President Trump announced last week that Space Command’s permanent headquarters will be located at Redstone Arsenal, a move that will bring in about 1,400 direct jobs over five years, according to Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.
“We are ready to execute support of whatever Space Command needs, based on their timelines,” said Martin Traylor, Garrison deputy commander. He and Battle joined other local leaders at an Sept. 3 local media roundtable to discuss the decision to relocate Space Command to Redstone from its temporary headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.
“Huntsville and Team Redstone are mission ready to support Space Command with our highly skilled workforce, strong military community and a city that embraces innovation,” Battle said.
The city’s close partnership with Team Redstone has been essential throughout the process of landing the Space Command headquarters, the mayor said, and “we have a proven track record for successfully relocating major military commands including the Army Materiel Command, Army Aviation, Federal Bureau of Investigation and others.”
“We plan for a phased approach to this,” Traylor said. “It will not be everybody showing up all at once, for sure. The immediate element that will probably arrive is what we call a torch party, again that’s a smaller element. We’re prepared to absorb that, effective today. We have the space for that and all the communications and everything that’s needed for that element today.”
He anticipates that the next phase would be an advance party, and “we also have plans to be able to absorb that instantly.”
Traylor explained the two-phase approach for construction.
The temporary operations facility – a 450,000-square-foot campus with three 150,000-square-foot – will be built in the secure parcel of Redstone Gateway by the Enhanced Use Lease or EUL developer, Corporate Office Properties and Trust, according to Traylor. The time period for design, construction and occupancy is 18 to 24 months. The 427,000-square-foot permanent operations facility to house all Space Command personnel will be a military construction project to be built by the Corps of Engineers, according to Traylor. He said the estimated timeline for a typical design-bid-build is seven years from the date of award, but many factors determine the final timeline.
“A 64-acre site of prime developable land is identified for this facility,” and it’s centrally located on the Arsenal with multiple arteries leading to and from installation access control points, Traylor said. According to Traylor, the environmental assessment is complete, and all utility services are already located at or near the site.
He said minimum to no traffic impact is expected.
“That command can theoretically be operational here very, very quickly and under the three-year timeline easily at Redstone,” Traylor said. “We’re the Army. We’re going to adjust to whatever we need to do. If they told me to execute tonight, we would absolutely execute that mission tonight.”
Addressing concerns about the influx of people, Battle said: “It’s a simple math problem. They will be coming in over five years: 1,400 people, 280 a year. Some of those people will live in Huntsville, some will live in Madison, some will live in Madison County, some will live all over North Alabama.”
If 50% of the Space Command workforce moves to Huntsville, “that still leaves 700 jobs that will be filled” locally, Battle said.
During a Q&A session, when asked about the impact on roads, Battle said that “traditionally, in most BRACs (base realignment and closure), in most movements, about 50% of the people come in. That’s 700 people, 700 people over five years, 140 a year. Those 140 will be spread out all over North Alabama. It’s very reasonable that we can handle this,” Battle said.
“Growth is something that we will have with or without Space Command,” he said. “Growth is something that we look at very closely. We have been working in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Transportation, with the governor’s office, with our legislative delegation on an entire road package that will come in after we finish the Northern Bypass and Mastin Lake overpass so we have a very robust group of roads that are going to be necessary for our future but they would be necessary with or without Space Command.”
Two Redstone-related road projects now in design are Resolute Way, which will connect Interstate 565 to Gate 9/Redstone Gateway, and the Arsenal East Connector that will link I-565 to the proposed Redstone gate near Triana Boulevard.
“Resolute Way is the No. 1 priority for the Arsenal,” Battle said. “It gives us a third way to get into Gate 9” and alleviates traffic congestion at I-565 and Research Park Boulevard.
Battle said the selection of Redstone was based on “strategic military value and what’s best for the national defense, with a focus on five key components – mission-related capability, infrastructure capacity, community support, costs to the Department of Defense and mission impacts to full operational capabilities.
“The decision also follows a twice-reviewed merit-based site selection process that began in 2018,” the mayor said.
Alabama State Rep. Rex Reynolds said the decision was “the right thing to do to maintain continued growth” within Space Command. And Madison County Commission Chairman Mac McCutcheon said the decision means more than an economic development opportunity for the community. “This is about national security and having the right people in the right place with the right education and technology to get the job done.”
“If you look at the commands that we have there – everything from NASA to FBI to the Missile Defense Agency – the synergy is there already between those commands,” Traylor said. “Most of those elements are already dealing with Space Command on a daily basis now anyway. And it just makes it a whole lot easier because now in addition to being able to communicate over their secured communications networks, they can literally go down the street and see the people face to face and it’s hard to put a price on the relationship factor. … We’re going to nest them initially in some of those facilities,” which will “further solidify those relationships.”
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