Madison County surpassed Mobile County in 2023 to become the second-most populated county in Alabama. It is also the third-fastest growing county, adding roughly 9,400 residents in 2024. Huntsville, the county seat, is the largest city in Alabama.
“When we start talking about success in the community, we talk about offering opportunity,” says Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle. “What attracts people to be part of your community? What makes your city continue to grow? Those kinds of things are what we work on on a regular basis.”
Madison County’s leading industry sectors include aerospace, defense, information technology, bioscience and advanced manufacturing.
The U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, which has 65 tenant organizations, including the FBI and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, is the county’s largest employer. Redstone contributes more than $36 billion to the state’s economy and supports more than 90,000 jobs in the region.
Madison County is also home to Cummings Research Park, the country’s second-largest science and technology research park. It is home to more than 300 companies representing a mix of Fortune 500 companies, high-tech enterprises, U.S. space and defense agencies, business incubators and higher education institutions.
While many cities boast a skyline, Huntsville is known for its spaceline, six historic rockets that make up Rocket Row and the Space Shuttle Pathfinder, all located at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.
The Huntsville metro area was the 15th fastest-growing metro area in the country in 2024. The city issued certificates of occupancy for 6,404 residential units last year and completed 16 multi-family complexes, the most in 40 years. Huntsville also issued 574 non-residential building permits in 2024. Downtown Huntsville had more non-residential permits issued than any other neighborhood. A brand-new City Hall building opened last spring and a new federal courthouse recently opened in the downtown area as well.
Front Row, a new mixed-use development, also is under construction in Huntsville’s downtown. Located on more than 11 acres, Front Row will feature 545 residential units, 36,000 square feet of Class-A office space and 47,000 square feet of retail space.
Next door to Huntsville, the city of Madison is Alabama’s ninth largest city.
After more than two years of construction, Madison celebrated the opening of a new I-565 interchange in March. The nearly $37 million project eases the flow of westbound traffic into Town Madison, a mixed-use development that is one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods and includes Toyota Field, home of the Double A baseball team Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Clift Farm, another rapidly developing area in Madison, welcomed a new Costco late last year. It is the wholesale club’s fifth location in Alabama and second in Madison County.
Madison County is famously home to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, the state’s top paid tourist attraction and the world’s largest space attraction. The center is also home to Space Camp, the oldest and largest STEM camp in the world with more than 1 million alumni.
The Orion Amphitheater, in Huntsville’s MidCity District, continues to receive national attention and was featured on Billboard’s global Top Music Venues 2024 list. Since opening in 2022, the 8,000-capacity venue has hosted headliners such as Snoop Dogg, Stevie Nicks, Brandi Carlisle, Jack White and Neil Young.
The nearly 450-acre John Hunt Park is Huntsville’s largest park and includes Joe Davis Stadium, a multi-sport venue that is home to the Huntsville City Football Club. The park’s other features include sand volleyball and cross-country championship facilities; a festival site for large outdoor gatherings; a 52,000-square-foot skate park and an 18-hole disc golf course.
Soon the park will welcome a 60,580-square-foot recreation center that will include the city’s largest pickleball facility.
Katherine MacGilvray is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
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This story appears in the May 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
