The central Alabama city of Wetumpka has been selected to receive a renovation courtesy of the HGTV program “Home Town Takeover.”
The program will be hosted by Ben and Erin Napier, who have previously hosted several seasons of the show “Home Town” in which they renovate a single house.
The Napier’s new project in Alabama is their biggest yet. HGTV says on its website the town’s renovation that will be done on the program is to be “extensive and far-reaching.”
“It is a tremendous blessing for a city like us to be chosen,” Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis told Yellowhammer News on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re anticipating great things to happen … we’re very excited,” he added.
HGTV says it received over 500,000 submissions from people in over 2,600 qualifying small towns across America. Only cities with less than 40,000 residents were eligible for entry.
Wetumpka has a population of around 8,300 residents and sits about 20 minutes north of Montgomery.
Willis detailed the process Wetumpka went through to become the selected city.
“When we saw the application HGTV had … we have a team of people between our Main Street Wetumpka/Main Street Alabama program that we have, and our chamber of commerce and economic development office of the city,” Willis stated.
“We just all came together and filled out the application and submitted a video of what we have and who we are,” he continued.
Home Town Takeover’s Wetumpka season, its first ever, is set to air in six parts sometime in the year 2021.
Willis told Yellowhammer that the exact dates when the series will be produced and the extent of the budget that will be put forth by HGTV have not yet been provided.
The mayor said he’d watched the host’s previous show and “now to realize that’s coming to our hometown, and the program will be run on national TV every week, that’s exciting in itself.”
Watch the moment Wetumpka found out it would be featured on “Home Town Takeover”:
Ready for your close-up, Wetumpka, Alabama? #HomeTownTakeover comes to HGTV in 2021!
Read more about the town and the show>> https://t.co/5kLCg5vEm3 #HGTVHomeTown @ErinRNapier @scotsmanco pic.twitter.com/BJ3b6iL0uX
— HGTV (@hgtv) July 2, 2020
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
