madison town center,what will locate there? (Birmingham, Redstone Arsenal: sale, landscaping)

[bmrisko]

Spending all weekend in Chattanooga has once again reinforced my feeling that this area sucks in regards to good dining and shopping. To put it in perspective, the #1 restaurant in Huntsville according to TA is a freakin' chain fondue restaurant. Pathetic...

I was also able to shop at a local grocery store that has $2 local pints for consumption while shopping. We need something like that here (aside from that place that sells $6 Asparagus-infused Water).

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

Spending all weekend in Chattanooga has once again reinforced my feeling that this area sucks in regards to good dining and shopping...

Wouldn't it be great if this area could be a destination point instead of just a return point? We spend many weekends driving to get the "good stuff."

I have a mattress, I have a phone, I have insurance, I clean my own clothes, I can make a pizza, and I have a nail clipper, so why would I need to visit one of our local strip malls.

[guinb]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

Spending all weekend in Chattanooga has once again reinforced my feeling that this area sucks in regards to good dining and shopping. To put it in perspective, the #1 restaurant in Huntsville according to TA is a freakin' chain fondue restaurant. Pathetic...

I was also able to shop at a local grocery store that has $2 local pints for consumption while shopping. We need something like that here (aside from that place that sells $6 Asparagus-infused Water).

IMO, lots of good local dining in HSV already but don't count on Madison Towne Center to bring in any new local options.

[Becky2517]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

Spending all weekend in Chattanooga has once again reinforced my feeling that this area sucks in regards to good dining and shopping. To put it in perspective, the #1 restaurant in Huntsville according to TA is a freakin' chain fondue restaurant. Pathetic...

I was also able to shop at a local grocery store that has $2 local pints for consumption while shopping. We need something like that here (aside from that place that sells $6 Asparagus-infused Water).

Chuckle - aside from the fact that the aforementioned waaaaaaay overpriced store sold asparagus water (& a multitude of other issues I won't get into), it is nice to be able to have a glass of wine or beer while you shop...I know people are looking forward to Whole Foods, and it is a nice store, but, I don't think they quite realize HOW hideously expensive it is

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by guinb

IMO, lots of good local dining in HSV already but don't count on Madison Towne Center to bring in any new local options.

Agreed. Suburban shopping centers like this scream chains.

[madisonresidence]

Since I came from CA and MD, I would like to see my favorite chain restaurants from my hometowns to come to this area. Those are:
1. Round Table Pizza (flavory and lots of toppings)
2. In n out (I know they aren't coming here anytime soon)
3. Souplantation (a salad&soup buffet formerly called Sweet Tomato)
4. La Madeleine (More like upper-scale version of Panera)
5. Rubio's (Love their fish tacos)

I can imagine they would do very well, and I would buy one of these franchises to do business here, but I don't have the money :/

[Big Grumpy]

I drove by the site this morning and all of the earth-moving machinery that was present the past two weeks is now gone. It appears to me that this was more of a land clearing exercise than site preparation activity as there's still a significant amount of dirt that would have to be moved about before building could begin. The fact that they have already vacated the site makes me wonder if that's the last of the site work we'll see before spring of '16.

Irregardless, something has definitely happened to put this project on a significantly slower development path than what was originally planned. Maybe it's lack of interest, maybe it's funding, or maybe the loss of Cabela's was catastrophic enough to cause an entire re-plan/re-selling of the site. I tend to lean toward the latter since Breland filed a lawsuit over Cabela's choosing Huntsville and made the now famous, "this is going to a very, very dark place" comments to Huntsville city leaders.

How else do you explain the lack of progress given Breland's comments at the ground-breaking ceremony in August of 2014? He told members of the assembled press then that he expected the first stores to be open at the end of 2015. The keyword there being "open". That suggests to me that he thought construction would start no later than the spring of 2015. Yet, here we sit fourteen months later and almost no progress has been made. Combine that with the Semblar promotional flyers showing a new opening date of Fall of '17, and I think you have all the makings of a complete site re-plan, primarily due to Cabela's locating elsewhere.

[Tourian]

He's probably out trying to woo another big name retailer to be the anchor, and figuring out how to dip into Madison coffers to pay whatever grandiose gift package it will take to get them there.

[preguntas]

It is amazing how this 'seems' to be following the up and down pattern of Bridge Street Town Center's development over the years.

Grandiose announcements and then continuous changes and shifts. And with BS it has not stopped; there has been an incredible amount of shifting store composition through its history.

It just seems something is missing at the 'planning stage'.

[BMW Dave]

This is such a disaster.

I mean at the least, a fortune has been spent clearing the land and NO development currently happening, he is loosing money and the I565 work to start soon, he is paying for some of it..

Poor guy.