Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle appears ready to run it back again. And for the fifth time.

Battle’s campaign announced Tuesday morning that he will announce his reelection campaign plans at a rally Wednesday in downtown Huntsville. It’s long been expected that Battle would seek a fifth term as Huntsville’s mayor.

The event will take place at noon at the Historic Huntsville Depot Roundhouse – the same place he kicked off his 2020 campaign that resulted in his third straight landslide reelection victory. The announcement invited supporters to lunch with the mayor – the sort of thing that doesn’t happen when a candidate is announcing he won’t run again.

The Battle campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

During Battle’s current term, Huntsville has ascended to the largest city in Alabama and recent city estimates put the population of the Rocket City at about 235,000 people.

Amid that growth is a plethora of significant projects in which the city, and Battle, is involved.

• Mill Creek: A $400 million, multi-year project with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that is reimagining and restoring the Butler Terrace public housing community near downtown.
• Roads: Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks to connect four-lane Research Park Boulevard/MLK Highway with Memorial Parkway near the Bob Wade Lane interchange – creating a fast track to Redstone Arsenal for commuters north of Huntsville. Other projects include the final stretch of Interstate 565 to be widened through Madison and an overhaul of the I-565/Memorial Parkway interchange.
• New city hall: The $80 million building across Fountain Circle from the current city hall is expected to be completed next year.
• Music festival: Battle announced plans last month to bring a two-day outdoor music festival to John Hunt Park that, pending city council approval, will have the city working with Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza promotors C3 Presents.

Should Battle be reelected and serve a full term, he would match Joe Davis as the city’s longest-serving mayor at 20 years.

A sellout crowd of about 1,100 business and community leaders attended Battle’s state of the city address last month.