The Residences at Front Row open leasing; tours available
“I must be in the front row,” the late Bob Uecker famously quipped in a 1984 Miller Lite commercial.
Well, that comment will soon be a calling card for residents and businesses of a new development in downtown Huntsville.
The Residences at Front Row, part of a one-of-a-kind work-live-play development on Clinton Avenue across from the Von Braun Center, is welcoming tours with move-ins slated for July 1.
Prospective residents, including those with VIP priority access, may schedule private tours through the leasing office or via the website.
“Front Row is a transformative address for Huntsville, and opening our doors to prospective residents is the moment we have been building toward,” said Mitch Rutter, co-developer of Front Row. “The city’s downtown master plan is designed around this development, and the residents who choose to make Front Row their home will experience this evolution right outside their door.”
The Residences at Front Row offers 545 luxury residences across two buildings at 1 & 2 Front Row Boulevard.
The buildings will boast hotel-grade amenities including rooftop dining, a maker space for small-scale fabrication, a designated co-working floor, dual pool decks, and a state-of-the-art sports simulator, just to name a few, all at the center of downtown’s most active corridor.
Front Row will also include The Plaza at Front Row, an urban green and retail destination that will activate the ground plane between the two buildings and the Clinton Avenue streetscape to be delivered in a few months.
Crunkleton Associates is the exclusive retail leasing broker for the project that also features about 47,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and Class-A office space.
The nearly $400 million development is a joint venture between Essex Capital and Ascend Property Group, with affiliates Silverstein Properties and Cantor Fitzgerald.
Plans to develop the property were approved in 2021 by the City Council and ground was broken in April 2024.
“This is an extraordinary project that will make downtown Huntsville even more attractive to both residents and visitors,” Shane Davis, the city’s director of Urban and Economic Development, said at the groundbreaking. “We are grateful for the work by the developers to help bring this project to the start of construction. Front Row’s start of construction on this significant mixed-use project illustrates the continued strength of Huntsville’s economy and market given current national trends related to securing equity and financing for large-scale urban projects.”
The site was a former Coca-Cola bottling plant which closed in 2012 and was demolished two years later. The property, which was listed for sale in 2016, was identified as a “key site” in the City’s Downtown Master Plan.
The largest downtown property available for redevelopment at the time, it spans two blocks and fronts three public streets – Monroe Street and Clinton and Holmes avenues.
“This is a great opportunity to turn vacant property into new and unique places for people to eat, shop, stay the night and live,” Mayor Tommy Battle said in 2021. “It’s an exciting project that will attract citizens and visitors alike, which will benefit Huntsville for years to come.”
