Schoel Engineering Celebrates New Office in Downtown
By Abigail Harrison, DHI Communications Coordinator
Schoel Engineering celebrated the opening of its new downtown Huntsville office with a ribbon cutting on Tuesday afternoon, featuring Mayor Battle and other guest speakers.
Established in 1888, Schoel is a fifth-generation civil engineering firm responsible for several major projects across Huntsville, such as Stovehouse, Twickenham Square, Mars Music Hall, and The View at Burritt on the Mountain.
Schoel's move to a new office space can be attributed to its growing Huntsville team, which is currently comprised of more than 50 in-house civil engineers, land surveyors, landscape architects, and environmental professionals.
“This is an exciting time for all of us in Huntsville, and our new downtown offices will allow for expanded team collaboration while serving as a great space to develop and grow new and existing business,” said Jerry Cargile, Principal Engineer for the Huntsville office. “As we continue to add top talent within all aspects of the land development space, it is vital that we provide a great work environment, which carries over to the exceptional projects Schoel has undertaken throughout the Huntsville area.”
The company’s newest space is located at 101 Washington Street in downtown Huntsville. The building has been around since 1886, when it was built by historic masonry firm, Henderson Brandon & Son. After some interior cosmetic renovations, the Schoel team was finally able to move into their new office in July of this year. However, finding a space downtown was not easy.
According to DHI’s recent office market study, the current office landscape in downtown Huntsville shows that there is only a 5.1% vacancy of office space, which means there is not a lot of available room for businesses who want to move to or expand their space in downtown.
“We knew we wanted to be downtown, but there wasn’t a lot of space available in 2021 and 2022,” said Collin Orcutt, Huntsville Market Lead for Schoel Engineering. According to Orcutt, the company spent a long time searching for the perfect location and was finally able to secure the spot in downtown thanks to connections and opportunities that aligned.
Now that Schoel is established in downtown, the company is already looking for ways to invest in the community.
“We’re excited to be here. This has been the biggest growth opportunity for us, and investing in downtown and in our community alongside community partners is important to us,” Orcutt said. “A healthy core leads to a healthy city. We believe in downtown, and we have a lot of key clients and key relationships here. We believe there’s a lot of synergy here.”
Schoel is currently working on several quality of life projects that are related to city infrastructure, like trail networks and greenways. The company also has projects for the Space and Rocket Center and John Hunt Park coming in 2024.
For more information, visit https://schoel.com/.