The year in review: Construction, education and recreation were highlights of 2023

Dec. 29—The fatal police shooting of Steve Perkins has so dominated the news over the last three months that it's easy to forget other stories that made headlines in 2023, from new buildings to a relocated one, from expanded recreation and educational facilities to rocket contracts.

Read The Decatur Daily's Saturday edition for a recap and timeline of the aftermath of Perkins' death, the story of the year. Other notable stories of 2023: — Downtown construction

Hard hats, safety vests and cranes were a common sight in 2023 as multiple construction projects began in downtown Decatur.

—The four-story, 80-room Fairfield Inn by Marriott went up at the corner of Moulton Street and Second Avenue Southeast. The hotel received its certificate of occupancy from the city in Dec. 17 with opening plans set for early 2024.

—At the corner of Moulton Street and First Avenue, the city began construction of a $9.55 million, 230-lot parking deck as part of an incentive for the hotel to locate next door.

The deck is expected to be complete in about three months, and hotel guests will use nearby parking lots until its completion.

—As if two major projects weren't enough, the Alabama Community College System began construction of a $15.6 million residence hall for the Alabama Center for the Arts at the corner of Johnston Street and First Avenue Southeast.

The three-floor, 43,474-square-foot residence hall is also expected to open in 2024. It will have 49 apartments, including 11 studio, 19 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom units.

—In November, the Community College System opened the Innovation Center after renovating the former Decatur City Schools Board of Education building on Fourth Avenue Northeast. The center coordinated with the state's 24 community colleges to offer people a no-cost, quick certification in a trade or a skill.

The planning began this year for two other downtown projects.

—The state Legislature approved in its spring session a $19 million dance and music studio as the fourth phase of the Alabama Center for the Arts. The city donated its parking lot immediately west of The Brick deli on First Avenue Northeast as the site for the studio.

—A Memphis development company, Heritage Land and Development LLC, announced in June that it plans to build a 140- to 180-unit apartment complex, named Bank Street Station in the Bank Street area of downtown.

—After a number of delays, the owners began holding soft openings for 609 Market, an urban-market concept at 609 Bank St. N.E., in December with plans to open early next month.

—McGhee Square, 18 town homes between Vine and Walnut streets in Northeast Decatur, are almost complete, according to Yogi Dougher. He partnered with Steve Armistead, a Decatur native, in Stogie Holdings LLC, a Nashville-based residential and commercial development company. — Horton House moved

Decatur became the final landing spot on Oct. 8 for the former home of Judge James Horton, one of the judges in the historic Scottsboro Boys trials, when Hollis Kennedy Movers, of Athens, relocated the 3,960-square-foot house — divided in two sections for transport — from Greenbrier to Decatur.

Horton was the judge in the second trial, held in Decatur in 1933, of Haywood Patterson, one of the Scottsboro Boys defendants.

Kennedy has put the two sections of the house back together at 212 Church St. N.W.

The Celebrating Early Old Town with Art (CEOTA) group worked for more than two years to acquire the house and prepare for the move. The home is slated to be a legal learning center and part of a planned civil rights museum.

The move cost $1.44 million with Decatur paying $888,774 of the expense. The state contributed $200,000 toward the move and the Limestone County Commission allocated $56,000 for clearing the rights of way along the transport route on Garrett Road.

The Morgan County Hospitality Association pledged $250,000 to help with the move and Decatur-Morgan Tourism added $50,000.

CEOTA is also renovating the house at 818 Sycamore St. N.W. Victoria Price, one of two accusers in the Scottsboro Boys case, is believed to have stayed in the Sycamore Street home during the Decatur trial. — Overpass opens

Meant to promote economic development and increase safety, the $18.1 million Alabama 20 overpass opened June 1 despite lawsuits aimed at stopping the project.

The 300-foot overpass is in Decatur city limits just west of Interstate 65. It was partially funded with a $14.2 million federal BUILD grant that the city received in 2018. Decatur then added about $3.9 million to pay for architectural and engineering fees.

When it applied for the grant, the city said one reason it needed the overpass was to promote safety, particularly at the Alabama 20/Bibb-Garett Road intersection that was the site of numerous serious accidents.

Another reason for the project was to promote economic development. The overpass provides access to thousands of acres of Limestone County farmland, 3,200 acres of which were annexed into Decatur in the 1980s.

The area is considered ripe for economic development because of its location near Interstates 565 and 65 and quick access to Madison and Huntsville, but no development has taken place.

The overpass particularly benefits about 537 acres known as Sweetwater and owned by the Mitchell-Frazier Family Trust on the south side of Alabama 20, between the overpass and I-65.

Three property owners on the north side of the highway sued the city to block the project. The Garrett Family Trust and Fennel-Noble Family Limited Partnership, both of which had land condemned for the overpass project on the north side of Alabama 20, were plaintiffs, as was the Fennel-Speake Family Limited Partnership.

On July 27, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke threw out the landowners' environmental lawsuit that challenged the financing and construction of the overpass.

Burke also ruled the lawsuit was moot because construction of the overpass was completed before the court issued its order.

Competing claims by the Garrett Trust and the city of Decatur in Limestone County Circuit Court challenge the appraised value of the property condemned for rights of way. These cases are pending.

On Dec. 21, Circuit Judge Chad Wise granted the Garrett Trust's request to withdraw $1.7 million from a trust account that had been deposited by the city. The remainder of the $2.5 million will stay in a trust until the judge rules on the parties' disagreement.

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New academic digs

In 2023, numerous educational facilities were built or planned locally.

—Morgan County Schools opened the $26 million West Morgan High School in August when the 2023-24 school year began. The middle school then moved to the old high school building.

The 90,000-square-foot high school in Trinity features spaces for career tech, two state-of-the-art science labs, agriscience, home economics and athletic facilities.

—Morgan County closed Sparkman Elementary after 87 years in May to save almost $500,000 annually in expenses.

Most of the former Sparkman students transferred to Falkville Elementary, with some moving to Cotaco and Priceville. Teachers and support staff scattered across schools in the county.

—Decatur City Schools opened its 27,900-square-foot addition in September to the Career Academies of Decatur.

The $8 million addition features the career-tech academy's medical science programs and engineering, and also offers welding, precision machining, barbering, cosmetology, culinary, building science, cybersecurity and automotive.

—DCS began construction in November on a $14 million pre-kindergarten center on Fourth Street Southwest, off Memorial Drive and next to West Decatur Elementary.

The 32,000-square-foot pre-K center will hold close to 400 students with about 50 staff members.

School officials estimated recently it will take about 18 months to complete.

—Three 10,000-square-foot athletic buildings were opened in March in Lawrence County, at East Lawrence, Hatton and Lawrence County high schools. The three buildings feature weightlifting facilities, an indoor practice turf and retractable batting cages.

—Construction continues on Hartselle's Crestline Elementary. Work began on the $36 million Hartselle school in October 2022. Completion is expected this spring.

The 105,000-square-foot school will have 65 classrooms and will accommodate over 1,000 students in pre-K through fourth grade.

—Work on a $6.1 million addition for Lindsay Lane Christian Academy's high school began in February. Head of School Stephen Murr on Thursday said he expects the addition will be completion at the end of January, but the students won't move into it until the start of the 2024-25 school year begins.

The 37,000-square-foot expansion will put grades 2 through 12 on the academy's 705 W. Sanderfer Road campus in Athens.

"We're getting closer to our goal of putting all of our students on one campus," Murr said.

—The state Legislature allocated $30 million for an addition to Calhoun Community College's Advanced Manufacturing Center.

Construction began in October, which will add 57,200 square feet, more than doubling the center in size. The aerospace, welding and manual machining programs will move into the new building.

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New recreation projects

Decatur cranked up spending on recreation projects in 2023. With the addition of $35 million in bonds approved in April, the City Council began planning to spend more than $87 million on Parks and Recreation facilities and a new Decatur Youth Services facility.

In addition to the bonds, the city received $42 million from a 3M Co. legal settlement over alleged contamination at the Aquadome Recreation Center and fields, located over a closed municipal dump. The Aquadome property will be transferred to 3M upon completion of a new recreation center.

Council President Jacob Ladner said he came into office with the hope of making improvements to the city's recreation facilities, and a strong economy has allowed the city to tackle these large projects.

"When I came into office I said recreation is one of the things we ought to be investing in every year," Ladner said. "I hope we're able to continue to invest in things for the residents, both indoors and outdoors, and especially for the younger, new residents. Recreation should always be a priority."

The recreation projects include:

—$53 million on a new recreation center at Wilson Morgan Park, together with a complete overhaul of the park. The city hasn't released Birmingham-based Goodwyn Mills Cawood's designs for the planned recreation center or park.

—$17 million on a new ballfield complex at Modaus Road Southwest between Austin High School and Jack Allen Recreation Complex. The complex will have eight multi-use fields with artificial turf. Work began on the fields in September.

—$7.5 million on three facilities at Point Mallard Park. These plans included turning the Ice Complex into an event center; demolishing T.C. Almon Recreation Center and replacing it with indoor tennis courts; and removing the old ice rink pavilion and replacing it with indoor pickleball courts.

Southern Recycling Demo tore down T.C. Almon on Dec. 5.

—The city purchased 6.1 acres off Memorial Drive in June and began planning for a new Youth Services facility.

In April, the City Council turned down DYS Director Brandon Watkins' request for $15 million. Last week, he said the roughly 30,000-square-foot facility can now be built for $10 million. Work is scheduled to begin this spring.

—3M bought the 15-acre Brookhaven Middle School property from Decatur City Schools for $1.25 million in 2020 as part of a settlement of claims regarding contaminants, and demolished it in March. A 3M official said in December that the company plans to turn the Brookhaven property and the Aquadome property, when the city hands it over, into a public park.

—The Morgan County Commission built a $2 million, 10,500-square-foot gym at West Park in Neel.

—Priceville built a $7.2 million, 26,000-square-foot recreation center on Marco Drive that opened in June.

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Business thriving

North Alabama remains one of the busiest commercial and industrial areas in the state.

—Nucor, which has a sheet steel mill on Red Hat Road, announced in February it will build a $128 million plant for its Nucor Towers & Structures Inc. division next to the mill.

The company said the plant will employ 200 workers within three years at an average salary of $75,000 per year. Production of steel monopoles is slated to begin in October 2025.

—United Launch Alliance broke ground Oct. 27 on a warehouse and an additional factory facility as part of a $317 million investment to support an increased launch rates for both commercial and government customers.

The company said at the time that it expects to finish construction by January on two buildings at 1001 Red Hat Road that will nearly double its launch rate and production, helping it deploy Amazon's planned system of internet satellites. Most of the 47 Amazon launches are planned on the new Vulcan Centaur, which is expected to have its first launch in January.

—Almost three years after initially announcing its plan, Maund Family LLC attorney John Plunk said in November that it is starting preparations again for a 142-unit subdivision on 72 acres off 14th Avenue in Southwest Decatur.

—Rausch Coleman Homes, an Arkansas-based company, began building Glenmont Acres subdivision off Central Avenue and Poole Valley Road.

The company is planning up to six phases with as many as 260 new homes on 34.75 acres. Rausch Coleman is moving quickly, starting 11 three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes listed at roughly $200,000 in August.

—Wagon Trail Med-Serv, a Hanceville-based company, was one of five that received licenses from the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Dec. 12 for the exclusive rights to grow, process, transport and sell medical marijuana. Wagon Trail President Jay Robertson said Decatur and Athens retail dispensaries will open as soon as possible.

—In August, the City Council approved a moratorium on build-to-rent subdivisions. The moratorium came when Foxwood Trace residents discovered Prominence Homes, of Birmingham, advertises its homes as being for sale to investors interested in build-to-rent single-family homes.

Prominence is the contractor of the new Foxwood Farm subdivision for Arthur Steber, of Team Elevator LLC in Birmingham. The company has already started construction of 35 homes on 18.05 acres, so the moratorium does not apply to this project.

—The state Legislature approved $30 million for an electric vehicle facility at the Robotics Technology Park in Limestone County. Alabama Industrial Development and Technology, which runs the park, is working on plans for the new EV facility.

—In April, the city reached an agreement on a planned $30 million development on the banks of the Tennessee River at Ingalls Harbor.

The council agreed to provide incentives of $5 million plus land in return for developer Patrick Lawler, sole managing partner of Ingalls Harbor LLC, making a commitment to spend $30 million on a mixed-use development just west of Ingalls Harbor.

Lawler, who developed Guntersville's 55,000-square-foot City Harbor, is planning a roughly 75,000-square-foot development with 40 condominiums and restaurants, retail stores and entertainment options.

"Just from the dollar standpoint, this project is a big deal in the way it expands our use of the waterfront," Ladner said Thursday.

Lawler on Thursday said he continues to work through the permitting process with TVA, which he estimates will take 12 to 18 months.

"Any time you build something on the river you have to get multiple permits from TVA," Lawler said. "It just takes time."

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.