MADISON COUNTY
In his 2024 State of the County address, Madison County Commissioner Mac McCutcheon highlighted the county’s 10-year road plan, which entered 2025 with 22 projects underway totaling $96 million and plans for $7 million in repaving projects.
Last fall, the Madison County Commission approved three projects totaling $2.9 million and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. Together they will add a combined 11,000 linear feet of new water main line in Meridianville and Hazel Green and make improvements at the Hazel Green water well.
The commission also approved a $14.2 million construction bid for a new community center at Sharon Johnston Park in New Market.
A $38 million interstate widening project on Interstate 565, which includes additional lanes from west of the County Line Road interchange to east of Wall Triana Highway, is expected to wrap up in summer 2026.
The Madison County School System (MCSS) is one of the fastest growing in north Alabama and serves more than 20,000 students across 30 campuses.
Last fall, MCSS broke ground on a new intermediate school that will serve the Harvest and Toney communities. The Sparkman Intermediate School is expected to open for the 2026-27 school year with an estimated 800 students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades. It is the first new MCSS campus in ten years.
CITY OF HUNTSVILLE
The Huntsville metro area, which extends in Limestone County as well as Madison, was the 15th fastest growing metro area in the country in 2024.
Huntsville’s housing inventory saw record growth last year, in particular due to a surge of multi-family complexes. In 2024, the city issued certificates of occupancy for 6,404 residential units, 81% of which were for multi-family complexes. Sixteen multi-family complexes were completed in 2024, the most in 40 years.
The city also saw a boost in commercial growth in 2024 and issued 574 non-residential building permits, an increase of 4.2%. Much of that was for retail, restaurants and hotels, followed by commercial office buildings.
The downtown area has been at the center of a flurry of development activity. Downtown Huntsville had more non-residential permits issued than any other neighborhood, including one for Front Row, a mixed-use development that spans more than 11 acres where the Coca-Cola bottling plant once stood. The new space will include 545 residential units, 36,000 square feet of Class-A office space and 47,000 square feet of retail space as well as a public urban green space. Retail space is expected to be available in late 2025, with apartments following in early 2026. A second phase is expected to include a boutique hotel, a Class-A office high rise and luxury condos.
A brand-new City Hall building opened last spring, marking the culmination of a two-year construction project. The 169,781-square-foot facility brings together under one roof departments that had previously been working in seven different locations throughout the city. Turner Construction Co. worked as the general contractor for the building and an adjacent seven-level parking facility.
A new federal courthouse also recently opened. The 123,100-square-foot building houses the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, and includes five courtrooms and six judges’ chambers. It also provides workspace for several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, the U.S. General Services Administration and a U.S. Senate Office.
Elsewhere, the city is moving forward on the Mill Creek redevelopment project located just west of Memorial Parkway along Governors Drive near Lowe Mill and Campus 805. The Huntsville Housing Authority is investing $350 million into a mixed-income community with workforce housing, family services and retail space. The project also received a $50 million Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Huntsville Hospital intends to contribute $25 million to create 125 workforce housing units and an on-site health clinic.
The Sandra Moon Community Complex project has entered its fourth and final phase. Located on the old Grissom High School campus on Bailey Cove Road, the facility is home to the South Huntsville Public Library, multi-use recreation fields, lighted outdoor pickleball courts and an ADA-accessible playground. The complex also houses five musical arts organizations and Arts Huntsville. The last phase includes transforming the former high school auditorium into a 611-seat theater with a new lobby, improving back-of-house facilities and constructing a 300-seat event center where the school’s lunchroom used to be.
Last fall, Birmingham-based general contractor Capstone Building Corp. completed Arcadia, a $56.8 million luxury apartment complex in Cummings Research Park. The project is the first mixed-use node in Cummings Research Park’s 2016 master plan.
Huntsville also has been busy kicking off a series of quality-of-life projects, including a recreation center at John Hunt Park that will include the city’s largest pickleball facility, an expansion of the Huntsville Tennis Center at John Hunt Park, a new 27,350-square-foot recreation center in west Huntsville, the Stoner Park skating rink in north Huntsville and The Park at Hays Farm in south Huntsville.
Huntsville is moving closer to a start date for the Pedestrian Access and Redevelopment Corridor (PARC) project, which includes a proposed “skybridge” pedestrian walkway over Memorial Parkway that will connect the Lowe Mill area with downtown. Other project plans include two miles of linear park space, 5,600 feet of Pinhook Creek channel excavation, 3,200 feet of low-flow channel along Pinhook Creek, 6,000 linear feet of greenway, three precast pedestrian bridges over Pinhook Creek, one concrete railroad bridge and 1,400 feet of pedestrian cable suspension bridge. The two-year construction project will be completed in four phases.
As Huntsville continues to grow, city officials and Huntsville Utilities are prioritizing a shift toward solar energy to meet future energy demands. In his 2024 State of the City address, Mayor Tommy Battle unveiled plans for a 200-megawatt solar power plant that will be developed by Huntsville Utilities on a 748-acre site near the Tennessee River. The city and the utility company also have established a 12-member Energy Task Force to develop a forward-looking approach to energy planning.
Huntsville International Airport broke all of its previous travel records in 2024, serving more than 1.6 million travelers, an 11% increase over 2023. To better accommodate the increase in traffic, the airport is undergoing a major three-phase renovation that will bring new food and beverage options for travelers and double seating capacity. Tailwind Hospitality is handling the $5 million project that is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The city of Huntsville and Breeze Airways recently reached an agreement that will expand the airline’s portfolio at Huntsville airport to include six new direct non-stop destinations. Breeze will receive $10,000 per month in base incentive payment to meet the threshold.
Huntsville City Schools topped 24,000 in enrollment for the 2024-25 school year. The system employs 2,819 people across 43 campuses and one virtual school.
CITY OF MADISON
Located adjacent to Huntsville and primarily in Madison County, Madison is the ninth largest city in Alabama.
In January, city and community leaders celebrated the grand opening of the Madison Community Center after transitioning the former Three Springs youth detention facility into a 30,000-square-foot facility that houses multiple meeting rooms, arts and crafts spaces, music rooms and a multi-use gym for the city’s special needs community.
The westbound I-565 interchange at Town Madison officially opened in March. The new interchange provides access to Redstone Arsenal and the Town Madison Development, which includes Toyota Field. The $37 million project was fully funded by the city of Madison, making it one of the largest city-funded infrastructure projects in recent history.
A new dual-branded Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn opened in late 2024 in Town Madison. The 208-room hotel is located next to Toyota Field.
As the Town Madison area continues to grow, so do efforts to boost public safety. In January, the city broke ground on a $9 million substation in the Town Madison development for the Madison Police Department and Fire & Rescue.
The city’s zoning board approved Crestwood Medical Center’s application to build a freestanding emergency department near Town Madison. The plan includes a 12,000-square-foot, single-story facility with an on-site helipad.
A new $6 million preschool building also is in the works for Town Madison. The 24,162-square-foot Ardent Preschool and Daycare facility, located adjacent to Madison Golf Center and Quarry Park, is expected to open in the fall.
Clift Farm, a 500-acre mixed-use development, is another one of Madison’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. The area recently added a new Costco, the wholesale club’s fifth location statewide and the second in Madison County. Newly opened dining options in Clift Farm include First Watch, Capriotti’s, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill and Chuck’s Fish.
Madison will welcome a new Aldi grocery store, thanks to a $3.1 million permit issued in January. The 19,432-square-foot store will be located on Madison Boulevard and is expected to open in 2026.
Earlier this year, Madison Parks and Recreation announced more than $300,000 in upgrades to eight neighborhood parks throughout the city. In March, the city held a ribbon cutting for Sunshine Oaks Park, a newly developed 40-acre recreational space that includes a large playground, three pavilions, a full bathroom facility and an 18-hole championship disc golf course.
The Madison City School System, which serves Madison and Triana, is the fastest-growing and 12th-largest school system in the state and recently surpassed 13,000 in enrollment. Last fall, Madison City Schools broke ground on what will be its eighth elementary school. Russell Branch Elementary is located in Limestone County, which accounts for 27% of the district’s student body.
This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
