Finally, a much-anticipated development in downtown Huntsville is starting to, well, develop.

Finally, nine months after the groundbreaking.

Finally.

Construction crews are at full force at City Centre at Big Spring - the AC Marriott-anchored mixed-use development at Williams Avenue and Monroe Street.

"The building contract was let (Sept. 1) and they've got mobilization and steel in the ground, lots of concrete being poured, foundations being driven in," Mayor Tommy Battle said. "It's good to see action coming on the site."

The development site once housed the Hilton, then later Holiday Inn, hotels next door to the Von Braun Center. It's where Elvis slept during a three-day stretch where he performed five concerts in Huntsville in 1975.

Now the location is where a $100 million development is under construction. Along with the AC Marriott hotel - which will be unique to other Marriott properties - the projects includes a 12,000-square foot artisanal food hall called The Public Market and will also include high-end retail, office space, apartments, a parking deck and a Wahlburgers franchise location.

Wahlburgers was started by Paul Wahlberg - the brother of movie star Mark Wahlberg - started the restaurant chain in the Boston suburb of Hingham. A reality show on the A&E network provides a behind-the-scenes look at the business.

It will be the first Wahlburgers in Alabama.

The AC Marriott is expected to be the first part of the construction project to be completed, Battle said.

The project, though various delays, is about two years behind schedule. Initial plans called for construction to begin in August 2015.

Odie Fakhouri, director of RCP Companies that is developing the site, said the Marriott hotel should open in about a year.

It won't be soon enough for Battle, whose office on the eighth floor of the city's administration building overlooks what's been a barren construction site.

"We can look out our windows on the eighth floor and look every day to see what they're doing," Battle said. "Now, with the activity happening there, we are also getting activity on the roadway (Joseph Lowery Boulevard) that we need to finish down to Williams and the time has come to get that one done, too. I think it's all going to kind of come together at the same time."

The biggest delay in the project, of course, was the intersection of fiber cables from across the city at the construction site.

"It was in the parking lot of the old Holiday Inn," Battle said. "It really didn't matter (there). Unfortunately when surveyed, it was on the site of AC hotel be built. It's much closer to right of way. That held us up for a good while."

The fiber cables connected such areas as Huntsville Hospital, Von Braun Center and the Huntsville Hospital Medical Mall, Battle said.

"It was not like you could just move it over," he said.

The anticipation, though, is real. Battle has said it will provide hundreds of jobs downtown and be a significant addition to the downtown community.

"We're going to see some great things out of this project," Battle said at the January groundbreaking. "But really, this comes down to one thing: It makes our city just a little bit better place. It makes us a beautiful city."