Welcome back to another episode of the Boomtown podcast. I'm your host Cameron Walker, the broker and owner of Cameron Walker Realty. Today we're going to talk about five of the mixed-use developments you'll see in and around Huntsville and Madison. I kick it over to Megan, my co-host and fantastic agent, and we're going to get into this. Yeah. So, there have been several mixed-use developments that have been started. I'd say they've in the past like 10 years they started doing this, right? And then they've kind of most of them have like come into being bigger things very recently. And so what we're talking about when we talk about mixed use, we're talking about these communities with housing, businesses, and entertainment all in one. Sort of like many cities unto themselves in Madison County. And do we have any in Limestone? Not yet. Not yet, but we're going to. Yeah. And so we want to talk about how the different ones that are available to you and how they're doing like how how busy they are in their how like if you moved into these would you be in like a thriving environment or has it really not hit yet? Yeah. Yeah so there's really five of them that I think of right there's the Village of Providence which is the OG, right? Yeah. And it's nice. Yeah. They they call it a traditional development and we'll get into more about what that means. There's its sister neighborhood which is the Village of Oakland Springs and then two that have grabbed a lot of attention over the last couple of years kind of bookend Madison. One's right off of Highway 72. It's Clift Farm. The other one's down right off of Madison Boulevard in 565. That's Town Madison. And then there's probably what I would consider the newest one is Hayes Farm in South Huntsville. Yeah. So going like kind of starting at the top with the OG, right? The Village of Providence has been building for probably 20 plus years without a guess at this point and they've built out in phases. They've been through every economic ride and they've really they came into their own several years back. Right. So when you pull into the Village of Providence off of Highway 72, first thing you're met with is some apartments and hotels and then you immediately go into this kind of red brick area where you've got town homes with first floor commercial and restaurants. You got red brick sidewalks, pizzeria. All kinds of stuff there. You have attorney's offices, mortgage offices, some of our competitors are there, right? Yeah. And, you have a mix of apartments, condos, town homes, single family homes. It's a very walkable like really just truly community vibe. Yes, absolutely. It feels like you're up in Providence or something. Yeah, that's what that's the name, right? Good point. Yeah. So, that area is really is really thriving, right? The business is there, many of them have been around for several years. I know having had clients that purchased in there and have joined many of the clubs that the community supports. You know, there's a separate club. Oh, there's probably more than one at this point where they go out and go to each of the restaurants in turn. And the local community is there because the businesses are there. So, the businesses get support and they become the draw for more local community. And that's why that area has been able to grow and thrive. I think they're on their 13th phase out of 15 right now. Yeah. So, I mean, when I arrived in this area, Providence was already built up. I got here like 12 years ago, and it, you know, I was like, "Oh, this looks different than the rest of town. What's this?" And, so were you in you too, you arrived when it was built up, but I imagine even with Providence, it was a a push and pull when it was beginning. You know, they have to get the people in to support the businesses and then they have to get the businesses, you know, it's like chicken and egg problems with these developments. Absolutely. And I I think you have to ride the economic waves for them and that's why having a strong development team is really important. They need to be able to survive those waves because they're the ones spending the money on the front end bringing in the roads, the utilities, building some of these buildings, particularly the commercial one, in the hopes of filling them later. Yeah. And it's kind of if you build it, they will come. But that doesn't always happen, right? So you have to have a really strong development team that can paint that vision for everyone so that it can be supported. And the second thing I would say is you need support from surrounding area. I don't think there are any areas in Huntsville or surrounding where there's enough density in the population to support that many businesses. You've got to be able to pull people in from outside. Yeah. Yeah. Like my daughters and I do father-daughter date night every week and for one year where we were doing it, Mellow Mushroom down there was our jam, right? So we live all the way over in the East Limestone side of Madison, but that was where we went to do father-daughter date night. And we're not unique in that we were there very frequently. And so I think like that's a big part of all of these that we're going to talk about is their ability to draw from the immediate surrounding community as well as further out. Yeah. And when we look at the ones that have been started since I've been here, you'll see that some of them took off really quickly and some of them are still kind of like trying to trying to get it together. Yeah. And we can talk about those factors. One that I think took off incredibly quickly was Hayes Farm in South Huntsville and we just talked about that on the other podcast about South Huntsville a little bit, but I think it's a combination of factors. The Grissom School was built around the same time, right? So people want to be next to the brand new school. And then it also a lot of those shops go right by the parkway. So the shops can get support from a completely different thing other than the residential there. You know, there's just and and South Huntsville was very much ready to take off. Yeah, absolutely. And that's had a huge impact on home values. Yeah. You know, if you went historic either at Hayes Farm or Village of Providence that we were just talking about and you track the home values over time, you'll see that there's been a significant uptick and it actually outpaces the rest of the market, right? And a lot of that is you had the front runners who came in who had that vision, who were willing to take that risk that all this would be coming. And then you have the people that when they move in, they want it all in place, right? Yeah. And so they're willing to pay a little bit of a premium to come in once it's finished rather than targeting some other area that might be up and coming. Yeah. And I and these these subdivisions because they're mostly very high-end, they do a different thing than if you just have like a a medium-sized subdivision or a low-end subdivision. They they are they're a rising ship that raises the area around them because it becomes a more expensive area versus competing with the home seller in the areas around. Absolutely. So historically, and this isn't universal, right? So don't take this as investment advice. You know, I may be your broker one day, but I'm not on video. And so historically new construction homes appreciate the fastest and it's a little over double what existing homes are but the next rung is the close-in homes near that new construction and they appreciate faster than older homes and areas that don't have it. So there's definitely proclivity to see home values increasing. Now again this is really subject to the global and local economy as well but historically over time you will continue to see values rise in most of those areas. Yeah and plus they're bringing in the shops and all these other amenities which are going to raise the values. So yeah these you know these are not these are not the worst neighbors to have. Yeah. And like coming from so many of our people here come from different parts of the country, right? And so they they have these expectation of these things or they have experience with them walkable areas with green spaces and shops and being able to get out and like meet your neighbors and all that and rather than say a more suburban neighborhood. Well, yeah, you might know the neighbors on either side of you, but there's nowhere for the community to meet within the neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah. And so Hayes Farm, Village of Providence, and all these others kind of offer that. And so like one that's very similar to Village of Providence, but out kind of an outlier as far as distance from the city is really the Village of Oakland Springs. Yeah. And this is a really interesting one because it's it it has been growing in fits and spurts. And I mean like I think last year I drove somebody through it and they were like this reminds me of Woodbury from the zombie show. That's cuz it was empty cuz there were these beautiful houses and the place was empty. And that's the nature of this is that you know you have you have a few people who who buy and then there's last year it was like all the shops were empty and there were these beautiful houses and it did have like kind of an apocalyptic feel at that moment. It did. And so that one hasn't grown as quickly as I would say Hayes Farm, which you know, it just came together real real quick. But there are reasons for that and it it's going to happen and you can speak to this. Yeah. I mean, it's happening right now is is what I would say is it is actively happening. It is happening. So, and goes right to the point we were just making about the surrounding community being important, too. That neighborhood is only going to get so large. And but there's brand new construction diagonal across the street, right next door, down a block or two, diagonal the other way. Like there's a ton of new construction going on around there. I would say when I was researching this, I think it was 2,000 proposed homes within a three mile radius. Yeah. And that's the new ones, not the existing ones. So I live as the crow flies maybe 2 miles from there. When I go out on walks on my greenway, I can actually see it. And that greenway is about to expand and go through right to Village of Oakland Springs. And so you're starting to see those businesses pick up in there. You're starting to see more cars in there. You're starting to have more traffic go in and out of there. And it's a welcome site because the other thing that's going to be nearby is like when we're similar to when we're talking about Hayes and South Huntsville, where you have the Parkway that'll get people there. You have County Line Road very close to Yeah. And it has blown up over the last three to four years. So many new businesses, new side roads and spurs coming off of it. There's a lot of growth there. Yeah. And these are people that have easy access to Village of Oakland Springs and very similar to Village of Providence. They actually have the same developer. It's off of Highway 72 and you need to go back just a little ways. You can't see it from there, which offers it this beautiful picturesque space, but easy, convenient access to any of the major roadways over there. It is a beautiful space with beautiful homes. And it's true. And the other thing about the development that's coming in around it, you said 2,000 homes. These are all really nice homes. They are. So these businesses are going to, you know, it's the kind of, you know, families with money who want to spend money, want to go to restaurants, want to do things. And having that right there, that's going to be it's it's going to get busy. It just hasn't happened yet. It's like all these little pieces have to fall into place and then all of a sudden it's an engine. And you know that engine is almost there. But if you drove through it last year, you'd be like, "What's going on?" And if you drove through it today, you'd be like, "Things are starting to move. What's happening?" And next year, you're probably going to be waiting in line to get your coffee. There you go. And it's really important that there's a developer there that has that experience. They went through that same thing with the Village of Providence, right? They started it and then we had two major economic downturns. They've been through these challenges before. They're not unique to it. They understand they have to hold true to the vision and let the rest of the world catch up to it. So, some areas that have taken off a lot faster. And I think probably nothing faster than Clift Farm. Absolutely. That thing was like a little motor. It just was like there's going to be Clift Farm and then there is Clift Farm. So, funny story about Clift Farm is my daughter now is in fifth grade and when she was in pre-K, she went across Madison. So, we drove past Clift Farm every day and we'd talk about the cows, right? And now there are no cows. Yeah. And it's in that short time frame between pre-K and fifth grade, Clift Farm has gone from nothing but pasture to what it is today, which is a massive shopping center, housing development, hotels, apartments, Costco is there now. I mean, tons of dining there. I mean, that is restaurant row for Madison. Absolutely. And one of the reasons is that it's right off 72 and there was a need for restaurants. So it kind of developed in an opposite way as some of the other ones. It's like obviously there needed to be restaurants and shops there because people were passing it and and the the people were already coming there and then they just said, "Hey, let's put a bunch of houses here too versus let's bring the people and then the shops." Yeah. And you've had numerous builders in there. They built all different types of floor plans and home styles, you know, from town homes to single family to more larger homes, right? And they're all walkable distance into those shops, restaurants, and you know, Costco even like who who lives walking distance from Costco and Clift Farm and and it's it's like a a different dynamic. It it is for people who kind of want a more urban thing. And one of the, you know, when when they were first building out there, people would always be like, "Oh, it's not in Madison City school." So, it's not in the more highly rated schools, but it still grew really fast because that doesn't matter because this is a more urban focused group of people who want to be able to go to shops and maybe aren't, you know, they maybe it's not as many families with kids. I I know there are families with kids in there, but they do have a lot of like nicer smaller homes for retirees, young people, people who want to just be able to have a lifestyle where they Yeah. hang out and eat out and walk. Absolutely. Right. So, everybody's desires are different. Some people want a massive acreage, some people want them back to trees or water, some people want an urban environment. Right. And the streetscape there is so cute. I actually did a video shoot in there maybe a year, year and a half, two years ago, something like that. And you can see in the backdrop, it's like this slow rising hill with all these white picket fences and these multicolored homes. You know, it's not cookie cutter there, but you go over two blocks and it's a wall of identical town homes. So there's even though there's variety in the homogeneous areas, like it's kind of hard to phrase that, but you have both variety and things that are very static looking and they're they're a block and a half, two blocks because you have people and that's an urban area. That's how urban areas are. And they had different builders build those. And so they have, you know, town homes for people who are single and they want to buy that way and just live. And then they have, you know, big old houses and and medium-sized houses. A lot of subdivisions are just kind of one or the other. Yeah. Either everyone's, you know, big old families or everyone's single, you know. And I do like that it tends to be street by street, right? So, if you want that kind of small lot, house fills up most of the lot, rear entry garage, small kind of courtyard, front yard with white picket fence. Everybody on your street has that, right? Yeah. Go over a block or two, it's larger homes. Go over a block or two, it's single level, three bedroom, two bath homes. Go over a block or two. It's town homes. So, it's all within this collective of Clift Farm, but it is a little bit segmented. So, like you're around what you want to be around. Yeah. And I think that that's going to bring us to another one which I think had some ups and downs as it was coming up, but is now appearing to be really thriving. And I see nothing but it thriving even more because this is like in a perfect spot. And that's Town Madison. Yeah. So, Town Madison had to fight the headwinds of the early part of COVID. So, there were several businesses that were supposed to come in that when the whole world shut down, they didn't move forward. And while we all know the housing market shot up like a rocket, no pun intended. When you know kind of deeper into COVID when the interest rates dropped like a rock and everybody started working remotely, Huntsville in particular gained a lot of residents from that but some of the businesses were still shy some of them were still not fulfilling their previous obligations and even the Trash Pandas who play at Toyota Field season was delayed a year and so all these amenities and features that were going to be in that community were delayed by at least a year. Some of them have never come to fruition. And there's had to be other businesses, organizations that have come in and fill those gaps. But that takes a long time to find those people, negotiate that business, start construction, get the permitting and finish construction, right? So you had somebody that was already say three stages deep into a five-stage plan. Now you got to start from scratch again, you know, a year and a half after you plan to start before. Yeah. And the other thing that affected them is before the overpass, there was only one way in and one way out and it was very easy to like it was kind of hard to get to it. The overpass was completed this year last year or this year within the last year. Within the last year and that has revolutionized getting in and out of that gate at Zierdt Road because there's no longer that backup at Zierdt Road. It was like you had to go through Zierdt Road which was often like completely awful and then you had to like find your way back to Town Madison and now you just get off the highway and it's a swoop and you're there. So that's changed things tremendously for them. Yeah. And I'm there at least two nights a week as I mentioned earlier, the father-daughter date night. Well, we have transitioned to this Outback one and Chipotle is the other. My kids, they they have what they like and so long as my oldest thinks Outback's the best steak on earth, we will continue to go there. It's the best steak on earth. It's the best priced. I'll say that. So, but we're there at least two nights a week, right? And it's very vibrant. There's a lot of people coming in and out. There's a lot of people living there. The restaurant sometimes we have a wait, right? It's never dead in there. And so, that is something like I always tell everybody, you want the restaurant the perfect amount of busy, right? Not too slow that nobody wants to work, not so fast that you can't get a seat, right? Somewhere in between. And that's what we find there. And, it's good to see it thriving, to see people in and out. And then that's the commercial section towards the front end. And then right behind that you have the housing area. And that really did take a while to get started. You saw multiple builders come in, different style of floor plans. I feel like it was the very first few months it was very hot. Slowed down for a while and now it's picked back up. But I actually think that it might have benefited them because the houses back there are beautiful and it feels organic versus feeling like it was all just designed by one person. It feels like an actual city and maybe it maybe it worked out in their favor that they had multiple builders. Yeah. Well, I mean it it's a great community now and it worked out the way it worked out so we'll just take it. Right. But it does have a completely different vibe because of the ballpark there. Right. Absolutely. And so I think that's something you have to take into mind if that's community you're interested in. Like Sunday nights they're shooting off fireworks during the holiday season. They had drive-through Christmas lights until this year it was a walking thing. They have county fairs there and then other offseason events. So there's always something happening there. You have to want that. You can't Yeah. Because it's you know you have to want action. Yeah. And I think it's one of those things too where they've branded a really large area as Town Madison. So you go over half mile a mile, there's BJ's Wholesale is now over there and it's part of Town Madison. All the hotels surrounding that are part of Town Madison. But that's when you look at an overhead map, they are. But when you actually go to Town Madison, you're going to the restaurants, the shopping or the living there, they do feel completely different. And there might be and and there's more stuff being built on that side of Town Madison. It's true. That part does not feel homey. It's just some highway stuff. Yeah. Exactly right. And I'm over there all the time. Like we love the BJ's Wholesale there. And when we're not at Costco, we're there. But and many of our clients because it's so close to the airport, they stay right there in those hotels. They're brand new. They're nice. People really like them. They're affordable. Oh, that's great. And then they're surrounded by all the restaurants that have been in Madison forever there off Madison Boulevard. But again like it doesn't that section in no way, shape or form feels residential. No, it feels like it's like you don't even understand because you can't see because there's a hill there. So you can't see the rest of it. So you don't know why things are happening there. You're just like this is just a place where people have built some hotels. Yeah. Right. It's but it's branded town. So, I mean, I guess whatever overarching plan there was, that was included. Well, I think it'll all be developed at some point, you know. And the other thing is I really like the clubhouse there. Yeah, it's really nice. It's got a it's on top of the hill. It's got a beautiful pool and it's the reason I like it. It's got a view of everything. Like you can look down at the ballpark. Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful homes there as well. So, you're looking at those. It's you have a beautiful view from there and some very different styles of home than you'll see in other subdivisions really. And super easy access to Redstone Arsenal. You can hop out on the highway and go directly to Gate 9 or you could drop down and go in on Martin Road. Like easy peasy getting on the Arsenal from there. Yeah. If you love convenience and baseball would be your spot. Absolutely. And if you fly a lot here, a couple miles from the airport max. So yeah, it is from a convenience standpoint. It's a great area. Absolutely. Are we missing any other sub? No, those are the five big ones. To me, there are more plans for more, particularly in Limestone. You know, where we kind of first started. You asked me about Huntsville has annexed quite a bit of land and there's been some design documents out there for a massive community coming up in the Greenbrier area. So, that was something if you're thinking about moving here further in the future. One of the really inconvenient things about living in that area is Huntsville's annex is that you're not close to the schools. You got a pretty good commute if you're dropping your kids off or I don't even know if they have bus routes over there yet. But some of the land that they've annexed is earmarked for a school that'll be built soon and maybe even more than one. So, that's going to become a lot more convenient area and it's going to have the same style growth where you're bringing in these various industries and industrial well there's already some industrial out there. So, that's something to bear in mind too, but you can bring in a lot of commercial, a lot of restaurant, a lot of shopping as well. Yeah. And all of these communities, at least most of them have have homes at different price points. Yes. So, a lot of them are higher end, but if youre a single person, you don't want a giant house. There's, you know, town houses associated with some of these or smaller cottages. Yeah. So, you know, and and not everything that is is available in the future there is is going to be on the MLS. So, because it's like it's a it's a work in progress. So, if you're a ways out and you're interested in these communities, reach out. We'll get you some information. Yeah, absolutely. To your point, I was recently showing homes in Madison Farms, which is right next door to Village of Oakland Springs, and I had not seen all of their listings online. Now, they may all be online today, but they had not been. And then you have homes in Village of Oakland Springs probably running anywhere from 5 to 700,000. These ones over in Madison Farms, four to five. And then diagonal across the street, you've got Bella Woods where you're approaching a million. You're probably in the mid to upper eights. Many of those homes it's bifurcated. There's a side with smaller homes too that are probably in the fives. And then you go a half mile over you're in Iness Springs and those are probably in the threes, low fours, right? So just within this one little area, if we drew a mile circle, we might we would probably encompass more than what I just talked about. We're probably a half mile circle. And you've got completely different styles of homes, price points, different builders, different community feel, but they all have equal access to this location. Yeah. Well, yeah, I feel like we've we've covered a lot here. Absolutely. I think we covered all five well. So, if you're interested in one of those, let us know. We can always find the inventory that's not online for you, and we'd be glad to show you homes in there. Thank you. Thanks for watching or listening. You can always catch us on audio on wherever you get your podcast, be Spotify, Apple, or you can watch our video on YouTube. Really appreciate you guys being here. 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