ONE MONTH AFTER 2017 BENCHMARKING TRIP TO GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA

A vibrant scene in growing Downtown, Greenville, South Carolina, full of Businesses, Entertainment and People.

That’s been a recipe for success for Greenville.

One Month later, the 70 plus people who traveled to Greenville from West Alabama came together in Tuscaloosa to begin applying what they learned in South Carolina.

“We wanted to keep that momentum up and that trip was really worthless if we don’t do something with what we learned” says Jim Paige, President of the Chamber Of Commerce of West Alabama.

Phillip Weaver, Owner of Buffalo Phil’s, located on the strip, sits between the University Of Alabama and Downtown, Tuscaloosa.

He wants to a more walkable Downtown.

“I think you need to have a few more Apartments which will put more people on the ground walking around Downtown” says Weaver.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox was so impressed with the City Of Greenville.

Before the group returned back to Tuscaloosa from South Carolina, he had already put some of his Department heads in motion.

“Planning and Engineering can look at that public and private space interaction some things we can adjust in our development regulations to help facilitate those results from the accounting and finance side looking at their structures things that we can take to improvements and adjustments to have more of a sustainable stream of revenue or identify different sources and then if you look at revitalization component where Greenville had a very successful accomplishment revitalizing 80 properties and taking our Federal Programs group looking at our planning to see if we can replicate some of those efforts” says Brenden Moore, from the City Of Tuscaloosa.