of additional retail space is completed within 30 months of closing, but it is not required to complete or start the work.

By approving the contracts, the council would commit the city to borrow $14 million to purchase property and provide infrastructure for Bass Pro.

Forming authority

The council would also commit to forming a Commercial Development Authority that would borrow an additional $36 million to help pay for construction of the Bass Pro building.

In addition, the council could be committing another $3.75 million to cover infrastructure for additional retail space, but that matter is contingent on the developer's ability to build and lease the space.

As of Friday, three of five councilmen said they had not yet seen the contracts. The Daily was unable to contact Councilmen Ray Metzger, District 5, and Gary Hammon, District 3.

"From what I understand, they pretty much follow the letters of intent that we approved in March," said Councilman Ronny Russell, District 4.

Latter phases proposed for the Sweetwater development include office space, residential development and entertainment venues.

A nonbinding proposal calls for their completion within 10 years

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Thanx for posting the article!

[Bamabull1978]

Originally Posted by marvingardns

I had heard from a business owner about 3 -4 months ago on Triana that surveyors were operating in his neighborhood. He's a bit off from where this site prep is going on, but it may be one in the same. I'll see if he's got any more details.

From what i heard on govenors dr. in the old sutherlands site. and the old golf course it will be a caterpiller showroom and rental place. The new land owner also has plans for the shopping center next to it and the hotel and stuff all the way to red light maybe hope for this area.

[Shawn35816]

Governors could be a real Gateway to downtown. Most people wouldn't really take it now to downtown, but if you line it with hotels and updated shopping centers it could be a "university dr." all the way into downtown.

[HSVTiger]

Some Constellation related work downtown. This ramp will basically have access directly into the project. There is currently what looks like drainage
work being done on the property. A couple of bulldozers pushing dirt clods back and forth.

Resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Development Agreement between the City of Huntsville and Constellation, L.L.C. for the Engineering Design and Construction of Improvements to Clinton Avenue Ramp Improvements on Memorial Parkway, Project No. 65-08-RD07. (Engineering)


Resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with Goodwyn,
Mills & Caywood, Inc. for Engineering Design Services for Memorial Parkway Ramp Improvements at Clinton Avenue, Project No. 65-08-TI04. (Engineering)