Yet another sign of Huntsville, Ala.'s rapid growth trajectory appeared recently with a groundbreaking celebration for The Arcadia at 4810 Bradford Drive, a $52.5 million, six-story mixed-use development across from the new Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE) in Cummings Research Park East.
The project is being built on the former site of John Paul II Catholic High School. Crews began demolishing the building that once housed the high school as well as other tenants earlier this year.
When complete, the new building will feature 19,047 sq. ft. of commercial ground floor space, split between 12,022 sq. ft. of room for workshare/offices and another 7,025 sq. ft. of restaurant and retail space. The second through fifth floors will include 250 residential units, made up of one- and two-bedroom apartments and studios.
The Huntsville Business Journal noted that Capstone Building Corp. has started construction on Arcadia, which is designed and engineered by Williams Blackstock Architects. Both companies are based in Birmingham.
In addition, the project, found at the corner of Wynn Drive and Bradford Drive in the research park, is being developed by Bobo Family Group LLC, an investment firm in Florence; Retail Specialists, a Birmingham real estate agency; and Florence-based Boaz Ventures LLC.
Arcadia Latest ‘Rocket City' Development
Joey Azar, a partner at Boaz, told Huntsville Business Journal in September that Arcadia is a "23- or 24-month project," with site work having been under way since July. He expects that it will open around the third quarter of 2024.
Azar described Arcadia's planned apartments as having "executive high-level finishes," and emphasized that the six-story building "will add to the mixed-use and urban type of feel here in this area of the park." The benefits of Arcadia's location, he said, are its easy access to local businesses, the Redstone Arsenal, and downtown Huntsville.
"Hopefully, you can tell by the energy we're pretty thrilled about being here in Cummings Research Park East," Azar told guests at the groundbreaking. "As many of you know, especially if you're from the area, Wynn and Bradford is a pretty dynamic corner. It's a great piece of real estate and we're excited about creating 250 new residences for those that work here and around the park, and adding some office, retail, and other commercial [spaces] as well."
According to James Bobo, CEO of Bobo Family Group, the various developers involved in the building project "couldn't have picked a better city for it."
In expanding on his comment, he invoked the name of Werner von Braun, the famed German rocket engineer, and architect of the U.S. space program, who was brought to Huntsville in the 1950s by Alabama Sen. John Sparkman to successfully sell him on the idea of the city's potential for building moon rockets.
Since then, Bobo said, the Rocket City's "leaders have continuously come together to carry on a legacy that has made Huntsville great, and in doing so has delivered a better quality of life, higher-paying jobs and more opportunities for the people of North Alabama."
Mayor Tommy Battle noted that while Cummings Research Park came to life 60 years ago, a revisioning took place in the past 10 years that focused on increasing capacity and making it more worker friendly.
"We came up with the idea of urban developments [and] have places where people can actually live, have their places to play, but also have places to work," he said, adding that Arcadia was one of the first developments to take advantage of the revisioning of the research park's master plan.
"We want to say congratulations to y'all, [and] we are very excited," he told Arcadia's developers while describing the new project as "kind of a diamond in the middle of a great workplace, and it'll be a great place for people to continue to live, work and play for years."
