MartinFederal Consulting LLC headquarters is relocating to a downtown Huntsville home a few blocks from its previous location.

But it’s not like the company, known as MartinFed, is “moving on up” like The Jeffersons (thanks 1970 sitcoms and those catchy intro tunes). However, there is a sense of upgrading from Madison Street to the heart of the Rocket City at 115 Clinton Avenue East.

The building most-recently housed UG White Mercantile, an Athens business that closed its Huntsville location following a damaging fire that started in the kitchen at Pints & Pixels on the floor above.

“We really liked our other place but it just wasn’t designed for an open-concept office,’’ MartinFed Chief Growth Officer Matthew Schmitz said. “We wanted a collaboration-type environment and we wanted to be in the center of downtown where there’s restaurants and public places, coffee shops and places for our employees to be able to walk to a little easier. We feel like this is the center of downtown.’’

A grand opening will be announced at a later date.

building2 The property is a historic landmark dating back to 1927 when it was built by James Mason and known as the Mason Building. He reached a lease agreement with Sears and Roebuck, but the Great Depression derailed those plans and the retail giant never operated out of the site.

Mason’s Furniture, which began as retailers in 1908 on Holmes Avenue, eventually moved into the three-story building that has housed tenants such as Mason’s Pub and Crossroads Music Hall.

“We have always really liked the building and the history of the building and the look of the building,’’ Schmitz said. “With our partners at M.R. Construction and Fuqua & Partners Architects, we put something together we felt like could really change and fit our culture and personality.’’

MartinFed will occupy the first floor and mezzanine level. The second and third floors are open for lease.

MartinFed, founded in 2007, has offices throughout the country and personnel overseas. MartinFed bills itself as providing “quality solutions to our federal and commercial partners. The company’s primary lines of business are Advanced IT, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Technical Solutions and Training and Course Development.’’

Company President and CEO David Mathis, a native of Albertville, moved here 25 years ago. He previously worked in the banking industry, but in 2017 “got an itch’’ to own a business. Three years later, he convinced his friend from church and early-morning gym workouts Schmitz, a Sparkman High School graduate, to join MartinFed.

“Matthew and I bought out the majority shares from the founder Corey Martin in June 2021,’’ Mathis said, adding that Martin is still on the company’s advisory board. “We bought the majority of the shares so Matthew and I are the primary owners of the company.’’

The pandemic, and the so-called Great Resignation, created challenges for the company. Schmitz said, hover, they plowed forward with what he called a formula for success.

“Your ability to attract talent is a really premium piece,’’ he said. “You can do that in a variety of ways through your benefits and your facilities and some of the amenities that you can provide. There’s a great debate in the industry right now of whether or not you have folks working either remote or you’re in the office. We want to create an office environment where people want to come in and be collaborative and work together.’’

Mathis calls it “empowering employees.’’

“We allow our employees to have a lot of flexibility and choice to work from home or, when they need to collaborate, they can come into the office,’’ he said. “We don’t want to put a mandate that everybody has to come into the office. We want them to have the desire to come into the office and collaborate when it makes sense.

“And having an office environment that is what we’ve created at 115 Clinton we believe creates an attraction, not only for our employees, but also for smart talent. That is so highly competitive with the other technical contractors and cyber security, engineering and IT. Then, we have training for the type of employees that are top of their class and subject-matter experts.’’

MartinFed has offices in nine states and has deployed personnel to places such as Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and Germany.

Last August, the company appeared for the fifth time on the annual Inc. Magazine 5000, which bills this list as the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

MartinFed came in at No. 3058 and is one of 34 companies from the city ranked.

“To be recognized as one of the fast-growing, Huntsville-based Government Services businesses is an outstanding accomplishment,” Schmitz said at the time.

“Huntsville is full of outstanding Government Services businesses. Our growth and this recognition is a direct result of the quality of our people.”

Images provided by the Bold Agency.