Sunday, February 19, 2006

By JOHN PECK and GINA HANNAH
Times Staff Writers, jpeck@htimes.com, ginah@htimes.com

The former Heart of Huntsville/Market Square Mall site will be razed and replaced with a new development, but no one seems to know just when it will happen.

Owner Scott McLain said last week he's got no specific plan yet for the site off Clinton Avenue and South Memorial Parkway, but he'd like to see it include retail, entertainment and residential space. The residential segment could include apartments or condominiums. McLain said he'd also like to see a hotel on the site.

But the sluggish pace of the road work planning surrounding the mall has delayed his ability to market the downtown spot.

That's because the road plan takes a piece of the 18-acre site, and he doesn't yet know where his property line is going to be.

"We still do not have a drawing from the city showing the boundaries of the property," McLain said. "The city has to design that road and it takes a little bit of the Market Square property and defines the boundaries of the property."

He said he's only able to have "casual conversations" with prospective tenants until he knows what the boundaries of the site will be. "We can't make a plan that we can actually execute."

The old mall, known now as Market Square, occupies prime space off Memorial Parkway near the Von Braun Center and the new Embassy Suites hotel downtown. A multi-million dollar plan to landscape and improve Pinhook Creek, which runs between the mall site and the hotel/VBC complex, could enhance the marketability of the property.

City planning director Dallas Fanning said the road work design calls for using Heart of Huntsville Drive and building a new bridge over Pinhook Creek to connect with the new roundabout in front of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

"The issue we haven't resolved is how we will do the intersection with Clinton Avenue," Fanning said. He referred questions about the traffic planning to the city engineering department. City Engineer Tom Cunningham did not return a call for comment.

McLain said he met with city staff recently "and it appeared to me that there was going to be a number of days before there was a solution. I have not been advised of a conclusion."

Some tenants moved

Once he knows the new property boundaries, McLain said he's ready to begin making plans for the site.

The city recently rezoned the property from light industrial to C-3, which has fewer setback requirements and allows a flexible range of building options.

Fanning said the new zoning would allow all of McLain's planned uses.

At least one nightspot owner already has his sights on the property. Mark Komara, owner of the 721 Club, which leases space at Market Square, said he's had discussions with McLain about being in the planned new development. "We've had phenomenal business in there," Komara said.

Some tenants of the Market Square building (circa 1961) have already moved out. Several told The Times of recent notification letters they received from McLain's development company giving a six-month notice their lease would expire.

"They said they would rebuild. They told me I had to move out by June," said Ha Chau, owner of Alterations South. Chau relocated her alterations shop last month to a place on South Memorial Parkway.

Rick Jones, owner of Southern Elegance Dance Studio, which still leases space in Market Square, said he also got a letter but was left with the impression the move-out deadline could be extended until development plans materialize.

McLain confirmed last week that tenants have received a letter saying redevelopment was coming. He said the letter puts him in compliance with lease agreements between him and tenants requiring a six-month notice to vacate, but the businesses may have longer than six months before they actually have to move.

"There's nothing magic at all about the six months," he said. "I will give as much notice as I can."

Rumors about what will become of Market Square site have circulated for years, peaking in 2001, after members of the singing group Backstreet Boys said they were discussing a potential hotel and entertainment complex for the site in a partnership with Belz Burrow Development Group of Memphis. Belz Burrow later pulled out of the deal, saying the city's $37 million incentive package was not enough to make the project happen.

Improve traffic flow

Interest in the site picked up after Missouri developer John Q. Hammons announced he would build an Embassy Suites Hotel next to the VBC. Road improvements surrounding the site were part of the city's incentive package to get the hotel built.

The state committed more than $11 million for the new downtown access road and other related projects. Johnny Harris, division engineer for the Alabama Department of Transportation, said the city redirected more than $4 million to use as match money for other federally funded downtown street improvements including Meridian Street.

Harris said approximately $4 million was used to rebuild Monroe Street from the new arched bridge over the Big Spring canal extension to the library roundabout. About $2 million will be needed for the replacement bridge that will connect the roundabout to Heart of Huntsville Drive, he said. The remainder will be used for the connector road.

Harris said he knows of no plans by the city to change the existing on and off-ramps of Memorial Parkway at Clinton Avenue. He said the DOT believes the new bridge to the roundabout and the Heart of Huntsville Drive makeover will improve the traffic flow in and out of the downtown area.

"I think anytime you improve access to your facilities, it's going to enhance the ability to utilize those and provide a better, safer driving environment," he said. Harris said the new link will help ease the congestion on Governors Drive when construction to widen that road begins.