On March 21, 2018, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey nominated 158 population census tracts, including 10 in Madison County, for designation as “qualified opportunity zones” pursuant to the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. As of July 9, 2018, the final list of qualifying Opportunity Zones was published by the IRS in Notice 2018-48.

The Huntsville area continues to realize impressive economic growth with significant events like the Toyota/Mazda groundbreaking, and Blue Origin and Aerojet Rocketdyne.  All totaled, at least one estimate accounts for over 4 billion (yep, Billion with a B!) in North Alabama economic expansion.

As we’ve discussed in previous posts, we place high value on using metrics to measure how Downtown is developing.  This can include market studies like our Downtown Retail Demand Study or our (soon to be updated) Downtown Housing Study Summary. It can also include less conventional metrics like traffic counts and how they are affecting activity in our city center.  Fortunately, we have great partners like the City of Huntsville’s Traffic Engineering Department that can help analyze changes using empirical data. 

If you’ve walked through Big Spring Park East in the last week, you’ve noticed something special has started—Tinsel Trail preparations!  With the picket fencing being installed, the beginning of a Huntsville holiday tradition is well underway. Soon, 300 trees will be delivered, installed, and selected by our fantastic tree sponsors.

Each year, the International Downtown Association hosts its annual conference where Downtown thought-leaders and advocates from around the world gather to share their successes (and challenges) in revitalizing city centers.  This year’s event was held in Downtown San Antonio with the host team Centro San Antonio working with IDA staff and volunteers to organize an amazing three days of tours, plenaries, breakout sessions, and networking.

If you are reading this, you might have been one of the thousands of people who enjoyed the 5th Annual LIT: Light+Innovation+Technology Festival this weekend in Downtown Huntsville. Each year, we don’t think we can be more amazed by our talented light artist.  But, each year we are.  The 2018 LIT was no exception.  As we finish up the 5th Anniversary of this signature event, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on the growing success and look forward to the unique possibilities.

Place Branding is driven by authenticity.  Discovering what makes your "place" unique and then sharing that uniqueness with guests in novel and interesting ways is critical to success.  Place Branding expands well beyond marketing campaigns or slogans because its goal is to help the audience experience a Place rather than just be told about it. 

We selected several parking spaces around the Square and invited local companies to build temporary parks in those spaces.  The parks were designed to fit into a single space each, were open 24 hours a day during the event, and have always been free to experience.

October is a particularly special month for unique events in Downtown.  This year, the October fun includes a variety of eclectic experiences.  Let’s take a look at just a few

Because Downtown Huntsville is fortunate to be surrounded by dynamic districts and unique neighborhoods, we’ve created the “Districts of Huntsville” section of the DHI website. This section highlights several of the areas adjacent to Downtown that offer a complimentary live, work and play experience.

The term “Class A” office building generally refers to the highest end office spaces in a city.  Oftentimes, these are concentrated in the Downtown area but can also be found in other metro areas such as suburban office parks.  That’s exactly the case here in Huntsville where you find the largest concentration of Class A office space in the research parks and Redstone Gateway focused around Gate 9 of Redstone Arsenal.

The advantage of a strong Downtown residential population is that people typically shop for essentials and spend the largest amount of time near their home.  While Downtown worker populations are great for the lunch trade and some categories of shopping, individuals will often buy their groceries, fill their prescriptions, pick up supplies and the like close to their home if that option is available.  

Since we currently aren’t a city with mass transit options like BRT, streetcars, or light rail, this means most people arrive in the city center in a motor vehicle.  While an increasing number of guests are using transit options like Uber and Lyft, most of these motor vehicles are personal vehicles driven by the visitor.