In 2024, ESI was contracted by the City of Montgomery, AL to assess the economic impact of the City’s Riverfront Greenway Trail and its investment since 2016. The existing trail is approximately 3 miles long, connecting Maxwell Airforce Base Visitor Center and Riverfront Park receiving approximately $1.9 million since 2016. The planned investment would extend then trail another 0.6 miles with $2.4 million planned investment, providing additional paved roads and educational programming for visitors.
ESI’s approach included a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help the City of Montgomery demonstrate the value of expanding the Riverfront Greenway Trail. Additionally, the ESI team projected potential, forward-looking visitor spending that would likely occur with the completion of the trail expansion.
Urban trails are essential infrastructure connecting people to recreational opportunities and civil services, providing valuable economic, environmental, and public health benefits to the communities they serve. They create safe and easy access to open space, support ecological services, promote healthy living for those who reside nearby and higher productivity for those who work nearby, ultimately improving the quality of life for residents and workers.
The Riverfront Greenway Trail extension directly generates construction activities, generating economic benefits for businesses and the City. A completed trail would connect several popular tourism destinations in the area attracting thousands of visitors annually. Increased visitation to the Riverfront Greenway Trail promotes additional economic benefits for local businesses and the City. Residents and visitors often spend money on both goods and services related to active recreational activity during their trips. Much of this spending can happen along the trail, increasing the profitability of the retail and restaurant businesses in proximity of the trail. The additional spending results in new employment, and associated employee compensation along with additional fiscal revenues for the state and local government.