Marketsquare

[HSVTiger]

official groundbreaking taking place at 3pm today(18th) also the 2 hotels that will occupy the site

will be announced. Hopefully even more details will be revealed. The hotel construction will start

as soon as the site is cleared, still aways to go on that.

[Alabadrock]

MarketSquare seems to be a great development. Good to see it next to/nearby the VBC.

Living in Birmingham, what I love about visiting Huntsville is that everything is so close. The drive from Madison to Big Spring Park is much, much less than driving from Birmingham city's eastern neighborhoods to its downtown. Heck, driving from Decatur to Huntsville is alot less than driving from Bessemer to Birmingham. Just getting from one southern suburb south of town to another (Homewood to Alabaster, for instance) takes longer than, say, going from Madison to Madison Square (nobody in their right mind would consider this any distance at all).

The fact that Huntsille doesn't have a "traditional" urban downtown doesn't bother me, either. Big Spring Park, Constitution Village, Twickenham & the Medical Center District would all fit nicely inside UAB, but you wouldn't want to walk UAB!!! The point here is that the core of Huntsville is walkable, liveable, highly unique, and absolutely beautiful.

Any new developments up there should take Huntsville's relatively condensed layout into consideration. Huntsville is a wonderfully easy city to navigate, and y'all are blessed too by not having a cajillion little towns/suburbs/feifdoms squabbling endlessly against one another like the Birmingham area. Tall buildings clustered near your downtown, or up-and-down the University Blvd., would greatly enhance the ease of Rocket City navigation by limiting sprawl.

Birmingham already sprawls over more terrain than Boston, even though Birmingham has just over a million people, while Boston has 4+ million. Huntsville/Decatur have the prime opportunity to study from our land mismanagement and lack of any kind of planning to (hopefully) develop Alabama's premier urban region.

Just because we have 3 dozen retail centers, the Galleria, 73 suburbs, multi-lane highways everywhere and mega-interstate exchanges, doesn't make us better, or even more vibrant. My earnest hope is that your region will avoid Birmingham-style development. One vast eyesore is enough already.

[HSVTiger]

The two new hotels announced for Constellation Huntsville will be new upscale versions of Courtyard

and Springhill Suites by Marriott.

[jmanhsv]

There was a column this morning in the Huntsville Times about Constellation. Supposedly Wal-Mart wanted to build a supercenter there, but was rejected. Who knew this thread (which was created as a joke) almost came true?

Also, I thought it was great that McLain (the developer) is going to begin a graduate study on the possibility of Light Rail in Huntsville, probably on the old HMCRA line. I would love to see the results of this study.

Huntsville Times column

[Alabadrock]

There was a column this morning in the Huntsville Times about Constellation. Supposedly Wal-Mart wanted to build a supercenter there, but was rejected. Who knew this thread (which was created as a joke) almost came true?

Also, I thought it was great that McLain (the developer) is going to begin a graduate study on the possibility of Light Rail in Huntsville, probably on the old HMCRA line. I would love to see the results of this study.

Huntsville Times column

[HSVTiger]

YOu know, I was actually thinking of just that the other day. I was driving down Airport and crossed the tracks, and though, it's not being used...... Why not put some light rail on it. Could have HUGE possibilities.

[Alabadrock]

the idea has been tossed around for some time. It would not be too diificult to link up the intermodal center being constructed at Bridge Street with the one downtown and have stops at Constellation/ VBC, Parkway

Place and Ditto Landing.

Hey jman, might be time to change the title of this thread or start a construction thread for Constellation, cause I gues Market Square doesn't exist anymore as of last Friday

Could Target be a tenant? They would be an excellent choice , one of their smaller stores, also a grocery would be great like Earth Fare. A lot of exciting things this project will bring downtown. Retail will be back

in a big way.

[jmanhsv]

^Yeah, I think we just might have to do that.

A Target would be great downtown. However, with only 40,000 sq ft of retail space planned, I don't think any type of big box store is planned for Constellation. Does Target have a "neighborhood market"?

A small grocery store is a possibility- I would like to see a Publix personally.

[HSVTiger]

^Yeah, I think we just might have to do that.

A Target would be great downtown. However, with only 40,000 sq ft of retail space planned, I don't think any type of big box store is planned for Constellation. Does Target have a "neighborhood market"?

A small grocery store is a possibility- I would like to see a Publix personally.

[Sherlock]

Constellation sounds like a great project, and it's certainly in a good location for success. But I just wish Scott would go with taller buildings instead of the low- and mid-rise ones that are in the conceptual drawings.

I kinda cringe when I see the Times refer to 7-story buildings as "high rises", and the new 4-story medical building across from Huntsville Hospital being called a "tower".

[Sherlock]

MarketSquare seems to be a great development. Good to see it next to/nearby the VBC.

Living in Birmingham, what I love about visiting Huntsville is that everything is so close. The drive from Madison to Big Spring Park is much, much less than driving from Birmingham city's eastern neighborhoods to its downtown. Heck, driving from Decatur to Huntsville is alot less than driving from Bessemer to Birmingham. Just getting from one southern suburb south of town to another (Homewood to Alabaster, for instance) takes longer than, say, going from Madison to Madison Square (nobody in their right mind would consider this any distance at all).

The fact that Huntsille doesn't have a "traditional" urban downtown doesn't bother me, either. Big Spring Park, Constitution Village, Twickenham & the Medical Center District would all fit nicely inside UAB, but you wouldn't want to walk UAB!!! The point here is that the core of Huntsville is walkable, liveable, highly unique, and absolutely beautiful.

Any new developments up there should take Huntsville's relatively condensed layout into consideration. Huntsville is a wonderfully easy city to navigate, and y'all are blessed too by not having a cajillion little towns/suburbs/feifdoms squabbling endlessly against one another like the Birmingham area. Tall buildings clustered near your downtown, or up-and-down the University Blvd., would greatly enhance the ease of Rocket City navigation by limiting sprawl.

Birmingham already sprawls over more terrain than Boston, even though Birmingham has just over a million people, while Boston has 4+ million. Huntsville/Decatur have the prime opportunity to study from our land mismanagement and lack of any kind of planning to (hopefully) develop Alabama's premier urban region.

Just because we have 3 dozen retail centers, the Galleria, 73 suburbs, multi-lane highways everywhere and mega-interstate exchanges, doesn't make us better, or even more vibrant. My earnest hope is that your region will avoid Birmingham-style development. One vast eyesore is enough already.

[Alabadrock]

Metro Birmingham is about 1 million, but it covers an enormous geographical area. If you consider the "real" metro area of Huntsville-Decatur (Madison, Limestone, and Morgan Counties), the population is about 500,000 ... approximately half that of Birmingham ... and growing rapidly. This area can support some pretty cosmopolitan projects.

[3rdGenHuntsvillian]

You have to factor in the possibility that people from the Decatur Metro don't want to drive all that distance. It'd be nice if the area were a true twin city like area so that these developments could be shared and one city not have to commute to the other just to go to some cool places.

[HSVTiger]

Constellation sounds like a great project, and it's certainly in a good location for success. But I just wish Scott would go with taller buildings instead of the low- and mid-rise ones that are in the conceptual drawings.

I kinda cringe when I see the Times refer to 7-story buildings as "high rises", and the new 4-story medical building across from Huntsville Hospital being called a "tower".

[Alabadrock]

That is why i think the area around Greenbriar is ripe for some HUGE type of development. A blend of OpryMills, Arena/ampitheater, Providence and Bridgestreet. Is that too much to ask?

[rnc]

this may be one of the earlier proposals, there have been many. The floodplain will most likely decide

how close structures can get. The Army Corp of Engineers are in process of designing the improved creek I think. I would expect that construction on the two hotels to begin before the entire project.

Not to worry the project will take full use of the possibilties provided by the redone creek, especially the hotels.