Huntsville City Hall groundbreaking ceremony

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and other city leaders celebrated the groundbreaking of the new $90 million city hall.

Even though the ceremony was Monday for the seven story Huntsville City Hall municipal complex, construction at the 1.8-acre site, located across the street from the current city hall on Fountain Circle, has been underway for several weeks.

“There’s enough room on this site for a larger city hall and a bigger parking deck. The new municipal building will be two and a half times larger than that of our present city hall,” said Mayor Tommy Battle.

In attendance for the groundbreaking ceremony, are several department heads who currently don’t have an office in the old city hall. Some employees are in random rooms because there’s not enough space.

“Right now, we have about 35 people spread across four floors in city hall. This makes collaboration and coordination of work very difficult,” said Jenny Smith.

Leaders say all of the challenges will be eliminated, once the construction project is complete.

But what about the plans for the current city hall? In two years, once construction is complete on the new city hall, the old city hall will be demolished, and Big Spring park will get even larger.

“With the growth, we’re experiencing downtown, we need more places to play. Big Spring park is heavily used most days of the week and the two and a half acres site will be used to expand the park, and provide more public space for everyone to enjoy,” said Mayor Battle.

“We are going to be very responsive to what the citizens want in this additional area and do everything we can to make sure the citizens get what they are asking for,” said City Council President John Meredith.

Mayor Battle says the current city hall is showing signs of disrepair and the new building, now under construction, should be around for many decades to come.

Copyright 2022 WAFF. All rights reserved.