By GINA HANNAH
Times Business Writer,
ginah@htimes.com
Five years ago, Huntsville government and business leaders rode a bus to Chattanooga to learn how it had managed to revive its downtown. They ate lunch at a restaurant near the Tennessee Aquarium. They rode the carousel at Coolidge Park. They had dinner in the Bluff View Arts District overlooking the river.
They came back with a dream: Let's do something like this in Huntsville.
On June 8, officials from the city and Big Spring Partners, a nonprofit downtown development organization, announced the group's first project in Huntsville's downtown: a public-private partnership in which both parties will acquire the Holiday Inn Select property on Williams Street. Under the terms of the deal, Big Spring Partners will buy the hotel and the land it sits on for $8.6 million, then sell the land to the city for $6.5 million.
Big Spring Partners was modeled after RiverCity Co., which has been instrumental in bringing nearly $1.5 billion in development to Chattanooga's downtown during the past two decades. Since its formation in 1986, RiverCity has had a hand in numerous downtown projects, including housing construction, historic preservation, parks and entertainment.
Chattanooga's revitalization has been touted nationally as an example of public-private partnerships working well. Once considered one of the most neglected downtown areas in the region, Chattanooga's riverfront now teems with activity as tourists and residents visit the aquarium, restaurants and shops, and families gather for picnics or to play in an interactive water fountain. "
There will be many new downtown projects announced for downtown in the coming year.
In addition:
Officials at Huntsville Hospital are proposing to more than double the size of the ER. They also want to add a four-story patient tower to the six story parking garage being built next to the emergency room.