Construction crews were busy at various tasks on a sunny Thursday morning, some running excavators while others tended to jobs stretching across acres of real estate that sat empty for decades in front of what is now Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium.

Ground was broken at the site just off South Memorial Parkway as part of the first phase of the mixed-use development, Stadium Commons, early last year. Developer Crunkleton Commercial Real Estate Group pinpoints spring of 2026 to have some of the coming venues operating. Retail, food and beverage, Class A office space, a hotel and multi-family housing are planned for the development.

However, other than Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, there’s been no announcement of other future tenants. Wesley Crunkleton, the primary broker, is holding his cards close to the vest.

“We are planning on making announcements a little closer to the project completion date,’’ he said this week.

Meanwhile, the staff at Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium report that construction and accompanying traffic was having no effect on stadium events.

“All of our events are still going on as normal. Maybe a couple less parking spots. That’s about all,’’ said Jacob Brabant, communications and broadcast manager for Huntsville City FC, whose Managing Director of Business Operations Chad Emerson also manages the stadium for Huntsville City FC’s parent club Nashville SC.

Meanwhile, the 2025 season and home opener Friday at 7 p.m. features Huntsville City FC hosting Philadelphia Union II. The soccer team isn’t waiting for the addition of the forthcoming businesses in the neighborhood to materialize to up stadium happenings this season.

“We added a mascot this offseason,’’ Brabant said. “We have Marshall the cosmic goat, so he’s gonna lead like pregame entertainment. We’ll do something called ‘rally time’ where he’ll launch rally towels into the stands. We’ve got a ‘supporters march’ that will march around the entire stadium before they go into their new section of the stadium. These supporters will now be at field level, so they’ll be closer to the action.’’

That’s not all.

“We’ll have new games for halftime, musical performances in our beer garden every halftime and then to start the second half we’ll have professional soccer’s only ‘cigar box guitar riff.’ So we’ll have a cigar box guitar player every week play us a riff to start the second half.’’ Meanwhile, construction crews will continue to assemble Stadium Commons, a welcomed addition as far as Huntsville City FC foresees things.

“It’s just gonna bring in more people who will want to come over here,’’ Brabant said. “You know, come watch a game after they had dinner or had a beer or something.’’