HUNTSVILLE – With a reference to astronomical bodies, construction on the Rocket City’s “gateway to downtown” was launched Tuesday.
“Welcome to Front Row!” said developer Mitch Rutter with Essex Capital. He was joined by local leaders and developers in a ground-breaking ceremony at the former Coca-Cola bottling plant site across from the Von Braun Center.
“The meteoric rise of Huntsville continues,” he said. “And, with that rise, continues the rise in the expectations of space for users, residential apartment dwellers, retail users, restaurateurs, as well as office users.
“Front Row will set the new standard.”
The 11-plus acre mixed-use development spans three blocks and fronts three streets – Monroe Street and Clinton and Holmes avenues – and will include 545 high-end residential units, 47,000 feet of curated retail and food and beverage space, and 36,000 feet of cutting edge office space.
“This is an extraordinary project that will make downtown Huntsville even more attractive to both residents and visitors,” said Shane Davis, the City’s Director of Urban and Economic Development. “We are grateful for the work by the developers to help bring this project to the start of construction. Front Row’s start of construction on this significant mixed-use project illustrates the continued strength of Huntsville’s economy and market given current national trends related to securing equity and financing for large-scale urban projects.”
Construction for all three blocks will be done simultaneously.
“We made a big decision, build this in one swoop,” said Rutter. “That represents our commitment to Huntsville, our confidence in Huntsville’s continued growth and our belief in the leadership and the vision and commitment of Mayor Tommy Battle.”
Huntsville was an easy choice, according to Rutter.
“We’re New York developers. We wanted to find the next Austin and the next Denver,” he said. “We did an economic study and looked at all the indicators of those cities a few years before. What was their arc? And Huntsville met all the parameters, the level of education of the people, the median income, the percent increase in population, the job growth on and on and on and on.
“This location is key. The downtown is expanding, along with expanding and updating Von Braun. And our site runs right along this river walk that the city’s building. So we’re very excited.”
Rutter’s development partner Dan Shields said the city embraced them from day one.
“In the summer of 2018, we saw the big ‘for sale’ sign,” said Shields. “We let the seller know we wanted to buy and half an hour later we had a call from the mayor’s office that he wanted to meet us first.”
Shields calls their collaboration “symbiosis.”
“The mayor got what we wanted to build. We got what the city wanted to see here,” he said. “And there’s been collaboration at every step along the road and the the city finding ways to help us, us trying to to understand and design the project in a way that meets Huntsville’s needs today and into the future.”
At Tuesday’s groundbreaking, Shields presented a $250,000 check to Antonio McGinnis with the Huntsville Housing Authority to support the Campus of Growth initiative.
“We believe that good developers don’t seek to extract value from these things, but rather create value and share it with its stakeholders,” said Shields. “While our goal is to establish Front Row as the premier downtown community for live, work and play, we firmly believe that we must contribute beyond our border.”
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