PHENIX CITY, AL – Phenix City’s officials have found a creative way to draw more people to their side of the Chattahoochee River with their new food truck park.

This park offers new eateries and should increase revenue for the city.

The purpose of the food truck park is to help grow the downtown area, and city officials say they hope to make Phenix City a new destination for people to visit.

Some say the city is lacking good restaurants, but they hope to turn that around with their new food truck court.

“It’s just a great idea. We researched it in a lot of other cities where it has been enormously successful. If you just look at what’s happening today and we’re not even fully set up yet,” said Stephen Smith, Phenix City Finance Director.

The Phenix City Downtown Redevelopment Authority approved a lease agreement with the WC Bradley Company for a portion of space directly adjacent to the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge and Plaza, opposite the new Courtyard Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

The food trucks will serve the downtown area, and city officials say they’re hoping this will bring more traffic into town.

According to Smith, this new project is not going to put the city in the hole financially.

“Our actually out-of-pocket cost will be less than $5,000 to set this up. Mainly we’re buying some furniture that we are going to be setting up on the plaza up here,” added Smith. “We’re not doing it to make money per se from the vendors but we’ll get sales tax from their sales. We’re hoping like any other business that they will do other things. Get to see our marvelous hotel we got down here and see all the opportunities there is on the Riverfront.”

Find the entire article with video at wsfa.com [here]