Leaders across Autauga and Elmore counties are working to boost their economies, strengthen educational outcomes and enhance the quality of life in their communities.
Autauga County
In August, the Autauga County Heritage Association announced a five-year capital campaign to create a new downtown Prattville campus called The Pratt, honoring city founder Daniel Pratt. The project includes a museum, archival library and event venue. In addition, the historic Continental Gin Company R&D buildings will be renovated to house STEM programs and displays of various artifacts.
Construction on the museum, archive building and event hall at 201 Gin Shop Hill Road is scheduled to start in spring 2026, with the opening planned for spring 2027.
In Autaugaville in 2025, leaders unveiled the final Autaugaville Park Master Plan. Based on public comments and suggestions, the plan includes constructing a walking trail loop and moving the playground to the front of the park for greater safety and visibility.
And, working with the Central Alabama Regional Planning Commission, Autauga County is exploring opportunities for brownfield redevelopment at the historic Autaugaville School site to help revitalize the area and make future development possible.
The city of Prattville opened Spillway Park in December. Situated along Autauga Creek, the new park features pedestrian walkways, a boardwalk, seating areas and a play area for children.
Autauga County’s newest municipality, the town of Pine Level, opened a new town hall in 2025 and placed a new roof on the town’s Community Center, a historic structure that is nearly 100 years old.
Autauga County Schools broke ground on a nearly $2 million Applied Science Livestock Teaching Lab at Billingsley School. The lab will provide students an agriscience education through hands-on learning experiences such as raising and managing livestock on campus. Officials say the Applied Science Livestock Teaching Lab is scheduled to open at the start of the 2026–2027 school year.
Billingsley School also achieved a statewide first recently by administering National Occupational Competency Testing Institute’s Ready for Industry assessment, a certification aimed at boosting students’ career preparation. The Ready for Industry program, which is administered online, gives students job-awareness skills and teaches them what today’s employers expect from the workforce. The Ready for Industry program includes a science intervention course combined with academic support, and it provides students with hands-on exposure to STEM career paths.
Autauga County Schools scored an 87 on the 2024–2025 state report card. School officials say the test scores are the best performance since the pandemic and the second-highest score recorded under the current accountability system. The latest results mark a three-point improvement from the previous year.
In 2024, Autauga County Schools opened a new $30 million kindergarten in Prattville. The 87,000-square-foot school building accommodates around 400 children and houses 32 classrooms, a lunchroom and several play areas.
Elmore County
In Elmore County, the sports complex 17 Springs in Millbrook is designed to attract those who love to play sports and those who love to watch others play. Now the county is looking to make 17 Springs an even more desired recreational tourist destination.
Phase 1 construction in 2023 brought tennis and pickleball courts and multi-purpose fields to the space. Phase 2 of the project development opened in 2025 with new turf fields for softball and baseball, a football stadium with seating for almost 6,000 people, an 86,000-square-foot field house and a 40,000-square-foot event center in the field house that can accommodate basketball and volleyball games and wrestling matches, as well as conferences, meetings and trade shows.
“The entire intent of the recreational tourism is bringing in those individuals that want to come and have an experience and spend some money while they’re here, and then when they leave, the facilities and the amenities are there for the locals,” says Richie Beyer, COO for the Elmore County Economic Development Authority.
17 Springs represents a $90 million investment and now17 Springs Marketplace is under construction. Marketplace will include restaurants, retail stores and hotels. Beyer says Baumhower’s Victory Grill is just one of the restaurants that plans to move into the development.
“The intent of that whole development is so people can park for an event, and they can do everything else they want to do while they’re there, including stay on property at one of the two hotel sites,” Beyer says.
The city of Wetumpka also has a robust recreational system in its city limits, Beyer says. Wetumpka Sports Complex, for example, contains baseball and softball fields, a football stadium and soccer fields.
“There’s a project right now being completed that’s about halfway done, that will resurface all the fields in the diamond complex for Wetumpka, which will end up giving us close to 20 turf diamond fields throughout the county,” he says.
In 2025, Elmore County debuted the Enhance Elmore initiative to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. The plan includes construction of a new county jail, more funding for fire departments, more judicial and administrative space for two new circuit judges and the completion of more road and bridge projects.
In April 2025, leaders from Elmore County and the city of Prattville held a groundbreaking for Riverfell, a $500 million, 232-acre master-planned mixed-use development along the Alabama River. Riverfell is designated as a federal Opportunity Zone and its amenities will include commercial, retail businesses, restaurants, a boutique hotel and a medical office tower. Plans also call for more than 400 single-family homes, 350 multi-family units and an assisted living community.
Last March in the town of Deatsville, Recovery Alive opened Still Waters, an addiction recovery and sober living community for men. The faith-based Christian home is the second Recovery Alive facility in the area, behind the Ray of Hope home for women in recovery.
Also in Elmore County, Central Alabama Community College’s Adult Education program introduced a new scholarship initiative in collaboration with the Elmore County Juvenile Court and the Elmore County Family Resource Center. Launched in August 2025, the “Setbacks to Scholarships” program aims to help justice-involved youth resume their education and build workforce skills.
Participants in the program can receive GED preparation, pursue high school diploma options, and take part in digital literacy and job-readiness training. The program is designed to support justice-involved individuals as they move from their past and gain the skills needed to succeed academically, professionally and personally.
The Elmore County Commission committed $20 million in 2024 for several projects in the towns of Holtville, Eclectic and Tallassee to meet the recreational needs of the citizens and boost economic development at the same time. Funding for the projects is set to come from a lodging tax.
The projects will include converting several athletic fields in all three towns to turf.
In Holtville, the town listed its priorities, which included adding batting cages and a pavilion and building a multipurpose walking path and trail.
In Eclectic, the projects will include improved walking paths and trails, and Tallassee is seeking to reconstruct its community center and build a splash pad.
This article appears in the January 2026 issue of Business Alabama.
