Shooting for ‘The Moon’: South Huntsville’s community hub enters final phase

It's a fascinating moment to pause and reflect on how dreams have become reality beyond just bricks and mortar. The Sandra Moon Community Complex represents more than that; it's about community and bringing people together.

And now the work is almost done. Construction of the fourth and final phase is expected to start by the end of the year at the campus of what once was Grissom High School on Bailey Cove Road.

There have been ideas, such as the desire for a library in South Huntsville that became the first phase of the project. There have been suggestions, such as … well, just let District 3 Council Member Jennie Robinson talk about one of those.

"The second phase is a good example," Robinson said. "We were originally going to turn the ballfields into multiuse fields, which we've done, and put the roads through. And I got a phone call from someone saying, 'Hey, have you thought about putting pickleball courts at the Sandra Moon Complex?' This was 10 years ago and I had no idea what pickleball was. I had to go on You Tube and look it up."

There are now pickleball courts at the facility affectionately known as "The Moon." They are also one of the facility's most-utilized amenities.

This retrospective comes as one final lunge toward the finish line will begin following Council approval of the $31 million construction contract. Perhaps the centerpiece of that last phase is renovating the high school auditorium into an intimate, 600-seat theater that's been on Arts Huntsville's wish list for almost 30 years.

The planning sessions for what the complex could become began in earnest in 2015 - two years before Grissom relocated to its new home on Haysland Road.

To Allison Dillon-Jauken, executive director of Arts Huntsville, what's a few more months?

"It's all relative," she said. "When we think back to those first visioning sessions in 2015, we've made it 10 years. So, 18 months (of construction for the final phase) will fly by."

By the construction clock, however, things have moved pretty quickly. The library opened as the first phase in 2021, and the final phase is expected to wrap up less than five years later.

Adjustments have been made along every step of the journey. For example, there was space for 10 organizations as part of the original plan for the arts wing, but it was then discovered there was no room for the music libraries. So, office space was turned into music library space.

"It's huge for those organizations to be able to have their music libraries readily accessible while they are in rehearsal," Robinson said. "In every phase, we have figured something out that made it even better."

The result was that five Huntsville musical arts organizations have a place to rehearse and call home for the first time.

"With this project, five nonprofit arts organizations found a permanent home and they can help one another, can collaborate artistically and can welcome the community into their programming," Dillon-Jauken said.

And now the biggest piece of the Sandra Moon Community Complex is about to begin, a fitting grand finale for what, at times, has seemed like an arduous journey.

"I think my favorite part is to come," Robinson said. "I think of it as an auditorium, but it really is going to be a theater. Just seeing the performance arts groups that come and the variety, from ballet recitals to productions. It's going to be really exciting.

"The other piece I really like is that there is something here for everybody. It really is a connection for the whole community."

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