Friday, December 22, 2006
By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer john.peck@htimes.com

Chalk up another Wal-Mart for Huntsville.

A giant Supercenter, a multiscreen movie theater and apartment complex are part of a $90 million-plus commercial development deal approved Thursday night by the City Council.

The project is being developed by Colonial Properties Trust of Birmingham. It is proposed for an 80-acre tract of land on the north side of U.S. 72 just west of the CVS Pharmacy on Balch Road - roughly across the highway from the Madison Bowling Center.

The development deal approved by the City Council commits up to $900,000 in city money for turn lanes and traffic signals on U.S. 72 at the entrance. Colonial has a purchase option on the land and will now move forward on closing the deal.

Mayor Loretta Spencer said the project will be good for Huntsville because it will mean yet another retail opportunity for shoppers with their sales taxes. Sales taxes make up more than half of the city's $201 million operating budget: $119 million is projected in city sales taxes this budget year.

Spencer said city annexations along the U.S. 72 corridor into Limestone County are beginning to pay for themselves with developments that generate more sales and property taxes.

"There are a lot of people that come in that route to their jobs," she said. A city study in 2000 said 8,878 Limestone County residents work in Madison County.

Bryan Ratliff, senior vice president of Colonial Properties Trust in Birmingham, said groundbreaking on the shopping/apartment/movie theater complex is slated for fall 2007. Developers hope to ramp up completion of the theater for a possible opening in spring 2008, he said.

AmStar Cinemas, a medium-sized theater chain based in Birmingham, is planning a 14-screen complex. Ratliff said Wal-Mart and the other yet-to-be-named retail stores could open by late 2008 or early 2009.

"It's a great investment for the City of Huntsville," Spencer said in justifying the city's agreement to build the turning lanes and signals.

Ratliff said the older Wal-Mart on U.S. 72 about five miles east of the planned new one will remain open. Ratliff said Huntsville's rapid growth, strong business climate and projections for huge population gains with the thousands of jobs that will be transferred here from BRAC make the project an attractive investment. The location seems ideal, he said.

"The population growth has been very prolific in the Harvest-Monrovia area and, of course, the city of Madison and east Limestone County along County Line Road," Ratliff said.

He believes more growth will fill in, lessening the chance for the development to "bleed off or transfer too many sales."

Spencer also doesn't believe the retail giant will siphon sales from established retail venues on U.S. 72. The new location follows Wal-Mart's strategy of building on major highways on the fringes of cities to capture commuters from the suburbs as they drive in. The new Wal-Mart would be the seventh in Madison County.

The retail component will be a $59 million investment and the apartments a $34 million investment. Colonial Properties Trust is publicly traded and is the largest real estate company in Alabama with total market assets valued at over $5 billion, Ratliff said.