Quote:
Originally Posted by tascalisa
My thoughts went to Redstone Gateway when I first saw it. Too urban to be County Line, too shiny to be Town Madison
|
I think you may be right about Redstone Gateway and if The Oasis is located there, then it will be located just west of the Boeing office buildings with its major frontage to the north on I-565. Specifically here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7031.../data=!3m1!1e3
The reason I say that is if you look at the pictures on the project website,
http://www.ddpllc.com/the-oasis-concept-to-completion
scroll through to the 6th picture and you will see a highway behind the 5 story office building and another road that curves around behind the parking lot. I think the major road with traffic is I-565 and the road near the parking lot is the exit ramp to the Arsenal. The road in the distance behind the trees is Rideout Rd. going into the Arsenal.
However, I think there could be a significant obstacle to this being approved and that is getting the approval of the Commanding General of the Arsenal. When Redstone Gateway was originally proposed it was sold as a way to provide office space for contractors, like Boeing, who were doing business at RSA. (This was in conjunction with BRAC). The Commanding General made it clear that this is still Redstone Arsenal and that its purpose was to further the mission of RSA. Therefore, I'm not so sure that there will be any enthusiasm to expand a commercial project on Army land which will have limited application for the Army. Boeing's offices are for work specifically being done on the Arsenal, although a few of the engineers there do work on commercial applications not related to the government.
Several years ago, it took a significant effort just to get approval to move the boundary fence to widen Zierdt Rd. The justification was that it would increase access to Gate 7 (at Martin Rd.) and take pressure off Gate 9. If there was that much reluctance for that project on Zierdt, it seems like it would be a really tough sell for a project like The Oasis.
Something else to be pointed out is that the City of Huntsville was the driving force behind Redstone Gateway because they wanted the property tax income from the office buildings, hotel and retail located there. At the present time, Huntsville is very unique in that a large portion of its workforce works in federal office buildings for which the city (and county) get zero property tax revenue. Single family homes don't carry their weight in paying for schools, etc. HSV will definitely push this project for no other reason than to make for not getting any revenue from all of the employment centers on the Arsenal (Von Braun Center, Sparkman Center). Ultimately, the Base Commander will decide the project's fate.
Prev
Linear Mode
