Madison County Commissioners are hoping to break ground in June on a $13.2 million event center at Ditto Landing in south Huntsville.

“We’re ready, set to go,” Madison County Commissioner Phil Riddick said at a town hall meeting Thursday night. “We’ll stop talking about it and start seeing something come out of the ground down there.”

The County Commission awarded the construction contract to Lee Builders at its April 23 meeting. Lee Builders is the firm that renovated Joe Davis Stadium, converting it from a minor league baseball stadium to a multipurpose stadium that is home to Major League Soccer NEXT Pro team, the Huntsville City Football Club.

Riddick said the contract is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.

The project includes renovating the 20,000-square-foot State Docks warehouse into the event center on a 2.5-acre site.

“It will have a beautiful view of the river and the bridge,” Riddick said.

The event center will have space for at least one restaurant. There will also be a building that can be used for seated dinners, weddings, corporate events and concerts.

The center will have the capacity for a 600-seated dinner or an 1,100-seated indoor concert.

“It’s bigger than the Jackson Center for a seated dinner,” Riddick said. “And it’s bigger than the Mars Music Hall (at the Von Braun Center) if we wanted to have a concert.”

The event center courtyard will also be big enough to host outdoor concerts, the commissioner said.

“There will be space where we can have food trucks if there is an outdoor event,” Riddick said. He also said there would be an open space that can be rented out for private space and dinners.

The event center will also include a greenway. And Riddick said there are future plans for boat lifts so river traffic can stop in for events, park their boats and come in.

“Until that gets done in another phase, they’ll just have to go down to the marina, find a place to park and walk down,” Riddick said.

The city of Huntsville is partnering with the county on the project. Riddick said the city constructed a road to the site.

Prior to the road construction, Riddick said there was no access to the site. The commissioner also said the city was going to construct an additional parking lot for the center.