The Avenue.jpg

An architect's rendering of The Avenue, a proposed $30 million mixed-use apartment building at the corner of Jefferson Street and Holmes Avenue in downtown Huntsville. (Courtesy Nola|Van Peursem Architects)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A new five-story downtown apartment building with as many as seven restaurants on street level should be under construction by January.

Called The Avenue, the $30 million-plus mixed-use development is earmarked for what is now a public parking lot at the corner of Holmes Avenue and Jefferson Street.

Charlie Sealy III. (File photo)

"We're ready to move forward," developer Charlie Sealy III told AL.com. "The first phases should open in January 2016, and the entire project should be finished by that April."

Sealy, who previously developed the Belk Hudson Lofts apartment building on Washington Street, said The Avenue will have 193 residential units, 21,000 square feet of street-level restaurant and retail space, and its own parking deck.

There will be three to four full service restaurants, he said, and two or three more casual "quick service" eateries. The first tenants are expected to be announced early next year.

"We're getting real good interest from restaurants and have some letters of intent coming in," said Sealy.

The Avenue will replace a large city parking lot directly across Jefferson Street from the federal courthouse. Under the development agreement, Sealy's company would lease the 2.7-acre site from the city for $100 a year during the first 50 years. The rent would jump to $120,000 annually after that.

The agreement calls on Huntsville to improve the area surrounding The Avenue with heavy landscaping, brick-trimmed sidewalks, new street lamps and decorative benches, and more on-street parking. The city will also build a new downtown road behind the apartments connecting Jefferson Street and Spragins Avenue.

The city's infrastructure commitments are estimated at $2.8 million.

At its meeting last Thursday, the Huntsville City Council hired Land Design Solutions to design the planned upgrades to the city block bounded by Jefferson Street to the east, Holmes Avenue to the south and Spragins Avenue to the west. Cost of the design contract: $297,559.

City Engineer Kathy Martin said a number of new parallel parking spaces will be created along Jefferson Street.

Sealy, who is developing The Avenue with his wife, Sasha, and several business partners, said there will be two entrances to the building's parking garage - one for apartment tenants, the other for restaurant guests and shoppers.

Sealy referred to The Avenue as a "game changer" for downtown Huntsville when announcing the project late last year, and it will push the city center past 500 apartment units. The 75-unit Belk Hudson Lofts got the momentum going when it opened in October 2012; Artisan at Twickenham Square added 246 urban lofts earlier this year.

"Between The Avenue and other recent announcements, we're definitely going to have an economic boom for downtown," said Sealy. "It will allow Huntsville to compete against Greenville and Austin and those other cities."