Harris Hill Update: Phase One Moving Forward

On the planning agendas this month: plans for a portion of the long-awaited Harris Hill development in Northeast Huntsville. According to the plans, the first phase will include space for a hotel and outparcels for restaurants, "highway retail" (banks, pharmacies, etc.), and office space. It will be located at the foot of Chapman Mountain, in the cleared area bounded by 72 East, Moores Mill, and Harris Hill Blvd. Don't get too excited; this is not the massive shopping center/residential development planned further east, which probably won't be built for some time.

Oakwood Village to be renovated?

Plans include a "local grocer", according to one sales flyer.

Oakwood Village is a shopping center at the intersection of Oakwood Avenue and Meridian Street that has seen better days. Tenants have been hard to keep since Winn-Dixie, its main anchor, closed about five years ago, being replaced recently by a couple of shady furniture stores. A revitalization of the center would be logical considering its location-- just north of Lincoln Mill.

What is not known yet is whether or not this will be a full-blown redevelopment of the shopping center. The suburban design of Oakwood Village seems out of place in area surrounded by pre-WWII mill houses, so a more urban (mixed-use?) makeover of the center would be welcome. But even just the signing of a "prominent local grocer" to the center (if that's all this "renovation" is) would help the Lincoln Mill neighborhood become a more vibrant, attractive place to live.

This leaves one lingering question-- what "prominent local grocer" would put a store at Oakwood Village? There are three such grocers I would consider "prominent" in the area, with the recent departure of Southern Family Markets: Kroger, Star Market, and Publix. Kroger has a recently-renovated store on Oakwood about a mile west of the shopping center. Star Market also recently renovated and expanded its original Five Points store (also about a mile away), and it would be tragic for them to leave that neighborhood. This leaves Publix, whose closest store is six miles away, in Southeast Huntsville. Publix seems to prefer affluent suburban areas,  but has been known to build urban stores, such as this one in Columbia, SC. Could Publix be planning to do the same in Huntsville? Stay tuned.

Update (4/9/10): I should also mention the possibility that the proposed grocery store could be completely local and independent.

Lincoln Mill: New Theater Coming

The Dye House Theater is expected to open next month as part of the Lincoln Mill renovation in Northeast Huntsville. The 246-seat multipurpose theater will actually be in the former dye house next to the main mill (hence the name; see image below). Along with the theater, the building will also include the Straight to Ale microbrewery (opening early next year), 15,000 square feet of event space, a restaurant (with a greenhouse to grow produce), and a museum highlighting the mill's rich history.

Northeast: Wal-Mart a No, Harris Hill a Maybe?

A couple of updates on projects on the Northeast side:

The Northeast Huntsville Wal-Mart, which would have been built at the intersection of Shields and US 72, is no longer planned, and the land is back up for sale. To the delight of some, dismay to others, it could be years before Wal-Mart builds a store on the Northeast side.

Harris Hill, which continues to be the most-emailed-about project, still seems to be a go. Not much has happened since part of the land for the massive development was cleared about a year ago. The project appears to still include retail, office space, and a hotel. Construction could begin as early as next summer. Don't yell at me if it doesn't, though.

• Check out past articles on Harris Hill.

Lincoln Mill Project back from the dead

Back in December 2007, a $20 million plan was revealed by Dr. James Byrne to renovate the Lincoln Mill in Northeast Huntsville into shops, restaurants, and up to 60 loft condominiums. The plan seemed like it had died until construction activity was seen at the site in July (though my fellow Northeast-siders who drive on 565 and fans of the blog on Facebook knew that already). Now, two tenants are preparing to move into the building- a small private school and a microbrewery, according to the Times. The third (top) floor, where the lofts were originally planned, is being considered by an environmental firm. And the conceptual "independent movie theater" still seems to be an ultimate goal to the developer. The residential component has been severely downsized, however; only a quarter of the of lofts originally planned are still on the drawing board.

Either way, this project will be a great shot in the arm for a neighborhood with a lot of promise. Lincoln Mill has the potential to become just as popular as Five Points in the next couple of years. A couple of shops, restaurants, and a grocery store (how about an urban Publix?) would probably do the trick.

More info:
Times article: Mill Makeover
Past blog posts on the project, including a rendering
Aerial photos of the site- Sellers Photo
Straight to Ale (the microbrewery); and their Facebook page

Public projects moving forward

There might not be a lot of activity with commercial development right now, but the government is a buildin'! Four major public projects are beginning construction in the next couple of months:

VBC Concert Hall (Mark Smith Concert Hall): A $5 million expansion/renovation/makeover which will include new seats, a new sound system, a renovated lobby, and a new exterior. Construction Start: October. Completion: Summer 2010.

VBC Arena (Propst Arena): A $15 million renovation, including new bathrooms, concession areas (with a new cafe/bar with outdoor seating), and skyboxes. Construction start and completion are similar to the Concert Hall renovations.

Huntsville Museum of Art: A scaled-down expansion of the decade-old museum. The $7 million expansion includes new gallery space, an auditorium, and new entrances on the park and Williams Street sides of the museum. Bid date: September 24th. Construction start: November. Completion: 2011.

Lee High School: A new high school for Northeast Huntsville. The new school will be across the railroad tracks from the current one; if you've driven down Meridian lately, you've probably noticed the land has already been cleared. Bid date: October 15. Construction start: November. Completion: Opening by the 2011-2012 school year, maybe sooner.

Lincoln Mill Project: Making a Comeback?

Yet another project seems to be coming back from the dead. A plan to renovate the Lincoln Mill in Northeast Huntsville into retail space and lofts could be back on the board, with construction starting in early 2010.

For more info: Check out past articles on this project.

Chase Creek Town Center

This is a conceptual site plan for Chase Creek Town Center, a proposed shopping center located at US 72 and Shields Road. This picture shows a "big-box" store, a grocery store, and about 40,000 sq. ft of small shops along with a bank in an outparcel. The "big-box" store shown has been all but confirmed to be a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The small shops will be filled mostly by stores that "follow" Wal-Mart, such as Hibbetts Sporting Goods, GameStop, Dollar Tree, etc. Whether the grocery store is built is up in the air, since both Kroger and Publix have stores nearby. Another mid-size tenant, such as a Goody's or a Big Lots, might take its place in the final product. Like most of the plans I post on here, this is only conceptual, and are used just to give potential tenants an idea of what's planned.

*UPDATE (3/09): The contract the land was under to develop the Wal-Mart was dropped in late 2008, so a new Wal-Mart for Northeast is on hold, at least for a couple of years.

Smaller Developments- June 2008

I've found these upcoming projects on my various web searches in the past couple of weeks, but they're just a tad too small to dedicate a whole blog post to them. So here they go:

• A Guthrie's is supposedly coming to Winchester Road, on one of the outparcels of the old Winn-Dixie shopping center.
  
• A CVS/Pharmacy is planned for the northwest corner of Sutton Road and US 431 in Hampton Cove. And, of course, there's Brookestone at Hampton Cove, a 11,250 sq. ft. strip center planned for the northeast corner of the same intersection.
  

Harris Hill- The Real Plan?

I attended the meeting at City Hall tonight about the Harris Hill development, one, because I write this blog, and two, I live in the area. Cole Walker of Walker Family Properties discussed the plans for the development, which, as of now, look like this:

• The "Jones Valley" portion: 10 outparcels lining 72 East and Old Gurley Road, for restaurants (seemed to mention Outback Steakhouse a lot, a clue?), a pharmacy, banks. This part could be completed in about a year, and construction could be seen in a couple of months if all goes well and it is approved by the city.
  
• The "Westside Center" portion: 60 acres for "big box" retail; current plans call for two large anchors (one looked a lot like a SuperTarget), 4-5 "junior" anchors (stores such as Goody's and Dick's Sporting Goods), and smaller stores. This phase would be completed in at LEAST 3 years, according to Walker.
  
• 200 acres of multi family residential, mostly condos/apartments, but some townhomes. The residences will be priced in "the $200-400,000 range." This phase should be built at the same time or a little later than the retail portion.
  
• The "Providence" portion: A 40 acre town center, with retail space on the bottom and lofts/condos on the top floors. Walker said that this will probably be the last thing to be built, when (or if) the development is successful.
  
• A hotel, which wasn't talked about but was still on the plans.
  
• The rest of the 600-acre development will be preserved as parkland/greenspace, with walking trails, bike paths, etc.
  

I could have a picture of the plan up as early as tomorrow.

Note: any tenants I mentioned here are completely theoretical, I am throwing them out there to show what COULD go in there. Walker said that retailers are taking a cautious "wait and see" strategy right now, with the failing economy and upcoming presidential elections, and more locally, waiting to see how many people come with BRAC. Overall buildout could take around seven years, which is common for a project of this magnitude.

One thing I would like to point out about the meeting: the surrounding neighborhood, which has a history of being very vocal about nearby development (a couple of years ago, a developer wanted to build cheap apartments next to the neighborhood, which brought on a lawsuit by some of the homeowners), seemed very enthusiastic about the project for the most part. There were some concerns about traffic, which was forseen, but I think the largely positive attitude shown by the neighborhood will bring this project closer to fruition.

Kroger getting a makeover

After finishing renovations at the Madison store last year, Kroger plans to start soon on renovating its Moores Mill location, which has already seen one other renovation since its opening in 1996. The last renovation removed the in-store video rental store and added a gas station. Probably the biggest changes shoppers will see in this upcoming renovation will be an expanded "Nature's Market" section and the relocation of the pharmacy to the front of the store to allow for a drive-thru window.
Look for similar renovations to happen at the 5 other Kroger stores in the Huntsville-Decatur market, as Kroger struggles to compete with Publix and Wal-Mart.

A HDN "Investigation": What is Going On Here?

Hey, it works for 48...
Recently, land has been cleared on the Winchester Plaza (the Publix shopping center) outparcel next to McDonald's, sparking rumors on what is going in there. Some say it's a restaurant, others, more specifically, say it's an Applebees. Being a longtime resident of the area, I was curious myself and went out to investigate.

First, I checked on Winchester Plaza's website. Note that the outparcel in question is shaded in gray with the letters NIC: "Not In Contract." It has been like this for months. So, no luck there, besides the fact that someone doesn't want nosy people (like myself) from seeing what they're putting there.

So I went to another "weapon" of mine: the Madison County "Interactive Tax Assessment Map". It gives info on every parcel in Madison County, such as the owner, their address, and the assessed value of their property. Kind of scary, actually. Anyway, from there, I learned who owned the property- "Winchester Center, LLC" with a Lawrenceville, GA address. A quick Google search of the address reveals that it is for Marvin Hewatt Enterprises- a company that develops gas stations/convenience stores. Another Google search of the company's name shows a "For the Record" article from the Huntsville Times on Sunday, March 8 where three building permits were issued for the company, two for the property in question. The contractor that was named in the article, Charter South, Inc. specializes in building gas stations. One of their "current projects" is a Mobil station in Marianna, FL for Marvin Hewatt Enterprises.

Conclusion: Sorry, It's probably going to be a gas station. Hope for better luck with Harris Hills.

New homes in Five Points

Normally, a 15-home development is not big news around here. But this one is unique because of its location. A developer more well-known for his developments in the Monrovia area is building up to 15 homes along Rison Street in Five Points. The houses will be built similar to the historic bungalow-style mill houses that are common in the area, and will be priced at about $170,000. The Northeast Huntsville neighborhood has been on the rebound for the past decade with a reputation for being trendy and appealing for young professionals.

Huntsville Times article: New for Five Points

Lincoln Mill rendering from the Huntsville Times

I told you so... This is a rendering of the Lincoln Mill project from the front page of the Saturday Huntsville Times. The bottom right photo is what the mill looks like from the same spot as the rendering, and the old water tower to the left is undergoing a $200,000 refurbishing paid for by the city.

Lincoln Mill Update

Yesterday, I posted a small "hint" in the Huntsville Times about a possible renovation of Lincoln Mill in Northeast Huntsville. Well, today it was announced. Could we see a possible rendering in tomorrow's paper?

The Lincoln Mill building in Northeast Huntsville will be renovated into shops, restaurants, offices, and up to 60 condos selling for $150 to $200 sq ft. Local doctor James Byrne purchased the Lincoln Mill building, and plans to spend $20 million renovating the two remaining buildings. The larger building will be converted to offices/retail on the first floor, while the 2nd and 3rd floors will become condos. The smaller building will have restaurants, retail and possibly an "independent movie theater."

Huntsville Times article

UPDATE of the update: The architect's website, http://www.mathenygoldmon.com/, shows a rendering of a "mixed use development along a major access corridor to downtown Huntsville." This is most likely the Lincoln Mill project; if not, we might have another project coming soon...

Target, Dicks, JCPenney confirmed by "The Investigators"

WAFF 48 got a copy of the Harris Hill plan as well. They confirm that Target, Old Navy, JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods are some of the tenants expected to come to the center when it opens in 2009. And they say there's going to be not one, but two hotels. But as in typical local news, they get at least one fact wrong-Harris Hill will NOT be a "mall" as it says in the story- it will be a mixed-use development. Basically, Harris Hill will be Jones Valley, Bridge Street, and Providence combined in one mega-project.
Here's a link to the story with a video included:
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=7418228&nav=0hBE

Harris Hill Tenant Plan

Somebody on the Citydata.com forum leaked the Harris Hill site plan, though if you go to the architect's website, you can see the small logo of a SuperTarget. But here's the site plan (PDF file). The planned tenants:

SuperTarget
Bed Bath and Beyond
World Market
Kirkland's
Hobby Lobby
Ross
Toys R Us
Pier One
Shoe Carnival
Old Navy
Lane Bryant
Maurice's
ULTA
JCPenney
Barnes and Noble
Dick's Sporting Goods
Best Buy
Kohl's
Marshall's

A hotel is also planned along with a Cinemark movie theater and a small lifestyle center along a "river walk."