HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — This year the City of Huntsville found a sense of balance. "This this was a year of of balancing the needs of the of the citizens out there," Mayor Tommy Battle shares. "We brought in a lot of jobs the last couple of years, and we're in an enviable position. We were able to bring in almost more jobs than we had people to fill them. So, this year has been the working on quality of life, bringing people into the community, making them want to be a part of our community and having people move in and live here. and these are people from all over the world who end up coming to Huntsville, Alabama, to make a living and to make some projects that are really, really special."
Speaking of projects, in my sit down with mayor Battle, we discussed a few notable openings that happened this year adding to the quality-of-life experience. "I think some of our biggest projects were, were quality of life projects, the soccer stadium finishing up the soccer stadium, skateboard park, the idea that we had the kids place, which provides for play, a place for all of our children to come in and enjoy, enjoy our park system," Battle shares. "You know, all that was important, but also the roads that got started this year, the Northern bypass, Mastin Lake overpass, which started under construction this year, that was really important. Some of the roads that we closed out over the last couple of years that we've been working on over the last so, gosh, 18 to 24 months, those were very important to us, too. So, we've been able to work on both infrastructures, how we get around in the city and how we get from here to there.
Dennis Madsen touched on the connection of current road projects and the addition of more mixed-use developments. "We like to support more mixed-use development in developments like Mid-City or Hayes farm. Those are the kinds of those are the kinds of projects that create kind of activity centers that that take a little pressure off traffic, create more kind of interesting neighborhoods for people to kind of get engaged in," Madsen shares. "Those are kind of two of the bigger projects we've seen recently but, we're also seeing, you know, the new Huntsville City Schools development happening on North Parkway as well as the Drake property development happening out in the Cove area."
With quality of life the focus, mayor battle highlights how the range of projects help to add value to everyone's reality. "Quality of life is something different to everybody," Mayor Battle explains. "So, for some people it's a greenway, some people it's a park. To others it is a skate skateboard park, and to others it's the soccer stadium. So, all of it kind of ties together to your picture of why you want to be part of Huntsville."
Not only did residents get to enjoy the quality-of-life aspects, but visitors also played a role. We took lessons from other cities, we looked at other cities which had heavy music emphasis Nashville and Austin, Texas, some of the others," Battle shares. "It's a reason to give a great perception of your city when you look at it, look at a city and say, wow, you know, honey, we got a chance to go to Huntsville, Alabama, and they say, wow, that's where Stevie Nicks played on Halloween night."
Tourism saw a significant boost this year. "2023 has been a great year for the hospitality industry, for tourism, for conferences and meetings," Charles Winters, Executive VP of The Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau shares. "You know, quality of life has, as Mayor Battle said, that that impacts us all. we really enjoy it because we're residents, we live here all the time, but quality of life really resonates well with our visitors. So, whenever they come into town, they get to see and do the same things that we get to enjoy as residents."
No matter if you were a resident or visitor there was plenty to see and do. "So, all of the events and activities at the Orion, the baseball games and all of those things, sports, tourism is very much on the rise for us," Winters shares.
2023 was also a year of music with the Orion for its first full year. "As far as we know, Huntsville is now the largest city in the state of Alabama, and the Orion Amphitheater. while it's not the first music venue, it really has raised awareness and brought some talent here that has not come previously," Winters explains. "The Orion has really bumped up our level. They had they recently announced they had 250,000 people that went to their concerts and activities. So that type of impact is significant. some probably the majority were from this area, but a lot were not. We're looking forward to even bigger and better numbers with the Orion and all the outstanding music venues we have here in Madison County."
Tourism had a sizeable impact on Huntsville economy and looks to keep building off of this year's success. "We've had a very good year this year. we're up between three and 4% on room night usage," Winters shares. "So even though more hotels are coming into the market, there's more people coming to fill those rooms. So, we're very fortunate to have the properties that we have. We're looking forward to two new properties and even more visitors in 2024. 2023 has been an outstanding year. 2022 was a record year for us with 3.9 million visitors and over $2 billion in economic impact. and we look forward to those numbers when they're released by Alabama tourism in May to be even better."