There are multiple good things on the way for central Alabama in 2024. For one, CentrAL INC! enters its second year of publishing and will continue to deliver the business news you need (and want) to know. Check out these other bright spots that have us looking forward to this year.
Montgomery
- FLYING HIGH: After years of work, the first of the Air Force’s F35 Lightning II Jets arrived in Montgomery late last year. In April, Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base will host the Beyond the Horizon Air Show, featuring the always-exciting aerial acrobatics of the U.S Navy’s Blue Angels.
- MONUMENTAL OPENING: EJI’s new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will open in Montgomery this year, adding to the capital city’s impressive collection of Civil Rights offerings. This immersive and interactive experience will feature art and original artifacts on a 17-acre site along the Alabama River that tens of thousands of enslaved people trod while being trafficked. Its centerpiece is the National Monument to Freedom, a massive statue engraved with 100,000 names representing millions of Black families that honors the four million formerly enslaved people freed after the Civil War.
- EAT IT UP: As part of the Montgomery Pietrasanta Culinary Exchange Program, Italian chef Gianluca Tolla has been in residence at downtown Montgomery’s Ravello Ristorante since last November. Hailing from Pietrasanta, Italy, he’s overseen special chef dinners and led cooking classes, all in an effort to foster cultural collaboration and culinary creativity between Montgomery and Pietrasanta. If you’ve not tasted his kitchen prowess yet, act soon. Tolla heads back home in March.
- PLAY BALL & PADDLE ON: Fun is on tap all over Montgomery, but especially downtown and on the banks of the Alabama River. The Montgomery Biscuits team starts its 20th season in April. The Dragon Boat Festival will once again roll down the Alabama River, also in April. And concerts, festivals, the excitement of rafting on rapids and more continue to make a big splash at Montgomery Whitewater. The park will launch additional activities, including walking trails and zip lining later this year, as well as an onsite distillery.
- TURN UP THE TUNES: A lot of music will be made in the capital city in 2024. MPAC is hosting big name bands all year, including Travis Tritt and Bonnie Raitt this spring. The Red Bluff Music Festival returns to the Riverfront Amphitheater on May 18. And the Hank Williams Museum marks its 25th Anniversary, with music bound to be a part of the celebration.
- SPORTS-CENTRIC: Renovations will be complete at YMCA Emory Folmar Soccer Complex, creating a premier sports destination in Alabama designed to attract athletes from near and far and boosting local tourism and economic growth.
Pike Road
BREAKING NEW GROUND: Dirt will be moving and new doors opening in Pike Road in 2024. The year will bring the groundbreaking for the new location of Pike Road High School, a new tennis complex with pickleball courts and new events at the city’s new arena and agricultural center. A new arts district, a coffee shop and a new shopping center, Merry Corners, are also in the works.
Millbrook
BREAKING NEW GROUND: Construction and development of the 17 Springs Sports Complex continues. Phase I of The Fields at 17 Springs is now complete, with four multipurpose turf fields, one grass practice area, 12 tennis courts, 12 pickleball courts and two concession/restroom buildings. Phase II, with a January 2025 completion date, will include another multipurpose turf field located inside a stadium/event venue, a competition track and six diamond fields, plus an 85,000-square-foot indoor event center, “The Fieldhouse,” for a variety of indoor sports as well as corporate functions. This year will also see the continued development of The Marketplace, an approximately 18-acre tract in front of 17 Springs that will offer dining, shopping, lodging and recreation opportunities. And, Millbrook’s new Grandview Plaza, with a Publix grocery store, will be completed this summer.
Prattville
STADIUM SCORE: Game-changing renovations are on the way for Stanley-Jensen Stadium. City Council members recently approved and awarded the bid for stadium improvements to Wyatt Sasser Construction LLC. The project will begin this September and is estimated to be completed by January 2025.
Wetumpka
BIG IMPACT: A museum and interpretive center dedicated to sharing the story of the massive meteor that struck Wetumpka 85 million years ago is expected to open later this year in the downtown space on Company Street that formerly held The Kelly Fitzpatrick Center for the Arts (which has moved to an expanded space downtown).
