BY JERRY F. RUTLEDGE
Staff Writer

Plans to revitalize Phenix City's downtown and riverfront moved closer to redevelopment Tuesday.

The five-member Phenix City Housing Authority Board voted unanimously Tuesday to accept a purchase offer on the Triangle, a highly prized section of Riverview Courts Apartments. The offer of $965,600, from the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, was accepted with a couple of stipulations. Pending approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the northern anchor of the city's Downtown/Riverfront District plan has been secured.

The property, located on the Chattahoochee River running south from 16th Street to the 14th Street pedestrian bridge, is expected to become the site of a downtown campus for Troy University Phenix City and possibly Chattahoochee Valley Community College. In fact, the Housing Authority Board's lone stipulation to the contract involved the addition of language spelling out the educational plans for the property.

"It's a good feeling to take this step," said Judy Hare, executive director of the Housing Authority. "We're moving forward. The entire thing is to have as smooth a transition as possible from us to HUD. If we dot all our i's and cross all our t's, this project can move along even faster."

J.W. Brannen, chairman of Downtown Redevelopment Authority, said he was happy about the board's decision, which was actually a counteroffer to an earlier overture he had extended.

The authority, which is representing the city in the purchase, will use $400,000 in proceeds from the city's sale of surplus property in the Lakewood area to developer Mike Bowden and another $400,000 from funds given it by the city to buy property in the Downtown/Riverfront District. The authority will borrow the remaining $165,600.

"That's great news. We'll get together with the people at Troy and CVCC and work on some plans," Brannen said. Importance of the area

Housing Board member Jim Lynn said The Triangle is the linchpin to the city's Downtown/Riverfront District plan. The plan is a $273.5 million redevelopment that covers 41 acres from just south of the Dillingham Street Bridge north to Riverview.

"When something starts to happen at The Triangle, our feeling is that everything else will start to fall into place," Lynn said. "You talk to people about redeveloping Phenix Plaza and they ask 'What about Riverview? Show me some bulldozers, and then we will talk.' With this action, we've begun to move. Our hope and expectation is that other things will begin to fall into place."

The next step in the process is for Hare and Danny Queen of the Stewart Group, the consultant group assisting with the development, to take the plan to State HUD director Ed Sprayberry in Birmingham in early July.

Sprayberry's opinion of the plan will be a good barometer of how HUD will react to the city's plans for the development. The college campus at The Triangle, combined with the redevelopment of the rest of Riverview -- with developer Mike Bowden in the lead -- and a plan to relocate residents, are hoped to be all the necessary ingredients for federal acceptance. Final federal approval may come within weeks, not months.

Troy has been in the process of raising $6 million for a building to house its business education program on the riverfront. Where the university stands in its fundraising drive is not known at this moment, but Lynn said he has heard favorable things.

"I'm really excited about what is taking place," he said. "When you see what's going on across the river, what Columbus State has done in terms of traffic on Broadway, you can see the same thing here."