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Business View Magazine
ture where you can raft it year ‘round.”
Culligan says that the city is relying on the whitewater
course, some zip line attractions going across the river,
as well as plans for some urban campgrounds along-
side it, as a way to draw more tourists to the area. So,
far, it seems to be working. “We’re not reaching mil-
lions and millions of people yet,” he admits. “It’s still
new and, quite frankly, the majority of the people in
the State of Alabama are still unaware, so we’re doing
our best to market it just in our own state. But, in three
years, we’ve exceeded a hundred thousand people on
the river. It continues to grow. Each year, the number
has doubled as far as participants are concerned.”
Meanwhile Phenix City is also working on developing
both the area along the river as well as its nearby down-
town core. Currently, there is $40-50 million worth of
construction underway on the riverfront, including a
new Troy University campus, a new Courtyard Marriott
Hotel and Conference Center, and a renovated and re-
developed shopping center and parking garage. The
14th St. Bridge, over the Chattahoochee, has been
transformed into a pedestrian bridge at a cost of $6
million. The Phenix City Riverwalk is a 1.21 mile struc-
ture on the western bank of the river that connects the
city with Columbus’ Riverwalk on the other side and
also hosts the 3,000-seat Phenix City Amphitheater.
Culligan points to the available acreage on its side of
the river as prime territory for further development.
“Columbus is pretty much built out in their downtown,
but we have, for lack of a better word, a virgin river-
front. We’ve got a lot of opportunities – a blank can-
vas and we can begin to paint it,” he says. Indeed,
the city’s Downtown Development Plan proposes a
mixed-use district that will combine urban living with
public gathering places and neighborhood-focused re-
tail. “Our downtown has been, for some time, in need
of renovation,” he adds. “Now, everybody wants to be
on the river. I can certainly see a significant amount
of boutique shops and coffee shops. And the brewing
industry in the State of Alabama is beginning to in-
crease, so I can definitely see pubs and craft brewers
and the things that Millennials want. We want to cre-
ate a sense of place in downtown so people can come
downtown and have everything they need without hav-
ing to get back in their car.”
Having long shed its moniker as Alabama’s “Sin City,”
