The Broad Street Improvement Project should begin by the summer, a local architect told the Phenix City Council and a group of interested observers Feb. 7.

The project --- part of Phenix City's $273.5 million redevelopment of the riverfront and downtown areas --- will include the widening of medians, the narrowing of Broad Street from six lanes to four, and retail/office development with loft housing.

Neil Clark of Hecht, Burdeshaw, Johnson, Kidd and Clark Architects Inc., presented City Council with a Broad Street Development Plan with five new buildings of varying sizes, a parking deck between Broad and the Riverwalk near the southern end of the development and an extension of 12th Street across Broad to the riverfront near an area proposed for development as a park.

Each of the new buildings would include living space on the second or third floors, residential development for the downtown area.

"The next step for us is visioning --- what is this going to look like," Clark said. "The images of how the river will be or how Broad Street will look with the new buildings --- that's the next thing for us to do. I'm thinking that will be about three weeks for us to have a final presentation to show you this plan finished and how it will work."

The council was presented two cost projections for the project --- the low end, $1,737,305, and the high end, $2,542,880.

The good news is the city has been informed by Alabama Power that its phase of the project, the shifting of large transmission lines from the heart of downtown and moving utility lines underground, will be less costly than expected, said City Finance Director Steven Smith. The power line/utility project could be more than $300,000 under the original projection. The city is prepared to pay $5 million for the total project.

"We are going to have a good bit more money than the $1.8 million we originally set aside for the (Streetscape) budget," Smith said. "And it's going to be some time until I get the numbers back from Alabama Power. We know there is going to be more than $350,000 more money available for Broad Street development."

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Contact Jerry Rutledge at jrutledge@ledger-enquirer.com