The Ribbon Cutting at the Alley was held on September 8th. Several were in attendance including Mayor Lee Kinnamon, Main Street Board Chair Angela Smith, DEA Chair Charles Crisp, Sumter County Development Authority Executive Director Rusty Warner, among several others.
Mayor Kinnamon addressed those gathered and described eating out at The Alley the night before with Charles Crisp and enjoying onion rings and chicken wings.
“It’s just a super addition to the community. We’ve got a lot of good places to eat and drink in Americus, and this just adds to the list. I’m so grateful. I’ve often said with things like this, we can’t have too many.”
“There’s some really good things happening, so let’s keep the momentum going. Thank you, EdgeWater Group, for having faith in us, and we have faith in you. We’re appreciative of what you’ve done.”
Charles Crisp spoke next.
“With downtown development, what we most want to see is occupied buildings, but not just occupied.”
He continued by saying that The Alley was the sort of business that built the downtown community. Angela Smith spoke next.
“I love this community, I’m a transplant, but I would never live anywhere else, and you can write that down. I love what is happening here. I’m excited about the momentum that I see in the downtown area. I really appreciate what Qaijuan has brought to the Main Street and I think he deserves a hand too. To me there is an excitement and a buzz here that I would love to capitalize on. We’ve got the largest freshmen class that we’ve ever had at Georgia Southwestern State University.”
“It’s so exciting to see The Alley and what you have done. I appreciate you being willing to help capitalize on not only on Georgia Southwestern but South Georgia Tech and what those two institutions bring to this community. We are having a homecoming social here, we’ve already planned it, and excited to bring back some of our former football players and marching band members to the community and let them see all this new stuff that’s going on. We love it when vacant buildings are occupied and we love to see people walking in our communities, and coming and visiting our communities, and coming and staying in the hotel and eating here.”
“We want to support you guys. We just thank you for investing here. You said all along that you were not just here to run a hotel, that you were here to be a part of this community and we really appreciate that.”
Rusty Warner spoke next.
“This is just the domino. This is the very first one that’s standing up. We have so many more things in the future that are getting ready to be knocked down.”
“Enjoy the ride because there’s a lot of really cool things that are going to happen here.”
“I appreciate everything EdgeWater has done. They are my platform, they’re the ones that are going to make things happen. I appreciate them very much, and the City of Americus, and Sumter County, and Main Street and everybody else for helping to put all this together tonight.”
The manager of the Windsor, Frank Ceresoli spoke.
“I’d like to bring a special thanks to Hannah, Jessica, our team in here. We opened up this bar with students from GSW, being managed by somebody from GSW, and they’re doing a fantastic job. It really shows how important our colleges are to our community. From concept to completion this was less than four months. Thanks a lot to all you guys, it does not work without you.”
Jennifer English read a prepared piece on The Alley’s purpose with a welcome to the new Alley Bar. Afterward everyone in attendance gathered outside for the ribbon cutting ceremony.