HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The former Coca-Cola bottling plant site on Clinton Avenue likely will not become home to a new downtown baseball stadium -- even though the rumored buyer helped develop Regions Field in downtown Birmingham.
Downtown Huntsville Inc. CEO Chad Emerson said concepts he has seen show the prime tract becoming a mix of uses that complement the nearby Von Braun Center.
"I don't think that site is going to be redeveloped with baseball," Emerson told AL.com Tuesday.
Spanning nine acres, the old bottling plant property was viewed by some as the most logical place for a new downtown minor league ballpark to replace aging Joe Davis Stadium on Memorial Parkway.
And things seemed to be moving in that direction when rumors surfaced this summer that the property had been optioned by Robert Simon, a well-known commercial developer who helped bring the $64 million Regions Field to downtown Birmingham last year.
The Coke site is owned by Big Springs Inc., which is paying to have the bottling plant demolished. Crews were busy Wednesday morning rooting up the thick concrete foundation – all that remains of a soda factory that operated downtown from about 1930 until mid-2012.
John Wynn, chairman of Big Springs' board of directors, confirmed Tuesday that the site is under contract but said he cannot disclose the name of the potential buyer.
A spokeswoman for Simon's Birmingham development company, Corporate Realty, said she did not have any information on the Coke property.
Wynn said the demolition work is expected to wrap up in late October. After that, he said, the potential buyer has 60 days to inspect the property before deciding whether to move forward.
"I would think that by the end of the year, we should have some more definitive knowledge of what's going to happen with the property," said Wynn.
Emerson, the Downtown Huntsville Inc. CEO, said he hopes that whoever buys the Coke site is prepared to redevelop it quickly.
"The one scenario that absolutely can't happen is for that key piece of property to sit vacant and unused, with barbed wire around it, for an extended period," he said. "That would send the wrong message and hurt the VBC and the properties around it.
"This is not an opportunity site -- it's a necessity site," said Emerson.