HUNTSVILLE, AL – The city is closing in on its goal of downtown hotel rooms.

It seems constant that a new hotel is either opening or announced to begin construction, and that’s not far from the truth. And truth is, the city is still shy of its original goal when planners began studying current and future growth.

Nearly 5,000 residents are moving to the city, but that’s not for whom the hotels are targeted. The city wants to have enough rooms downtown to attract more and more conventions, forums, symposiums, seminars, conferences and the like to the Von Braun Center (VBC).

And perhaps some at the same time.

“Ideally, downtown Huntsville should have 1,000 committable rooms,’’ said Charles Winters, Executive Vice President/Marketing, Media and Advertising at the Huntsville Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

Hotels generally only commit a portion of their available rooms in blocks for conferences or events, which makes it important to surpass that 1,000-committable room threshold.

The hotel Autograph Collection by Marriott has broken ground next to the re-tooled parking garage and across the street from the VBC’s Propst Arena. One feature of this hotel will be the state’s largest Starbucks.

The original plan approved in 2019 was for Autograph to have six floors and 187 rooms. Once the height of the pandemic passed and plans to build were on again, the hotel grew to now have eight floors and over 200 rooms.

The $40 million L-shaped building will face both the VBC and Big Spring Park.

Nearby, where the old Huntsville Aquatic Center was located and next to the public library, a Moxy hotel will go up. Moxy, also a Marriott brand, will be a 100-room boutique hotel adjacent to the AC Hotel and the Eclipse apartments.

The Moxy will highlight a mixed-use facility that is part of the third phase of CityCentre.

“There are currently 930 hotel rooms and/or suites in downtown Huntsville,’’ Winter said. “The addition of the Autograph and Moxy hotel properties will raise that figure to around 1,250. Even with a total inventory at this level, additional rooms will be needed to secure a block of 1,000 rooms.’’

A hotel is already planned for Front Row, a multi-use development on Clinton Avenue at the former Coca-Cola plant site.

A two-year old study in which Downtown Huntsville, Inc., participated reported sheets of information related to the city and its growth. The lengthy report included these passages:

“The city’s strength and prosperity depend on a strong downtown and center city, which serve as centers of culture, knowledge, and innovation. The performance of downtowns and center cities strengthens the entire region’s economic productivity, inclusion, vibrancy, identity, and resilience.

“Downtown Huntsville serves as an active center within a fast-growing city and county. Having collected numerous accolades as a top tech city, Huntsville has also won recognition as a great place to live, thanks to its affordability, strong economy, quality of life, unique districts, good educational institutions, and easy access to parks and natural areas.’’

Continuing to strengthen the Rocket City includes the continuation of skyscraping downtown cranes as more hotels and complexes are built.

“The demand for hotel rooms has continued to increase and the average daily rate for the rooms downtown is higher than the market as a whole,’’ Winters said. “Developers will undoubtedly look at that, as well as other key performance indicators.’’