Huntsville updates - Page 152

g-man435 · #**3021** Posted **Aug 29, 2008, 8:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huntsvillenative

Is this the arena that you're referring to in Greenville? It seats 15,000.

Yes. The one in Huntsville should be no less than 16,000-18,000 seats is what I was saying.

Colin Giersberg · #**3022** Posted **Aug 29, 2008, 10:42 PM**

Well, If I knew, I would love to tell, but alas, I have no idea what so ever. My guess would be for a new Interstate exit, but who knows, besides the guys doing the surveying and their bosses.
It sure would be nice to be one of those bosses, but, being a peon, they don't tell me anything, especially since I work in Moulton, for now. Supposedly, our office is going to be assigned to a new section of AL. Hwy. 24 near Redbay.

I am not looking forward to the extra drive time just to get to work. It will be around a 90 mile drive for me one way. Currently, I drive 38 miles one way, and that is enough for me when I include the added driving to our projects and back, plus what i drive on the project. Sometimes, total mileage driven is around 200 miles.

Wish I knew more,

Regards, Colin

HSV79 · #**3023** Posted **Aug 30, 2008, 12:01 AM**

Yeah i'm glad you found that info about the concerts holding 13,000. I have been to the VBC website many times and it's listed on there also about having crowds that large. I know that when WWE comes here they normally sell out. And you can fit 13,000 or so in there then. Only because they can utilize the floor space( only needing room for a ring and ramp pretty much). I totally agree that we should keep the current VBC and build a new arena. How about we knock down that what is it ? The building next to the former Am South building .....I think it's a 1 storey Bellsouth building. We need to replace that with a 15 storey Bellsouth Tower.

HSVTiger · #**3024** Posted **Aug 30, 2008, 1:37 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilson

Yesterday I saw about 5-6 ALDOT trucks and all kinds of surveying at the I-565 and Zeirdt Road area.

Colin, what are your ears on the ground telling you?

planning for the proposed interchange at I-565/Zierdt and the possible development that was revealed over a year ago.

TimCity2000 · #**3025** Posted **Aug 30, 2008, 2:59 AM**

Quote:

I would love to see them raze the Regions bank

I am guessing there are several Regions banks around downtown.... PLEASE tell me you aren't talking about this one (not my pic):

Huntsvillenative · #**3026** Posted **Aug 30, 2008, 3:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

I am guessing there are several Regions banks around downtown.... PLEASE tell me you aren't talking about this one (not my pic):

Oh no! Not that one where Jesse James robbed and escaped through the tunnel/cave to get away. That's a piece of Huntsville and US history! No, I was referring to the newer smaller one across from the Children's museum.

marvingardns · #**3027** Posted **Sep 2, 2008, 9:40 PM**

Downtown Athens is becoming more cosmopolitan than downtown Huntsville. Isn't that ironic? I walked around there looking for office space two weeks ago. There was a Texmex restaurant and a GREEK PITA joint a block off the square, both with streetside metal tables. Lucianos opened where Giovana's used to be and is doing well. There is also a NY-style pizza joint about to up where old Cluxtons used to be called Village Pizza where the ovens are sitting right behind an old fashioned ice cream parlor bar. There is also another cafe and bookstore opening up where Green Door Books used to be, which is a two story operation. Combine this with Carole Foret's longtime and successful studio and you've got a small downtown setting that is starting to remind me of Marietta, GA's compact but hip little urban hot spot.

Athens is a sleeper!

jonnie256 · #**3028** Posted **Sep 3, 2008, 2:00 AM**

Quote:

Downtown Athens is becoming more cosmopolitan than downtown Huntsville. Isn't that ironic? I walked around there looking for office space two weeks ago. There was a Texmex restaurant and a GREEK PITA joint a block off the square, both with streetside metal tables. Lucianos opened where Giovana's used to be and is doing well. There is also a NY-style pizza joint about to up where old Cluxtons used to be called Village Pizza where the ovens are sitting right behind an old fashioned ice cream parlor bar. There is also another cafe and bookstore opening up where Green Door Books used to be, which is a two story operation. Combine this with Carole Foret's longtime and successful studio and you've got a small downtown setting that is starting to remind me of Marietta, GA's compact but hip little urban hot spot.

Athens is a sleeper!

Yes sir it is! Athens is a very up and coming city! Have gotten some nice restraunts in the past years or so(starbucks,logans,bojangles,and etc.). I really like that HolidayInn Express they built beside I-65. I would like to know what they are about to build on the far end on the eastern side of I-65. Noticed they have cleared some trees and land,maybe another hotel???

daveyp · #**3029** Posted **Sep 4, 2008, 7:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnie256

Yes sir it is! Athens is a very up and coming city! Have gotten some nice restraunts in the past years or so(starbucks,logans,bojangles,and etc.). I really like that HolidayInn Express they built beside I-65. I would like to know what they are about to build on the far end on the eastern side of I-65. Noticed they have cleared some trees and land,maybe another hotel???

cosmopolitan? haha. athens has a neat little square, and i like that it has several independent shops and places to eat (probably more than hsv's downtown, which is a sad statement for hsv). but let's be honest, the biggest thing going on in that town is probably high school football. i actually like athens a lot for a small town. if it were near the mountains i could definitely live there.

neilson · #**3030** Posted **Sep 4, 2008, 4:39 PM**

Steve and Berry's in Madison Square Mall is staying open right? I know the Huffman location in Birmingham is closing along with Montgomery, but I have not heard anything on either the Huntsville or Opelika stores.

JuanHunt · #**3031** Posted **Sep 4, 2008, 10:25 PM**

Lucianos in Athens closed and maybe the one in Huntsville. Has Huntsville got to many restaurants now? i have always enjoyed Lucianos, but I have not been there in three months and I eat out 5 times a week.

http://www.enewscourier.com/local/local_story_246224319.html

stallty · #**3032** Posted **Sep 5, 2008, 2:50 AM**

The Madison Square Steve and Barrys is staying open. The Montgomery and Birmingham stores are closing. And, I heard the Opelika store was closing but not positive.

neilson · #**3033** Posted **Sep 5, 2008, 3:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by stallty

The Madison Square Steve and Barrys is staying open. The Montgomery and Birmingham stores are closing. And, I heard the Opelika store was closing but not positive.

Thank you CBL. I honestly believe had it been another company managing Madison Square, they would've shuttered the S&B location here too.

Now if you guys can just start looking at filling the gaps at the mall and keeping it up to par.

HSVTiger · #**3034** Posted **Sep 5, 2008, 1:06 PM**

[QUOTE=HSVTiger;3752089]On going construction at Huntsville International Airport

A new west wing, the first of two wings planned, is scheduled to open next month, and passengers flying into and out of the airport will be diverted to that space. The public-waiting and security-screening areas will be housed there.

Next June, the entire $18 million, 20,000-square-foot passenger-screening and public-waiting expansion will be completed. Security screening will remain on the west side, while the east wing will have a lobby and 150-seat public-waiting area.

The airport then will have separate public-waiting and security-checkpoint areas, and public space will quadruple in size, said Mike Chapman of Chapman Sisson Architects, the Huntsville-based firm that's designing the airport's five-year, $65 million capital improvement plan.

The renovation will include new restrooms, an expanded gift shop in the concourse and terminal, and upgraded flight information display systems.

Each wing will feature 30-foot-high windows that look out onto the airfield.
When the west wing opens next month, a solid wall will block the old walkway corridor that travelers and greeters have shared, Gipson said. Then that connector will be torn out.

After the west wing opens, the airport will have room for another concessions area for grab-and-go food, said marketing director Barbie Peek.

The expansion is designed to handle normal growth for the airport through 2022, Chapman said. The airport was projected to handle about 1.6 million passengers by that year, based on old Federal Aviation Administration forecasts, said Stan Hogan, the airport's director of capital improvements. But the airport is already approaching that number: 1.24 million passengers flew into and out of the airport last year.

The airport also has plans to accommodate a sudden-growth scenario; for example, in case a low-fare carrier moves in and the airport captures all of its market instead of losing passengers to other airports.

After the public-waiting expansion is finished, Hogan said, the airport will start on the next major step in the capital program - expanding the baggage-claim area.
HSV Times

wompem · #**3035** Posted **Sep 6, 2008, 2:30 AM**

Been wondering what was going in there. Saw a new sign today that said "Flint River Animal Hospital".

HSV79 · #**3036** Posted **Sep 6, 2008, 4:39 PM**

No new talks with VW about plant, state says
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Automaker exec quoted about possible factory

Responding to a report in the German automotive press, the state's economic development director said Friday that Alabama officials have held no new talks with Volkswagen about locating a plant in Huntsville.

In fact, Neal Wade said, the state has turned its focus to recruiting suppliers for VW's planned $1 billion assembly plant in Chattanooga.

In July, the German automaker chose Tennessee over Alabama and Michigan for its U.S. plant, which is expected to employ 2,000 people and produce up to 300,000 vehicles by 2018.

Wade said the state is sending an economic development delegation to Germany next month to meet with potential suppliers.

"VW has hundreds of suppliers," he said. "What we're doing now is learning which of those will supply the Tennessee plant."

On Wednesday, a VW executive speaking at a Moscow auto show said the company could still locate a plant in Huntsville.

Automobilwoche (Automobile Week), a Crain Communications trade publication in Germany, quoted Jochem Heizmann, group production director and a member of VW's management board, as saying, "Huntsville will always be an option for the VW Group for future projects in the U.S. And so too for a new component factory."

Before VW's official selection of Chattanooga over Huntsville, a British trade publication reported that the German automaker eventually could put a plant in both locations - one for assembly and one for, say, engines.

Heizmann stressed in his talk that VW had made no preliminary decision in favor of Huntsville for an additional U.S. plant.

"As always," he was quoted as saying, "we will thoroughly examine several options for the components plant."

Mayor Loretta Spencer and officials from the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, both heavily involved in the VW assembly plant recruitment, declined to comment on the new report.

Last week, Tennessee economic development officials revealed that state's total incentives package for VW: $577 million. Wade and Gov. Bob Riley have said Alabama's package was about $400 million.

© 2008 The Huntsville Times. All rights reserved.
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jmanhsv · #**3037** Posted **Sep 6, 2008, 5:05 PM**

^I'll believe it when I see it... Automobilwoche was the same magazine that said Huntsville was favored to get the plant.

jonnie256 · #**3038** Posted **Sep 6, 2008, 7:41 PM**

~Is hopeing that the hotels at Constellation look better designed than what is on the sign at the building site.......~

mlog · #**3039** Posted **Sep 7, 2008, 7:08 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HSV79

No new talks with VW about plant, state says
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Automaker exec quoted about possible factory

Something tells me that VW is playing games and fishing for a taxpayer handout.

I just read elsewhere that the Dell is trying to sell its computer plants near Nashville. Of course, Tennessee taxpayers spent a lot of dollars to build up the infrastructure there.

HSVTiger · #**3040** Posted **Sep 7, 2008, 3:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnie256

~Is hopeing that the hotels at Constellation look better designed than what is on the sign at the building site.......~

Go back a few posts and you will see some possibilities,

The VW thing is strange, it makes sense that Huntsville would be very high on the list. It sounds like some VW folks really wanted the HSV site and there may have been serious disagrrement at times. What issue brought up those comments in Moscow? Odd that they would even mention now and somebody started those leaked stories the first time that made it sound like a done deal.
I believe it when I see it, but Audi is still the wild card in all this but odds are they will be built in Chattanooga if a plant is to locate in the US.