Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

the next expansion phases are set to begin..

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com
Various phases of work should last about 3 years

The concourse, concession and baggage claim areas at Huntsville International Airport are about to get a new look in a $32.8 million improvement project.

Rick Tucker, the airport's executive director, said the program will make the airport even more convenient for travelers and the public. "We're excited about this program for the future," he said. "For the next three years, there will be one phase of construction after another."

The first phase of the concourse work will be completed this month, said Mike Chapman of Chapman Sisson Architects, the architect firm for the project. That phase includes converting Gates 1 and 2 in the concourse to dual gates and installing new finishes like carpeting and ceiling tiles.

The second-floor connector bridge between the terminal building and the concourse, now 7,500 square feet, will be expanded to 27,500 square feet to provide more public waiting space and more space for security checkpoint queuing, said Chapman. Airport visitors will be able to look out at airplanes on the tarmac.

Construction is expected to start late next spring, Chapman said, and is to be finished in the fall of 2007.

The baggage claim area on the terminal building's first floor will be expanded to the east and two new baggage carousel systems added. Construction will start there in fall 2007 and be completed the following fall, Chapman said.

Construction work to expand the concessions area in the concourse to 6,500 square feet should start next fall, Chapman said, and be completed in the late spring of 2007.

About 50 new flat-screen flight information displays will be installed throughout the airport starting in January; that work will be finished by late next summer. In addition to the terminal and concourse work, airport officials plan to issue $18.3 million in airport revenue bonds in January as part of the funding for a proposed $25.7 million parking deck expansion to the east.

The project will add 1,300 spaces to the existing 1,600-space deck, said Luther "Butch" Roberts, the airport's deputy director. Construction should start next August, Roberts said, and take about 14 months to finish.

[HSVTiger]

is getting renovations. Really a nice job so far, the outside of the building has been highlighted with new lighting as well as a new
corner vertical sign. I believe at one time on the the top it had
Russell Erskine in neon but don't know if that will be returned.
The renovated ballroom and lobby will be available for public
functions.


An historic building in downtown Huntsville is getting a makeover - from top to bottom and Thursday we got a look at the work in progress. It's very nice...a 12-million dollar makeover for the old hotel which now houses seniors on a fixed income.

All of the 69 units will have new kitchens with dishwashers, which they didn't have...new bathrooms, carpet, paint and better views. The lobby has a new fountain along with other decor. A new heating and air system was put in.

Those who live in the building will also enjoy a new exercise room and a library.The architectural features were designed to keep the orginal architectural and historic significance.

The historic Russel Erskine building has graced the downtown skyline since the 1930's.

Some history about Huntsville native Mr. Erskine:
Birth: 1871
Death: Jul. 1, 1933
Madison County
Alabama, USA

Industrialist and former President of the Studebaker Corporation from 1915-1933 and the Pierce Arrow corporation.He literally guided the Studebaker company from the 'horse and buggy' days into the postion of a major player in modern industrial auto production.The 1927 Erskine Roadster Model 50J with rumble seat was a Studebaker named for him , only six known to exist worldwide, one is in Huntsville. The Hotel Russel Erskine was also named for him.He also served on the Board of Trustees at Notre Dame University.The Albert Russell Erskine Award,designated a panel that choose the best college football team of the year,the award was the forerunner of the method used today in deciding the collegiate champion. The 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression caused Erskine to lose almost everything in a matter of just four years.To start over seemed an overwhelming task,he died of a self inflicted gun shot wound to his heart.


Burial:
Maple Hill Cemetery
Huntsville
Madison County
Alabama, USA

[HSVTiger]

The airport parking garage (2 posts up^^) has the smart deck feature which tells you how many available spaces are on each level, very cool.

The old control tower is also being replaced
by a new 219" tower.
The 219-foot tower will not be the highest one in the United States - Memphis, for example, has a 325-foot tower - but it was the highest possible under FAA regulations, said William Wertz, who supervises airport hub development for Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The new tower's height will give air traffic controllers line-of-sight observation not just of the existing runways, but of those in the airport's 20-year master plan. The old tower did not provide line-of-sight observation for all of the existing runways.


Existing parking deck and old control tower

[HSVTiger]

The past few days a series on the 50 year old Memorial Parkway
through Huntsville (US 231) has been published in The Huntsville Times. Interesting history on the road plus a little about the future. Can't happen soon enough.

Patriot Parkway, which will be a segment of the planned Memphis-to-Atlanta highway, will be a 13-mile-long highway crossing Redstone from Interstate 565 near Rideout Road to Memorial Parkway near Hobbs Island Road. Part of the highway will be six lanes, part will be eight lanes.

Construction on the first phase of the $530 million highway is scheduled to begin in 2009, but city officials hope it can begin in 2007.

Patriot Parkway is designed to relieve traffic pressure from Memorial Parkway, provide another north-south route in emergencies and help Redstone's ability to handle growth, said Steve Dinges, an assistant director in the city Planning Department.

"It doubles the north-south capacity of traffic in the city," Dinges said.

The average daily traffic counts on Memorial Parkway range from about 25,000 vehicles a day on the south end near the Tennessee River to about 120,000 vehicles south of I-565.

[HSVTiger]

Research Park Blvd extension, actually this part is called Martin
Luther King Highway planned extension.
Several interchanges are also planned at Pulaski Pike, Jordan
Lane and North Memorial Parkway. Eventually this will be a controlled access freeway. Sadly there probably won't be any of us around to see it. Thanks to ALDOT, job security is built in for the next 100 years. Their motto: always give wrong timelines,
claim no money available, and delay, delay , delay.


The extension from Pulaski Pike to U.S. 231 will roughly follow Bob Wade Lane. The first phase will involve building two lanes in each direction to serve as service roads when the main lanes are built, said Steve Dinges, an assistant director of the Huntsville Planning Department.

"It will be a continuation of what we have right now with four lanes and a wide median," Dinges said. "We want to include an intersection at the Parkway."

Neither a construction schedule nor estimated cost has been set for the project. Dinges and Cunningham said the city will try to persuade the Alabama Department of Transportation to build the extension.

The state built the $10.3 million Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Highway that opened earlier this year.

The next extension will be part of the bypass system that city officials hope will eventually encircle the city.

[HSVTiger]

a few bits of info on the new taxiway set to begin construction at the airport.

Taxiway L will directly connect the Intermodal Cargo Center(ICC) with the airport's west runway, which at 12,600 feet is the second-longest runway in the southeast. Currently, the only other taxiway connecting the ICC to thewest runway is Taxiway J, which is an indirect route that passes through the apron where passengeraircraft are parked. Taxiway L will be 3,800 feet long and 100 feet wide. East Boeing Circle will travel beneath the taxiway via a 264-foot-long, 2-lane concrete arch tunnel.Taxiway L will improve the air cargo handling capability of the Huntsville International Airport, and will even give the airport the potential to handle the passenger and freighter versions of the huge new Airbus A380.

[HSVTiger]

PF Chang's woo hoo!

Most of the retailers currently negotiating leases with O&S Holdings for space at the multi-use project will be new to Huntsville but familiar to avid shoppers: Coldwater Creek, Ann Taylor Loft and J.Jill, all women's clothing stores; Francesca's Collections, which sells jewelry and accessories; restaurants P.F. Chang's, Sullivan's Steakhouse and Bravo Cucina.

The Westin Huntsville hotel will have an Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa that guests can access from the hotel or the street, said Alex Hardy, business development manager and director of public policy for O&S Holdings.

Bridge Street will also have Huntsville's second Chico's store. Two other Chico's company stores are planned: a White House/Black Market women's apparel store and Soma by Chico's, which sells lingerie and sleepwear. Brighton's Collectibles will have a free-standing store. Brighton's handbags and accessories are currently available at Parisian.

Some Westin news scheduled to open fall 2007
The 11-story hotel will have 75 condominiums on the top five floors, ranging from 1,200 to 4,000 square feet. Hardy said developers are still determining the price range; they will be "at the high end of the market, but still be competitive," he said.

"We now have more people on our waiting list than we have condos

[TimCity2000]

it's too bad drivers on the planned memphis-atlanta interstate won't get to see downtown (if i understand the route correctly). that's one of my favorite parts about driving on our interstates.

glad to hear about p.f. chang's, though!

[HSVTiger]

This is a suburban hospital on Huntsville's southside

A city zoning board Tuesday night gave Crestwood Medical Center the go-ahead to add two floors to the hospital's two-story east wing.

The addition will increase Crestwood's bed count by 30, to 150 beds, enlarge the dining facility, add administrative offices and create unfinished space for 66 new patient rooms for future planned expansions

[HSVTiger]

Condo tower planned alongside Big Spring


Summit developers announce plans for 2nd building
Saturday, December 24, 2005
By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer, jpeck@htimes.com
Developers of the Big Spring Summit office tower unveiled plans Friday for a second high-rise building that will feature condominiums and possibly some retail venues along the edge of the Big Spring International Park lagoon.

Construction on the eight-story addition should get under way by summer, said William Stroud, a partner in Triad Properties. The building would stretch further along the waterfront from the Summit building.
Spencer, citing other downtown projects under way, said the expansion is further proof that Huntsville's inner core is on the move. "There are other people (developers) looking at this town because downtown is hot as we said it would be," she said.

The Summit addition, dubbed on drawings as Ovation Condominiums, comes two years after a divided City Council approved the Summit building for the southeast portion of the municipal garage in Big Spring International Park. The development deal gave Triad a two-year option for a second building along the waterfront.

Stroud said the new building will feature mostly condominiums, but may also offer some office and retail space. "What we're contemplating is a facility that will be mixed use," he said. "It will be demand driven, but at this point, we're looking at a high concentration of residential condos."

Preliminary plans call for 40 to 52 condominium units, ranging in size from 1,100 to 3,500 square feet. Friday's briefing by Fuqua's Paul Matheny proposed "penthouse" condos on the upper two floors with smaller condos on floors 3 through 6.

Stroud said plans for the first two floors should materialize once Triad and its marketing team can determine the demand. Designers need that "flexibility" because large-scale urban living places are still a relatively new concept for Huntsville's downtown. "In many respects, we're moving into uncharted territory," Stroud said.

Spencer commended Triad's willingness to invest in downtown. The city partnered with Triad by agreeing to lease Triad the space beside the park for its buildings in exchange for the so-called "air rights" to add two levels to the VBC parking garage. "We get blasted for it, but you would not see things happening in this town if we did not have these public-private partnerships," Spencer said. "The city can only carry so much of the weight."


Stroud is confident the second building will offer restaurants and other retail venues to serve Summit workers, condo dwellers, park visitors and others. More than a dozen potential buyers have already expressed interest in the condos even though marketing efforts haven't begun yet, he said.

While the city is adding two decks and 348 slots to the existing 942-slot VBC garage, Triad owns the rights to lease back 300 of those spaces. The second phase of Triad's project will take some of those spaces, resulting in a small net gain of roughly 40 public spaces. A city department formerly occupied nearly 50 of those spots.

[bystander1]

Here's a small rendering of the proposed condos from The Huntsville Times.

[HSVTiger]

to begin.

The work could begin in the spring and take three to four years to complete.

Cunningham, Assistant City Engineer Ron Adams and project engineer Bill Boggers discussed the construction plans recently as design plans were being completed.

Governors Drive is one of the busiest roads in Huntsville. It's the main access to the medical district and is the primary route over Monte Sano to the sprawling Hampton Cove subdivision below.

The widening will cover a 1.27-mile stretch from Monroe Street near Memorial Parkway to Bassett Drive, just east of California Street.

The $11.5 million project calls for expanding Governors Drive from five lanes to seven and improving the intersections at Whitesburg Drive and California Street.

Florence & Hutcheson Inc. was awarded a $104,404 contract in June for engineering studies and land surveying to identify the "optimal alignment" of the new roadway. The project will include curbs and gutters, grass strips 31/2 feet wide on each side of the street and 5-foot sidewalks on each side except from California Street to Bassett Drive.

Adams said the job will be done in two phases: from Monroe Street (where the seven lanes from the Parkway taper to five) to Gallatin Street near where the pedestrian overpass crosses Governors Drive, and from there to Bassett.Governors Drive (U.S. 431) is a federal highway maintained by the state Department of Transportation. City leaders, reluctant to wait the estimated 15 years for the state to widen Governors Drive, committed $6 million to jump-start the project.

Gov. Bob Riley announced a year ago that the state would provide the other $5 million. The city owed that $5 million to the state for an industrial development deal near Huntsville International Airport that never materialized. The deal involved promised roads, drainage work and other improvements for an aircraft engine plant that would have employed up to 700 workers.

Johnny Harris, division engineer with the Alabama Department of Transportation office in Guntersville, said the city's willingness to commit such a large chunk of money to what would otherwise be a state project is a good deal for the city, the state and motorists who will benefit from the improvements.

"We are very grateful to the city for willing to partner with the department to accomplish this," he said.

Harris said the project likely would have lingered for years otherwise.

[HSVTiger]

from the above post, this quote,
Gov. Bob Riley announced a year ago that the state would provide the other $5 million. The city owed that $5 million to the state for an industrial development deal near Huntsville International Airport that never materialized. The deal involved promised roads, drainage work and other improvements for an aircraft engine plant that would have employed up to 700 workers.

This was the much ballyhooed Williams aircraft engine plant that was to be built in 2002. It went very quietly without a reason as to why it didn't happen.

[HSVTiger]

An article in the Decatur Daily points out the difficulty of Decatur
in benefiting from Huntsville's growth specifically Marshall Space Flight Center and Toyota. I think some of this failure has to be
laid at the feet of the leaders of Decatur who now seem to have
a reputation of being difficult to work with, I'm sure they would disagree. It is not a fair comparison because Huntsville is at least 3 times larger than Decatur and can offer more, but Decatur does have excellent rail and river access as well as land availability.
Also part of the problem is that they are separate MSA's
(HSV 363,000, DCA 148,000)separated by only 20 miles that connect each other. If it became one MSA,(over 500,000) Huntsville/Decatur you would see a marked improvemnet. It's all about perception.
Evidence of Decatur's inability to attract Marshall suppliers can be seen in diverging employment statistics that increasingly favor Huntsville.

The influx of jobs is one indicator that something is amiss. Huntsville's nonfarm employment has risen 22 percent since 1990, compared to an increase in Decatur of 12 percent.

Consistent with a national economy that has responded to global competition by focusing instead on the provision of services, employees producing goods in Decatur dropped 15 percent since 1990, compared to a 13 percent drop in Huntsville. Service jobs have jumped 31 percent in Decatur and 34 percent in Huntsville during the same time frame.

The comparison gets ugly in other sectors.

Most dramatic is the difference between Decatur and Huntsville in what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the Professional and Business Services sector, a sector that includes most engineers.

Decatur MSA has seen 27 percent growth in the sector since 1990, compared to a Huntsville MSA increase of 48 percent.

The raw numbers in this category also merit attention. As of November 2004, the Huntsville MSA had 27,920 engineers. The Decatur MSA had 1,520.

Marshall's riches are no illusion. In the last two weeks alone, Marshall requested that contractors bid on 41 different projects, most high dollar. The Huntsville facility gets a sizable chunk of NASA's $16 billion annual budget.

While Decatur has not had much success in its effort to attract major Marshall suppliers, it has lured some Marshall workers. According to Marshall records, 104 Marshall civil service employees live in Decatur. Their combined annual payroll is $9.4 million. Including the Decatur residents, Morgan County is home to 166 of Marshall's civil service employees, about 6 percent of Marshall's total, generating a combined payroll of $14.7 million.

[HSV79]

Well, it seems that the metro jail that is being built will not be 8 stories tall but 10 when it is all said and done. The first 8 floors will house inmates and the remaining top floors will house the heating and cooling systems. Kinda ashamed one of the taller buildings will be a jail. But hey with all the projects going on maybe now we can get our 21 storey condo tower.

[HSVTiger]

To all BRAC affected employees, head south and improve your life.
Another chance for Alabama to dispel nasty rumors, about what more and more already know..Alabama is a great place to live and work.
Huntsville is on the cutting edge of what these people do.

By PATRICIA C. McCARTER
Times Staff Writer patriciacm@htimes.com
ARLINGTON, Va. - The complimentary luggage tags say it all.

"Pack your bags and come to Huntsville."

Of all the many souvenirs and door prizes awaiting Department of Defense workers at the please-consider-moving-to-the-Tennessee-Valley fair, the luggage tags seem the most symbolic of the message.

"We just want these people to know how much we want them to come be with us," said Huntsville's anti-litter guru Joy McKee.

McKee is one of several dozen envoys making the three-day trip to tout North Alabama and southern Tennessee to DoD workers whose jobs are moving to Redstone Arsenal through the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission.

The meetings are being held at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, and defense workers will be bused in from their offices. There will be four meetings held over today and Wednesday.

Rows of displays that await 450 invited Washington, D.C.-area Missile Defense Agency (MDA) workers promote housing, schools and quality of life.

Mary Gwinnup is a BRAC transition coordinator with MDA in Arlington, Va. Her job isn't moving to Huntsville, but her job is to help defense workers move to Huntsville, if that's what they want. If they don't, then her office will help them find jobs elsewhere within the Defense Department.

"We want people to take their time, get all the information they can, and then make up their minds," Gwinnup said. "Don't make up your mind until you know what they have to offer."

Gwinnup believes that if the affected workers go to the fair, they'll give the move some serious thought. She mentioned some of the Alabama people she's met so far "and they're the nicest folks you could ever hope to meet."

"It's not that they're apprehensive about going to Alabama as much as it is that they don't want to go anywhere," Gwinnup said. "I worked for the Naval Air Systems Command in Crystal City (Va.) when it got moved to Maryland. People threw a fit about that change.

"People just don't like change. That's all there is to it. I was involved in three base closures, and people committed suicide over it. Change is just tough on some people."

Maybe so, but Stephen Perkins is excited about the chance he'll have to talk to people about a big change they'll have if they decide to move to the Tennessee Valley. He's the executive vice president of the Huntsville Area Board of Realtors and is armed with the pleasant details of buying a house within easy commuting distance of Redstone Arsenal.

A comparably sized house that would cost $250,000 in North Alabama would cost $700,000 in Northern Virginia, "and it would be 35 years old with few amenities."

Because housing costs have gone up 72 percent over the last three years in Northern Virginia, Perkins said many DoD workers could sell their homes, make a huge profit and then pay cash for a bigger, nicer, newer home in the Tennessee Valley - with no tax consequences.

He added that the lot-size average is more than double in the Huntsville area than Northern Virginia.

"These prices give families opportunities for financial stability that they can only dream of (in Northern Virginia)," Perkins said. "For those who choose to move, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. That's exciting to me.

"It's a fun story to tell. It's a good story to tell. The only problem is making it real to them. The differential is so huge, how do you show it in a credible way? It is almost unbelievable how much more they'd get for their money."

[HSVTiger]

Hopefully AirTran will begin service, now that Independence Air has shown
the market will support a low cost airline.


By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com
Airport numbers climb 6% with 1.26M passengers

Huntsville International Airport had its busiest year on record in 2005 - with more than 1.26 million passengers.

That's up by 71,783 passengers, or 6 percent, over 2004, the previous record-breaking year for passengers.
Rick Tucker, the airport's executive director, is optimistic that the airport will continue to have strong traffic despite the shutdown last week of its only low-fare carrier, Independence Air.

Airport executives say the steady climb in traffic over the past two years is a result of more competitive airfares in Huntsville, higher gas prices for drivers and an e-mail program launched early last year, called Huntsville Hot Ticket. The program alerts travelers about the lowest fares to top destinations. There are now 27,673 subscribers to that program.

"We feel good about our market, especially the business market," Tucker said after a meeting of the Huntsville/Madison County Airport Authority. "That's growing." With thousands of defense jobs being relocated to Redstone Arsenal as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, "that's certainly going to be a plus for our community. Our community continues to grow - not just Huntsville/Madison County, but the (18-county) region that we serve."

The leisure traveler is much more sensitive to airfares, said Tucker, and "we're continuing to monitor fares to ensure we remain competitive with Birmingham and Nashville" airports.

Tucker and Barbie Peek, the airport's director of marketing, visited with a potential airline last month and have a meeting scheduled with another carrier this month. One of the carriers is an established airline, while the other is a low-cost airline, Tucker said.

At the International Intermodal Center, there were 34,411 rail cargo lifts last year, making 2005 the fourth consecutive year of record-setting performance at the facility. The center, located off Wall-Triana Highway, receives, transfers and distributes plane, train and truck cargo.

There were 3,482 rail lifts in December, a 58 percent increase over the lifts in December 2004, said Mitch Bradley, the center's director. That's the center's highest lift volume on record for the month of December and the highest lift volume for a single month since the center opened in 1986.

"We're becoming an import nation," said Bradley, with U.S. railroads and ports seeing record volumes.

In other business, the authority authorized the sale of up to $20 million in airport revenue bonds to the underwriter, Merchant Capital L.L.C. The money is to be used to add 1,300 more spaces to the existing 1,600-space deck.

[HSVTiger]

anyone remember this

[neilson]

WHOA. Any other pics from my favorite (former) Mall in Huntsville?

In fact, any malls in Huntsville in the 80s would be great to showcase.

[neilson]