ERIN SIMPSON, Staff Writer

Imagine walking along the corner of 13th and Broad streets in downtown Phenix City. Not the 13th Street corner of today, with cars whizzing by, an expanse of asphalt parking spaces and empty storefronts.

Instead, imagine walking on sidewalks by small, crowded stores, meandering traffic and a convenient parking structure behind a new grocery store and redeveloped shopping center right next to a new hotel and conference center.

This is the plan for Phenix Plaza, one of five key pieces of riverfront and downtown redevelopment in Phenix City's new Downtown/Riverfront District Plan.

The $273.5 million plan calls for redevelopment of 141 acres from just south of the Dillingham Street Bridge to north of the 14th Street Bridge at Riverview Apartments public housing complex.

The projected cost for the recommended renovations in the Phenix Plaza area is $75 million. But just who is going to redevelop the area is still up in the air.

Phenix Plaza is a 120,784-square-foot shopping center owned by Aronov Realty, a Montgomery, Ala.-based company that owns more than 100 commercial developments across the southeast.

Sammy Howard, chairman of the private East Alabama Riverfront Development that is spearheading the city's redevelopment plans, said there are other developers looking at the shopping center.

"We're working on that," he said. "This is as important to us as Riverview or any other area." Ron Smith, CEO of CB&T Bank of Russell County, is working to find developers for the Phenix Plaza area as well as a hotel group for the corner of the Dillingham Street Bridge area.

"Obviously, we want somebody to redevelop that shopping center," Smith said. "We don't know whether Aronov wants to do it.

"We know some who are very civic-minded kind of people and who would try to do something to help the community. Our objective is to get somebody in there we can work with."

Owen Aronov, president of the company, said it supports the efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

"We have several tenants who are pleased with their business," he said. "As the city continues to improve this area, we think this will have positive effects on our property." Aronov would not comment on whether his company plans to redevelop the center according to the city's plans.

Commercial campus

The plans are to make the Plaza area a downtown commercial campus extending north from the 13th Street Bridge to 16th Street and west from Broad Street to 7th Avenue, about 35 acres.

The concept completely replaces the existing buildings of the Plaza with new construction of mixed-use buildings surrounding a central roundabout right off of the 13th Street Bridge.

Proposals include a hotel with conference facilities, ground-floor retail, offices above retail, a river view restaurant and a new parking structure. Retail uses on the ground floor along 13th Street and Third Avenue place the storefronts and building entrances at the sidewalk edge.

Downtown college campuses from Chattahoochee Valley Community College and Troy University at the 14th Street Bridge would connect the commercial district with the planned residential development at Riverview Apartments.

Doug Faust, vice-president of The Boulevard Group, the consulting firm that put together Phenix City's Downtown/Riverfront District Plan, said a shopping center at the corner of Broad and 13th Street is critical.

"The shopping center is important for the downtown area. There's a need to provide the services of a shopping center," he said. "Downtown residents need to be able to shop. The current location serves not only Phenix City but Columbus."

Redeveloping the center would make it a "gateway" to Columbus and more pedestrian friendly, he said. The plan shows the shops built along the street with a parking area in the back, connected through a parking garage to an expanded Russell County Courthouse.

"Parking in front creates a sea of parking," Faust said. "If you're a pedestrian on 13th Street, you're not necessarily enjoying that experience. That's the reason we're advocating to have it redeveloped."

PHENIX PLAZA AREA PLANS
$18.2 million: 100-room hotel and parking structure
$9.5 million: Ground floor retail with on-site parking
$7.6 million: Commercial offices two stories over retail
$1.4 million: Restaurant and parking
$8.9 million: Courthouse expansion, with two floors of office space over 100-space parking structure
$24.9 million: College campus auditorium, classrooms and administration with 30-space parking structure
$4.5 million: Infrastructure and street improvements and park
Total: $75 million

PHENIX CITY DOWNTOWN/ RIVERFRONT DISTRICT PLAN
1. Existing Russell County Courthouse
2. Existing American Legion
3. Proposed restaurant
4. Redevelopment of Phenix Plaza
5. New grocery store
6. Courthouse expansion and proposed parking structure
7. Proposed college classrooms
8. Proposed college auditorium
9. New park
10. Housing or expanded college campus