Huntsville updates

[huntsvillefan]

Just today I was talking to some folks going to Orlando for vacation (instead of the Gulf). "Oh--you're going to us AirTran?" "Nope--frequent flyer miles from Delta."

[David1502]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

One of those two malls will be gone in a few years, and I'm betting it's not Parkway place.

I don't think that Parkway Place is going out of business, but that doesn't mean that it will be the exclusive high end destination that it has been. Malls have to reinvent themselves (which is what CBL did when they tore down the old one story Parkway City Mall to build Parkway Place). What set Parkway Place apart was that it offered high end stores new to the area - Williams Sonoma, Brookstone and Pottery Barn in a luxury setting with marble floors. My questions is how well would it perform if it were to loose some of these stores and that edge.

The larger question is how much retail can a metro area of HSV's size (of about 350,000 people) support? Someone's mall is going to suffer. The complicating factor is that all of the anchor stores and the parking lots in front of them at Madison Square are owned by the respective department store. In today's retail and credit environment it is almost possible to see how Sears and JCPenney's especially could walk away from their buildings (which have got to be paid off by now since they were built in 1984) and then seek to finance new buildings. And then where would they locate? There's certainly not much room at either Bridge Street or Parkway Place.

It may be that in the future, CBL will attempt to gut the mall interior and make it outdoor and more of a mixed use development, perhaps with offices and housing. It seems like it will be extremely challenging to lease all of their store space when Bridge Street has plans for an additional 75,000 sq. ft. in addition to the department store. Also, even after 10 years, Parkway Place still has some space it has never leased as well as empty storefronts where retailers such as Banana Republic and soon to be Jos. A. Banks have left.

[HSV79]

Well first off the 2010 running metro number is 406,316. Just putting that out there. Even so I see what ya mean about saturating the market with all these stores. If one looks back on history open air shopping centers use to be big back in the 60's and 70's. Then along came the 80's and 90's where enclosed malls became the big thing. Well now look open air shopping centers are big again so my guess is in 10-20 years enclosed malls will once again be a hit.

[HSV Downtown]

Well I am not seeing any big savings with AirTran. I flew to Washington (Reagon International) a month ago on US Airways from Huntsville. Just out of curiousity I decided to check to see how much the tickets are from here to Baltimore/Washington on AirTran. My ticket last month was $220.40 round trip on US Air. A ticket on AirTran is 229.40 and that airport is farther out of town.

I have for YEARS traveled with Delta. Delta having a hub in Atlanta, served me well. I had accumulated sky miles for years. Then last year I checked my sky miles and they all had been deleted. Of course I typed up a letter and shot it off to Delta to find out where my sky miles went. Thier reply was that there was inactivity on the account and they deleted them and I could not get them back. So you can be loyal to Delta if you want but you better keep a watch on those sky miles or they will fly away, never to be seen again.

I think having a low cost carrier is a good idea if it does nothing else but force the other carriers to become more competitive with thier pricing.

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by HSV Downtown

I have for YEARS traveled with Delta. Delta having a hub in Atlanta, served me well. I had accumulated sky miles for years. Then last year I checked my sky miles and they all had been deleted. Of course I typed up a letter and shot it off to Delta to find out where my sky miles went. Thier reply was that there was inactivity on the account and they deleted them and I could not get them back. So you can be loyal to Delta if you want but you better keep a watch on those sky miles or they will fly away, never to be seen again.

Delta requires some type of SkyMiles activity ever 24 months. If that does not occur, then the miles go bye bye. If anyone is truly a loyal frequent flyer, and the type of customer Delta prefers, then they will have SOME TYPE of activity in a 24 month period.

[nickodemis]

The Delta sky miles program has some serious limitations and headaches.

I finally used my remaining Delta Sky Miles to book a flight and I had to pay $75, just for the privilege to use my points. Oh and it cost me 40K points to fly from Atlanta to Cleveland, not 25K.

Airtran really needs to work on their flight schedules. The flight times are not always the most convenient for Business travelers, especially in the morning.

One good thing is that you can fly stand bye same day for FREE.

Hopefully they'll start flying to Atlanta soon.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by HSV Downtown

Well I am not seeing any big savings with AirTran. I flew to Washington (Reagon International) a month ago on US Airways from Huntsville. Just out of curiousity I decided to check to see how much the tickets are from here to Baltimore/Washington on AirTran. My ticket last month was $220.40 round trip on US Air. A ticket on AirTran is 229.40 and that airport is farther out of town.

I have for YEARS traveled with Delta. Delta having a hub in Atlanta, served me well. I had accumulated sky miles for years. Then last year I checked my sky miles and they all had been deleted. Of course I typed up a letter and shot it off to Delta to find out where my sky miles went. Thier reply was that there was inactivity on the account and they deleted them and I could not get them back. So you can be loyal to Delta if you want but you better keep a watch on those sky miles or they will fly away, never to be seen again.

I think having a low cost carrier is a good idea if it does nothing else but force the other carriers to become more competitive with thier pricing.

While I see your point about the choice of airports, as far as convenience goes I tend to prefer the Baltimore-Washington choice than the Reagan National choice. And honestly, I think that from a business standpoint, BWI is a better choice because of the higher number of flights, and the fact that it is located in between two of the top 25 largest metro areas provides an opportunity for more passengers and more flights.

Maybe it's because I've just always stayed on the north side of the district, but I just think that Baltimore Washington is best, and probably worth the extra 9 dollars.

[HSVTiger]

Opening July 1st Country Inn and Suites hotel, Huntsville International Airport
and Madison area.
Von Braun Center construction link and updates

http://www.vonbrauncenter.com/construction/

[nickodemis]

Hopefully this trend will not last much longer. I am sure the good people in Huntsville are tired of getting ripped off. I heard Airtran will start offering flights to Atlanta soon.

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2010/06/07/daily26.html?ana=e_du_pap

[huntsvillefan]

Originally Posted by nickodemis

Hopefully this trend will not last much longer. I am sure the good people in Huntsville are tired of getting ripped off. I heard Airtran will start offering flights to Atlanta soon.

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2010/06/07/daily26.html?ana=e_du_pap

Flights into and out of Huntsville have cheapened considerably since AirTran arrived. I look for even cheaper fares as (hopefully) AirTran expands to Atlanta. The next time the ratings are posted, Huntsville will be considerably lower because we have already gotten cheaper fares.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

What's the status of the ginormous development at Redstone at Research Park Blvd?

[TimCity2000]

anyone looked at the most recent population estimates released by the census bureau this week?

city of huntsville is now larger than the city of jackson (ms), and is rapidly approaching fort lauderdale, salt lake city, and knoxville. again, this is just an estimate of the city population (not metro), but it's still pretty interesting.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

anyone looked at the most recent population estimates released by the census bureau this week?

city of huntsville is now larger than the city of jackson (ms), and is rapidly approaching fort lauderdale, salt lake city, and knoxville. again, this is just an estimate of the city population (not metro), but it's still pretty interesting.

But from a Metro area, how are we doing?

Raw city limit #'s don't mean much when it's all about the Metro Area's population.

Also, let's discuss how the job losses at NASA will impact Huntsville and North Alabama as a whole.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by neilson

But from a Metro area, how are we doing?

Raw city limit #'s don't mean much when it's all about the Metro Area's population.

Also, let's discuss how the job losses at NASA will impact Huntsville and North Alabama as a whole.

I'm pretty sure that the metro is at 406,000. Decatur's is at 150,000, combining those two in the next census (which will likely happen), gives us a number around 556,000. Of course, then you have to consider the fact that we might possibly have a larger CSA after the merger.

In short, we're doin pretty good.

[Rail Claimore]

I'm just hoping for the official 2010 count, our metro is larger than Mobile.

[mp7123]

Interesting article on al.com. Sounds like big news in the coming months. Anyone heard of any rumors?

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/06/gov_bob_riley_discusses_two_po.html

[HSVTiger]

Yeah this is interesting, another auto plant maybe
Audi possibly, for the Governor to even hint at something like this
must be big.
Job loss if it happens will be minimal. These type of jobs are usually absorbed
by other companies, not to say it won't have an impact but Huntsville has been through this type of thing before and handled it fine. The bigger worry is why
NASA which accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget and create thousands of high tech well paying jobs has to fight for these things.
We all can't work at Wal Mart selling toxic Chinese made garbage.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

I'm just hoping for the official 2010 count, our metro is larger than Mobile.

Don't think it will be, maybe in 3-5 years if things continue.
Metro wise Huntsville has had a firm grip on the #3 spot for quite some time now.

[HSVTiger]

From the Decatur Daily
Something to do with robotics it would seem, the second phase groundbreaking was a few days ago.

Gov. Bob Riley, speaking at an editorial board meeting at The Decatur Daily, said Tuesday it could be one of the biggest economic development projects ever in the state of Alabama. Beyond that, he would not give specifics.

“This is no embellishment. It could be the largest project I have ever worked on,” said Riley, who helped lure the $4 billion Thyssen-Krupp steel plant to Mobile County. “There are certain things that happen every once in a while that become transformative. This is one of them.”

The project, along with another expected economic development announcement in Huntsville, “could dramatically change the whole economic structure of Decatur, of North Alabama. You will be happy.”

Riley would not identify the company or its product, but he said he hopes to have a commitment this summer. He would not say whether the company is looking at locations outside Limestone County.

Limestone County Commission Chairman David Seibert declined comment Tuesday, saying only that he continues to work diligently to recruit industry to the county.

Typically, large industrial recruits require all involved governmental officials to sign non-disclosure agreements at a project’s outset.

The state owns one of the three buildings at the Delphi plant sites. Delphi owns the other two, but they are no longer in use. The plant is west of U.S. 31, next to the Alabama Robotics Technology Park.
The company found several North Alabama features attractive, Riley said.

“It’s like working off of a foundation. When they saw the college, when they understood what they were going to do with the robotics center, when they understood the proximity to Huntsville and what they could get there: all of a sudden this whole thing began to gel.”

[HSVTiger]

Seems ironic, the Mayor wants to ban texting but a plan to put a gawdy
tacky electronic billboard on Memorial Parkway somehow escapes from being distracting on perhaps the most dangerous stretch of freeway mess in Huntsville.

"HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A proposed $40,000 message board outside Huntsville City Hall has been scrapped in favor of a much more visible -- and expensive -- digital billboard on Memorial Parkway."

The colorful, two-sided sign would tower above the Parkway just south of the Interstate 565 interchange. About 110,000 vehicles pass that spot every day.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/06/500000_electronic_billboard_on.html

This is a stupid idea, why not try to reduce the number of billboards in the city and use that tacky billboard money to replant quality trees to replace the ones we are losing to
poor planned urban sprawl. A big sign for advertisers does not improve the quality of life in the city.