Metro Huntsville Development News

[slowmotionsoundz]

World Famous Bridge Street is no longer "world famous". The developers have changed the name to Bridge Street Town Centre. Also, they said that they will make the "big announcement" about tenants soon. However, they said the same thing back in June, so it might be a while folks.

You scared me for a second I thought they nixed the whole project.

[jmanhsv]

I heard on WVNN this afternoon that a company has announced it will locate in North Huntsville's "eco-friendly" industrial park. GEO Solutions has announced that they will build a 20,000 sq. ft office building there, with construction beginning this spring. For those who don't know, this park is also home to a Toyota engine plant that will employ about 800 when finished.

[HSVTiger]

Sci Quest possible downtown location

Utility gets city's OK for office renovation

Friday, December 16, 2005

By JOHN PECK

Times Staff Writer [email protected]

Sci-Quest could move into empty space downtown

The City Council authorized Huntsville Utilities on Thursday night to spend up to $1.8 million to renovate some of its empty office space downtown that could become the new home of Sci-Quest.

The cavernous space in the utility's administrative building on Spragins Street faces the cascading canal in the east end of Big Spring International Park. The unfinished area resulted from a top-to-bottom makeover of its downtown headquarters in the late 1990s.

John Thomas, vice president of services for Huntsville Utilities, told the council that U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, recently secured $2 million for the renovation. Thomas said city leaders support moving Sci-Quest downtown. The Huntsville Utilities building may be just the place to accommodate Sci-Quest, he said, if legal agreements can be met among the private, nonprofit museum, the city-owned utilities building and federal grant money.

"There are a lot of questions we'll have to reconcile," he said.

Cramer discussed the possible Sci-Quest relocation during a news conference this month plugging downtown revitalization efforts. In announcing the $2 million renovation money, Cramer did not specify a site but said the hands-on science center for children would be a welcome addition to downtown.

Sci-Quest Director J.D. Horne has said he and the Sci-Quest board support moving downtown. Sci-Quest currently occupies 42,500 square feet in a building owned by Calhoun Community College on Interstate 565 across from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Outside the council chambers Thursday night, Thomas said several companies have inquired about the Huntsville Utilities space. An engineering firm has offered to lease 7,000 square feet at $16 to $18 per square foot, he said, and at least two other professional firms have expressed interest in the other parts of the 25,000 square feet.

Thomas said the utility could create as much as 40,000 square feet for Sci-Quest in a renovation.

[jmanhsv]

Huntsville's airport is getting a needed facelift. For the next 3 years, the airport will spend $32.8M to expand the public waiting area, the baggage claim and the concession area. The airport will also spend $25.7M on a new parking deck east of the terminal.

Huntsville Times article: Airport undergoing $32.8M facelift

[Blazer85]

Huntsville's airport is getting a needed facelift. For the next 3 years, the airport will spend $32.8M to expand the public waiting area, the baggage claim and the concession area. The airport will also spend $25.7M on a new parking deck east of the terminal.

Huntsville Times article: Airport undergoing $32.8M facelift

Great news for the Huntsville airport. When's the last time they had multi-million dollar work done on the terminal at Huntsville?

[jmanhsv]

^I think there was a "modernization" of the airport in the 90s, but I'm not sure about how much it cost. The remodeling came at about the same time the airport changed its name from Huntsville Jetport to Huntsville International.

[HSVTiger]

A few tenants announced for Bridge Street:

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.

[jmanhsv]

Finally!

Wow, somehow I knew PF Changs was going to Bridge Street. I wonder what the anchor stores will be. The only ones not in Huntsville that I can think of are either too high end (Nordstrom, Nieman Marcus) or going under (Saks, Macys). Anyone have any predictions?

[jmanhsv]

Oops, I forgot about this. Crestwood is planning a 2-floor, 115,000 sq ft expansion for a wing of their hospital campus. The cost will be $25M, and should be finished sometime in 2007. Huntsville Times article: Panel Gives OK for Crestwood to add 2 floors

[Exodus]

301 East and the Bigsprings Office tower look great

[Martinman]

Finally!

Wow, somehow I knew PF Changs was going to Bridge Street. I wonder what the anchor stores will be. The only ones not in Huntsville that I can think of are either too high end (Nordstrom, Nieman Marcus) or going under (Saks, Macys). Anyone have any predictions?

Uhh Macy's is not going under. In fact, that company is converting every regional brand they own to Macy's.

Edited December 23, 2005 by Martinman

[jmanhsv]

^Yes, I know that. But are they developing brand new stores?

[DruidCity]

I really like PFChang's. I've never tried Sullivan's, but apparently it's owned by Lone Star : http://www.sullivansteakhouse.com/locations.asp

Bravo Cucina is run by the same company as Brio, which I've been to in B'ham :

http://www.bestitalianusa.com/

[HSVTiger]

Condo News,

The design will be a problem I bet. Lazy architecture at work here

Condo tower planned alongside Big Spring

Summit developers announce plans for 2nd building

Saturday, December 24, 2005

By JOHN PECK

Times Staff Writer, [email protected]

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.

Mayor Loretta Spencer, City Planning Director Dallas Fanning and City Attorney Peter Joffrion joined officials with Triad and the Fuqua & Partners Architects firm Friday to discuss the project with Times editors and reporters.

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."

Because the option clause for Phase II was embodied in Triad's original development agreement the City Council approved in December 2003, the new condominium building won't require council action. The City Planning Commission, however, must sign off on the final design.

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.

Fanning said the city will still come out ahead because many of the Summit's spots will be freed after 6 p.m. daily and on weekends to rent back out to other motorists. Spencer said the city plans to beef up downtown shuttle bus service to encourage motorists to use other public parking areas if the VBC garage is full.

[jmanhsv]

Here's the Ovation building next to the Summit tower, expected to open later this winter:

[HSVTiger]

well the project is a good idea but the design is crap. Hopefully the public outcry

will cause the hack architecture to be reviewed. No need for this wall to extend all the way across

the park. Can't Huntsville have some quality architecture for once that is over 15' tall?

[jmanhsv]

In the next few days, leaders from Huntsville and surrounding counties will hold a "town hall" meeting in Northern Virginia to recruit as many Department of Defense workers as possible to the area. For those who don't know, Huntsville/Redstone Arsenal is expected to gain about 5,000 direct civilian military jobs as a result of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure), most of them from Fort Belvoir south of DC. It is predicted that up to 5000 more subcontractor jobs will follow. If all goes well this week, the Huntsville area could have the largest population boom since the 1960s.

[Exodus]

Groundbreaking was held today for Main Street Lofts, a 5-story development in the Providence community. This will be the latest addition to the Town Center currently under development there. The bottom floor will be restaurants and retail, the other floors residential.

Isn't this going up in the Monrovia Rd. area ? BTW, like the icon, I see that twice a week attending school at the Calhoun Huntsville campus.

[jmanhsv]

^Yes, you are correct. Providence is one of 2 "new urbanist" communities planned/under construction along Old Monrovia Road. The other, tenatively named Indian Creek, will begin construction in a few months.

[jmanhsv]

Area leaders are now predicting that $1B in construction is needed to accomodate the 5000 jobs going to Redstone Arsenal over the next five years. This will involve $420M in new office buildings, and well over $500M is needed to build the Southern Bypass, which will take 7-10 years to complete. The office building space needed will be approx. 1.9M sq. ft. or as our congressman said, "10 Wal-Mart Supercenters". Huntsville Times article: Will Redstone be ready?

[jmanhsv]

The University of Alabama in Huntsville is building a new entrance. It will include trees, lakes and a roundabout....But at the end of the article, it mentions that the new Intermodal Center will begin construction in a few months. This will be constructed as a parking garage so that students can "park and ride" on city/campus transit. Article: Campus gateway in works for UAH

[jmanhsv]

Raytheon is planning a 3-story, $20M complex in Research Park that will house its 500 employees in the Huntsville area. This is the latest company to consolidate their Huntsville operations to one complex. There are also plans to expand the building by 110,000 sqft if growth continues (the original building will be 140,000 sqft). Huntsville Times article: Raytheon plans consolidation

[jmanhsv]

A couple of things happened today....

Madison Square Mall announced its plans for the first renovation of the mall since 1994. This will include interior renovations and some exterior touchups, including a new logo.

The Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology held its official groundbreaking today for the main building, slated to open in 2007. HAIB's master plan shows that there is a potential for 10 buildings once the campus is complete in about 10 years.

[jmanhsv]

Here are the Huntsville Times articles for these two projects:

Big Buildup for Biotech Center

Makeover in store for Madison Square

Edited January 20, 2006 by jmanhsv

[jmanhsv]

Ok, does this architectural company get their inspiration from cereal boxes?

Here's the new Raytheon building:

The same architect did Ovation Condos

One, these buildings are "squatty" (the condo building can be a bit taller, maybe 16 floors would be nice, and the Raytheon bldg would be nice at 6); two, they're BOXES! Also, the Raytheon building looks like every other building in CRP!

Sorry, I needed to vent.