HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — A multiphase project is underway in Huntsville, to take a look at a $400 million mixed-use development.

That project would include an affordable housing component, shopping, green space and more employment in the Governors Drive area.

Twenty-eight acres of land are set to be redeveloped when everything is all said and done. one day there will be a development where Butler Terrace, otherwise known as Mill Creek, used to stand but when that will be is still to be determined as this process has a lot of steps.

It’s all apart of the Mill Creek study that seeks to redevelop the area west of Downtown Huntsville. Last July the Huntsville City Council considered a resolution between the city and Huntsville Housing Authority (HHA) to demolish 31 unoccupied buildings at Butler Terrace owned by HHA.

“I’m mostly excited about creating a community that is different from the communities that we have right now where our residents have the opportunity to live work and play in their community,” Huntsville Housing Authority CEO Antonio McGinnis. “Most of our units that we actually have ownership in are old they were built in the fifties and sixties this will give our residents an opportunity to live in new housing that’s affordable that they can be proud of that they can raise their families in.”

The Mill Creek transformation plan includes a mix of market rate HHA workforce and senior living housing along with shopping, green space and more employment on the Governors Drive and Clinton Avenue area.

Residents from that area will have an opportunity to move into the new development as apart of a one-to-one replacement. While it was announced that the plans were getting to the finalized stage, the city now says there are many steps left in the process.

“Between the city and the housing authority there’s probably fifty to sixty million dollars that have to be put into this project both in infrastructure cost and land cost and roads, sewer, water and things like that on the city’s side and the Huntsville Housing Authority’s side,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “The second side is the developer has to bring the borrowed funds in and they would have to go out and raise the funds probably 250, 300 million dollars with the plan at the stage it is right now.”

The Mayor also says the city would have to seek a HUD grant for another $50 million, and the developer would have to build the housing within seven years of all the funding being secured.

What is finalized is HHA’s plan for how they want to proceed in the application process a developer. As apart of this Huntsville won a $1.3 million choice neighborhoods initiative planning grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2020. The city says that money has been used to get this project through the planning stages so far.

Once the full funding is secured the city will have to present the project publicly. it will then have to be approved by the city council, the housing authority and HUD as well.

All parties involved say that the four hundred million dollar price tag is speculative and will only been finalized once a developer is in place.