Mall upgrades
 

CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. today announced renovation plans for Madison Square in Huntsville, AL in 2006. The 1.1 million square-foot regional mall will undergo its second renovation since its’ opening in 1984. CBL previously remodeled the mall in 1994 and the new, multi-million dollar renovation will include design improvements to further enhance the consumers overall shopping experience.

CBL selected FRCH of Cincinnati, OH as the architectural firm and EMJ Corporation of Chattanooga, TN as the general contractor. The renovation is scheduled to begin in January of 2006 with completion scheduled for the fall of 2006. The mall will feature new interior décor with the addition of carpeting and tile throughout the mall, upgraded restrooms with the addition of family restrooms and soft-seating areas with upholstered sofas and chairs. The mall will also feature new amenities including light towers, benches, trash receptacles and food court tables and chairs.

Re: UAH Applied Science/Rendering
 

That science building looks very nice !

Airport Long Range Plans
 

Huntsville International plans for the next 50 years.
Plenty of room and unlimited potential.

From The Huntsville Times
Just since the airport opened in 1967, its growth has been pretty remarkable, Tucker said. About 3,000 acres were purchased for the airport in 1964, Tucker said.

"Now we own 6,000 acres, and our planned acquisition will take us to 10,000 acres," Tucker said.

The airport's property boundaries will then be Wall Triana Highway to the east, Interstate 565 to the north, beyond Swancott Road to the south and Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge to the west.

"I think most of that (10,000 acres), if not all, would be acquired in the next 20 years," Tucker said.

The master plan for the Port of Huntsville, which takes in the airport, the Jetplex Industrial Park and International Intermodal Center, gives some indication of what the airport could look like in the future. The plan calls for expanding south from the existing concourse if needed in the future.

Beyond that, the plan lists an extension of the airport's east runway so that both of the runways are 12,600 feet long, adding a future third parallel runway to the west, adding future fourth and fifth parallel runway systems and ultimately building a second, midfield concourse/terminal.

The existing facility allows plenty of capacity for now, said Barbie Peek, the airport's marketing director. Already the first phase of a concourse expansion and renovation project is under way, and a parking deck expansion and second and third floor improvements are under design - all part of a multi-million-dollar capital improvement plan.

Yeah... when I read that, I was pretty shocked by the plans to have 5 parallel runways. Birmingham has about double the passenger traffic of HSV and we only have 1 main runway for commercial flights. BHM has 2 runways and is thinking about adding a 3rd, but 5 seems to be a bit overkill unless there's really a big jump in HSV passenger traffic.

More shops
 

reworking existing retail, always a good thing

Village at Whitesburg to get upscale makeover
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Huntsville Times
The Village at Whitesburg shopping center is about to undergo a transformation.

The center, located on the northwest corner of Whitesburg Drive and Airport Road, will get a new look plus new stores and restaurants, said Charles Grelier Jr., president of Chase Commercial Real Estate Services, the leasing and managing agent for the project. Construction is expected to begin this fall and take about five months.

"There will be pretty dramatic changes to the porticos, hardscape and facade," Grelier said last week. "We will be upgrading the tenant mix to more of a lifestyle mix."


Lifestyle centers are a current trend in retail development, with sidewalks, plazas and trendy shops and cafes.

He said a pedestrian-friendly plaza will be built in the corner of the shopping center, near the Thirsty Turtle pub.

He said he expects most of the existing tenants to stay, with vacancies being filled by new, upscale stores and restaurants.
A Bonefish Grill seafood restaurant is currently under construction and is scheduled to be open by September, he said. Existing restaurants include McAllister's Deli, Qdoba, Subway, Thirsty Turtle and Ding How Chinese restaurant.
For years, the 120,000-square-foot shopping center has been anchored by a Winn Dixie store. That store was not on a list of sites the bankrupt grocery chain announced it has sold. Grelier said the site will become either a "high-end anchor" or space for shops.

Charles Grelier said he's not ready to announce any additional tenants, "but there's a lot of letters of intent.

"We're pretty close to signing several good tenants, another upscale restaurant for one."

while huntsville's passenger traffic is definitely on the increase, i think most of this planning is done with cargo traffic in mind. that's the main reason the first runway was increased to 12,600.

HSV has the largest cargo traffic of any airport in the state by a pretty considerable margin last time I checked.

Oh yeah... I'm aware of HSV's air cargo business, but why do they need a 2nd infield terminal then unless they plan on having passenger traffic spread out over several runways?

Remember
 

that is long range planning, (50 years) who knows what the
airline industry will be like. If an Air Cargo company decided to expand greatly in the US, HSV would have the infrastructure in place. The downfall of any airport is the inability to expand.
In any case HSV will have the premier facility in the state, that is their goal.

Huntsville 200 years old
 

If in the area come join the party.
Link shows all events in the coming weeks and interesting
info.
http://www.huntsvillebicentennial.co...ogo_on_tan.jpg

http://www.huntsvillebicentennial.com/

Proposed Hospital
 

Crestwoods proposed hospital for Madison, one of Huntsville's fast growing suburbs
http://www.citizensformadisonshospit...wrendering.jpg

and Huntsville Hospitals
 

proposal
http://www.huntsvillehospital.org/co...onHospital.jpg

http://www.huntsvillehospital.org/co.../Madison2b.jpg

Biotech Research Center
 

This project has great potential, a downtown campus would be cool, but this will be located in Research Park most likely.

By BRIAN LAWSON
Times Business Writer brianl@htimes.com
Exemptions hinge on $50M in private investment here

The Alabama Legislature on Tuesday brought Huntsville a step closer to creating a top-flight biotechnology research institute here, approving tax exemptions for the project if private investors put up $50 million to establish it.

The bill, which Gov. Bob Riley plans to sign into law, will provide tax relief starting in October 2008 to the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, a nonprofit led by Huntsville biotechnology pioneer Jim Hudson and Adtran co-founder Lonnie McMillan.Hudson founded Research Genetics, which opened in 1987 and created Huntsville's biotechnology sector. Hudson sold his company to Invitrogen in 2000. Hudson said late Tuesday that work to create the biotech institute is ongoing, but did not elaborate.

The proposed project has been described by supporters as a nonprofit research center that would aim to lead innovation efforts in the Southeast and develop new biotechnology ideas with commercial and academic potential. The center would seek to attract related businesses interested in partnering on a range of projects.

Re: biotech - Isn't Hudson the same guy who had that "Electric Avenue" proposal a few years ago ?
Is anything planned for the site where Electric Avenue would've gone ?

yes and yes. Looking back thankfully that project didn't happen.
The site is adjacent to the under construction Big Spring Summit.
Triad Properties is planning a 3-4 story condo retail project
on top of the garage. With the success so far with Big Spring
this project will happen sooner than later.

Downtown and other things..
 

The Big Spring Summit building is coming along nicely as the facade of the building is being placed near the bottom. The top is still underconstruction but the crane for this building is said to be 265' tall. Looking at this building it seems that it could be taller than 128'. The building is pretty much already spoken for as far as vancancy goes. The hotel site is coming along nicely as it is on the 3rd floor of the 10 floor 140' building. The Saturn V at the Space and Rocket Center is being fixed up and being prepared to move.

^can't wait to see all those downtown buildings finished, including 301 east!

Is there some kind of rendering of the Huntsville skyline with any/all of these buildings superimposed?

Blazer85, at one time there was an image floating around but haven't seen it in awhile, maybe more additions are being made:hmmm:

on another note with the good sometimes comes the bad, most of the jobs are hoped to be transferred to the other plant by 2007
or absorbed in the community which is a good possibility, since most are manufacturing

Siemens VDO Automotive plans to close one of two former DaimlerChrysler plants it purchased here last year and move those product lines to Mexico over the next two years.

Most of the work done at the Wynn Drive site, which employs more than 400 people, will be moved to a Siemens plant in Guadalajara. Siemens will continue to operate its plant in Madison near the Huntsville International Airport, and has no plans to close it, a company spokesman said Wednesday.