Less than two years ago, as Huntsville’s population began to mushroom, the city didn’t have the structures to handle the business growth that came with it.

That’s changed along with the number of residents that continues to rise, making Huntsville the largest city in the state. Recently, the city was named No. 1 as the best place to live in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report. That is sure to increase the city’s profile.

And warehouses are sprouting around the community along with the booming business industry.

“I would say 18 months ago, our warehouse inventory was non-existent,’’ said Shane Davis, Huntsville’s Director of Urban and Economic Development. “I mean, anything that gets built, we have someone come in and build a hundred thousand square feet, and before the building would get completed it would be leased, and we kept thinking, ‘Well, we still have the inventory.’

“We really kind of penciled it in and reached out to private equity investors to do spec warehousing. We had projects coming in because we were an ideal location and they didn’t have time to wait for something to be built. They wanted to get into the market now.

“I can say it’s still really a tight market for availability for warehousing but we’ve got about five projects where we’re working with groups that are going to put about a million square feet of speculative warehouse on the ground this year that will be available around the fourth quarter of 2023, which is good.’’

However, as the city expands with continued population and business growth, even more warehousing space will be needed moving forward.

“I don’t feel like (recent additional warehousing) is going to be enough,’’ Davis said. “I mean there’s so much opportunity here. There’s so much logistics and demand that I kind of feel what we have coming into the pipeline with our growth – it’s going to get leased and absorbed.

“I think in the next two-to-five years you’re going to see more warehouse demand and hopefully warehouse construction. Huntsville’s becoming that size market. Five years ago we weren’t that type of market.’’

While warehousing is becoming premium real estate in the area, an Internet search for locations revealed numerous websites offering space to lease or purchase in Huntsville, Madison and other nearby Tennessee Valley locations.

Manufacturing has increased consistently in the city in the last decade and has helped create the need for more warehouses.

“We’re still doing what we’ve done since 2014, which is creating opportunities,’’ Davis said. “We’ve created right at just under 14,000 manufacturing jobs since 2014 and a lot of those businesses are are still ramping up their employment numbers.’’