Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

ALDOT delay tactics in full force on this one, this project repeatedly gets pushed back. They have been talking or "planning" for this project at least 10 years.

"Johnny Harris, the DOT Division 1 engineer, said the state hopes to start final design on the project in fiscal 2011. Right of way acquisition could begin in one to two years, he said.

Construction depends on when the money becomes available, Harris said. That could be three to five years away.

He said construction could cost from $15 million to $20 million, and the entire project could cost from $20 million to $30 million including right of way acquisition and engineering.

The 1.6-mile long project will involve building a four-lane through road with two-lane service roads on each side from the near the top of Chapman Mountain to about one-half mile east of Shields Road."

[HSVTiger]

This tidbit about signs, this geared more toward attractions along interstates

"The Alabama Department of Transportation requires a destination to generate a certain amount of traffic for a directional sign to be placed on the interstate, said Johnny Harris, the DOT's Division 1 engineer.

Destinations signs are reviewed and approved by the DOT's traffic administrative officials and the Federal Highway Administration, Harris said.

The state gets many requests for signs directing motorists to local destinations, but most don't meet the requirements, he said.

There are some exits signs on I-565 directing motorists to Redstone Arsenal, Harris said, but he doesn't know if arsenal officials have ever requested signs for the Jordan Lane exit."

[Huntsvillenative]

Bad news. The Alabama Vipers are officially leaving town for some small city in Georgia. First the Stars now the Vipers. This is NOT good news for our local economy. Losing two minor sports franchises will hurt business in downtown. Not to mention the newly revamped Propts Arena. Huntsvillians need to get their act together or we're gonna become another Memphis. A big deserted inner city with no direction.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by Huntsvillenative

Bad news. The Alabama Vipers are officially leaving town for some small city in Georgia. First the Stars now the Vipers. This is NOT good news for our local economy. Losing two minor sports franchises will hurt business in downtown. Not to mention the newly revamped Propts Arena. Huntsvillians need to get their act together or we're gonna become another Memphis. A big deserted inner city with no direction.

Um, this is NOT a small town arena that the Vipers are moving to: http://www.gwinnettcenter.com/Home.6.0.html

Come on now, you know Gwinnett County well enough to know that it's anything but small. The entire I-85 Corridor heading NE out of Atlanta is 1 long vein of Suburbia.

And as for the Stars, they are not officially moving anywhere and won't for sometime: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/08/if_brewers_and_stars_split_its.html

There is no city to which Prentice could feasibly move the Stars immediately. But Panama City is making noise about building a stadium. Ditto Biloxi. Either would welcome him, perhaps as early as 2012.

Eventually, the Stars' collection of millionaire owners may realize their team is a business, not a hobby. That's been the blessing and curse. The curse is their apathy in running the organization properly. The blessing is, if they truly cared about making money, they'd have long ago looked for a more supportive community and generous government.

^We still have time with the Stars(even if it's a year or 2).

[HSVTiger]

Actually the Vipers did very well here with strong fan and community support.
This is a case of a good product being put in a position to make more money in the Atlanta metro. It would not surprise me however if they struggle a bit in that area.

[JasonAU]

Is arena football very profitable as a whole? From the article sounded like the Vipers had attendance of around 5K which I would think would have generated a bit of income.

It seems the Stars are not very content with Joe Davis. I just do not see either city or team doing anything on a new stadium any time soon. Maybe for the present there should be work done to make it more presentable and make it specifically for baseball rather than also for high school football.

I think baseball is our best option for maintaining a minor league sports team.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

When they changed their name to "Alabama Vipers," I knew this would happen. Remember what happened when the Birmingham Steeldogs changed their name to the Alabama Steeldogs?

[HSVTiger]

This is really beyond what we can envision the impact will be, one thing for sure the roads in that area can't support it as is.
Lanes need to be added to I-565, and Research Park, the whole interchange needs to be rebuilt and soon.

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - It's been dubbed the area's "next research park" and it will be located near Redstone Arsenal.

Construction for the project located near gate nine just off of Interstate 565 will begin Monday morning.

The expansion will include offices, restaurants, hotels, even retail stores. This 4.6 million square foot development will accommodate about 15,000 jobs coming to the area and will support the missions of Redstone Arsenal.

City officials, arsenal officials and Senator Jeff Sessions attended the invitation-only ground breaking ceremony Monday morning to celebrate the start of this development.
WAFF Picture

[ttownfeen]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Actually the Vipers did very well here with strong fan and community support.
This is a case of a good product being put in a position to make more money in the Atlanta metro. It would not surprise me however if they struggle a bit in that area.

Looks like the old fake football team in Gwinnett did well, but was pulled down by the collapse of the entire league.

The fact that Huntsville was the smallest market and the VBC the smallest arena in this "major" league doomed the AFL Vipers from the beginning.

Maybe an AFL2 revival will be in the cards when the economy picks back up.

[stewdog1]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

This is really beyond what we can envision the impact will be, one thing for sure the roads in that area can't support it as is.
Lanes need to be added to I-565, and Research Park, the whole interchange needs to be rebuilt and soon.

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - It's been dubbed the area's "next research park" and it will be located near Redstone Arsenal.

Construction for the project located near gate nine just off of Interstate 565 will begin Monday morning.

The expansion will include offices, restaurants, hotels, even retail stores. This 4.6 million square foot development will accommodate about 15,000 jobs coming to the area and will support the missions of Redstone Arsenal.

City officials, arsenal officials and Senator Jeff Sessions attended the invitation-only ground breaking ceremony Monday morning to celebrate the start of this development.
WAFF Picture

Are there any closeups of the plans? I can't find any pictures of that. You would think our illustrious media here would have one.

[HSVTiger]

More info on the Redstone Gateway from the Huntsville Times..
During the next 15 to 20 years, plans call for Redstone Gateway to include about 50 multistory, LEED-certified office buildings for a total of about 4.4 million square feet of space, including 1.2 million "secure" behind the arsenal boundary; two hotels; restaurants; an amphitheater overlooking a lake; and retail stores supporting the office tenants.
The $1 billion development has been in the works since 2005 and is being made possible by a unique, complex arrangement with the Army, which is letting land be used under an "Enhanced Use Lease," their hand-picked developer LW Redstone and a variety of government agencies.

LW Redstone is a partnership between Maryland-based Corporate Office Properties Trust, a major developer of office space for the federal government, and Jim Wilson & Associates of Montgomery, best known for the upscale Riverchase Galleria in Hoover.

For the deal, the Alabama Legislature and local governments have approved a Tax Increment Finance plan; the City of Huntsville annexed the site so the buildings in Redstone Gateway will be subject to property and sales taxes; and the city is borrowing $76 million from LW Redstone to pay for needed sewer, road and other infrastructure improvements at the site.

It will be repaid using property taxes generated by the Redstone Gateway buildings, an arrangement negotiated by Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle that means LW Redstone assumes most of the risk if for some reason the project doesn't come to fruition.

"This is a large project and we estimate that in the first 20 years alone the real estate property taxes are over $114 million," Griffin said. "And that number grows to well over $500 million during the 50 years of the initial term."

Jim Wilson and Associates was awarded the EUL opportunity in 2006 and brought in COPT - which has a wealth of experience in government buildings - as a partner in 2008. The project took far longer to bring together than expected, said Jim Wilson III, JWA's chairman and CEO.

"The road to success was not 18 months, but four years," he said. "We had two mayors, two garrison commanders, three state legislative bills, two joint venture partners, an economic recession and the Pentagon ... Other than that it was pretty easy."

[Huntsvillenative]

I am really losing confidence in my city ever becoming a true major metropolitan area. Our downtown looks so small with virtually no sklyline. Huntsvillians are stuck in the past which is why there's nothing to do in this city whatsoever. You can only go to the Big Spring Park so much before you get tired of seeing it. Same can be said with Bridge Street. As nice as it is there's really nothing that compliments either attraction. I was confident that Battle would get things done that Spencer failed to do. But now I'm not so sure. And the economy hasn't helped.

The Space Center is our only true family destination that we have. But it too should and could be much bigger of an attraction. There's enough land nearby to build a 50-100 acre space-themed theme park with thrill rides and exhibits. That would compliment the center and would create new jobs and income to the city.

Huntsville doesn't even have a real water park. Our closest thing to that is Southern Adventures which is not attractive at all.

We're never going to be a family destination if we keep living like this. We've gotta start thinking big and being proacvtive and finding ways to bring tourists and business to the city and not just the manufacturing parts. Downtown should be the starting point.

Bridge Street could be much nicer than it is. Add a ferris wheel which I have been pushing them to do, add more entertainment for families. Move Red Lobster out there on the lake. But sadly the developers are catoring to the business side of research park and wasting space by adding another worthless company tower which will not attract consumers except on lunch break.

[mp7123]

New Economic Development Coming to Alabama
Office of Governor Bob Riley

Viewed: 1048

Posted by: JSKeppy
Date: Aug 24 2010 12:15 PM

MONTGOMERY – Governor Bob Riley will announce on Wednesday that a major international corporation has selected Alabama as the location of a new aviation facility. Governor Riley met with officials from this company to promote Alabama as the site of this facility when he was at the Farnborough Air Show in July. The company is expected to employ 400.

The announcement will take place on Wednesday, August 25 at 2:00 p.m. in the Old House Chamber of the State Capitol.

[HSVTiger]

Maybe it's the hinted at announcement for the old Delphi plant in Decatur,
or continuation of the previously announced Raytheon project

"Alabama Gov. Bob Riley announced July 19th from overseas that Raytheon Company is bringing a new facility and 300 new jobs to Redstone Arsenal.

From the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom, Riley announced that Raytheon will build a missile production facility at Redstone. Groundbreaking is expected later this year, with construction of the facility taking part in two phases.

[ThatGuy]

Originally Posted by Huntsvillenative

I am really losing confidence in my city ever becoming a true major metropolitan area. Our downtown looks so small with virtually no sklyline. Huntsvillians are stuck in the past which is why there's nothing to do in this city whatsoever. You can only go to the Big Spring Park so much before you get tired of seeing it. Same can be said with Bridge Street. As nice as it is there's really nothing that compliments either attraction. I was confident that Battle would get things done that Spencer failed to do. But now I'm not so sure. And the economy hasn't helped.

The Space Center is our only true family destination that we have. But it too should and could be much bigger of an attraction. There's enough land nearby to build a 50-100 acre space-themed theme park with thrill rides and exhibits. That would compliment the center and would create new jobs and income to the city.

Huntsville doesn't even have a real water park. Our closest thing to that is Southern Adventures which is not attractive at all.

We're never going to be a family destination if we keep living like this. We've gotta start thinking big and being proacvtive and finding ways to bring tourists and business to the city and not just the manufacturing parts. Downtown should be the starting point.

Bridge Street could be much nicer than it is. Add a ferris wheel which I have been pushing them to do, add more entertainment for families. Move Red Lobster out there on the lake. But sadly the developers are catoring to the business side of research park and wasting space by adding another worthless company tower which will not attract consumers except on lunch break.

I totally agree with everything that you moaned and whined about here. This city and country doesn't have enough people willing to moan and whine about what other people could do for them! More power to you!

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Maybe it's the hinted at announcement for the old Delphi plant in Decatur,
or continuation of the previously announced Raytheon project

"Alabama Gov. Bob Riley announced July 19th from overseas that Raytheon Company is bringing a new facility and 300 new jobs to Redstone Arsenal.

From the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom, Riley announced that Raytheon will build a missile production facility at Redstone. Groundbreaking is expected later this year, with construction of the facility taking part in two phases.

I kinda get the feeling that this thing isn't of the magnitude of whatever Riley was speaking about for Decatur. But, I've been wrong before, I guess we'll see.

[Huntsvillenative]

Originally Posted by ThatGuy

I totally agree with everything that you moaned and whined about here. This city and country doesn't have enough people willing to moan and whine about what other people could do for them! More power to you!

When you've lived here for as long as I have and have not seen much change or improvement then you will understand why I feel the need to moan and whine.

[HSV79]

Well first off I think we have some people on this forum with some great visions that need to be shared with the mayor. And yes, I know to do these things takes money but we (the city) need to be more proactive. I would def be up for a forum meeting and seeing if we could relay some of these ideas to the mayor and at least try to get a ball rolling around here. The mayor isn't untouchable so it shouldn't be to hard to get a chance to speak to him. Oh yeah a new arena of 14,000 seats would be nice! Does anybody know if the VBC arena when built was made to one day be expanded for a larger seating capacity?

[Huntsvillenative]

Originally Posted by HSV79

Well first off I think we have some people on this forum with some great visions that need to be shared with the mayor. And yes, I know to do these things takes money but we (the city) need to be more proactive. I would def be up for a forum meeting and seeing if we could relay some of these ideas to the mayor and at least try to get a ball rolling around here. The mayor isn't untouchable so it shouldn't be to hard to get a chance to speak to him. Oh yeah a new arena of 14,000 seats would be nice! Does anybody know if the VBC arena when built was made to one day be expanded for a larger seating capacity?

I am planning to meet with the mayor soon and address my concerns for lack of growth in downtown including lifestyles to tourism and retail. I am also going to pitch an idea for improvements and expansion to Big Spring Park such as a man-made waterfall where the old regions banks is, a new downtown baseball stadium where Coke plant is located, and more hotels taller than the Holiday Inn.

As for the VBC expanding. That can't happen due to it's limited structural design. Hopefully though the new renovations will make it more attractive and appealing when completed.

[TimCity2000]

HSV79...

FYI, below your username it says "Hunstville the star of AL" (instead of "Huntsville")