Downtown BGKY reflects on successful 2025 and prepares for 2026

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Downtown BGKY is reflecting on a successful 2025 and preparing for 2026.

This past year saw the launch of the Downtown Academy, a partnership with Western Kentucky University, allowing students to explore what the downtown area has to offer.

2025 also saw involvement in What Could BG Be, as we look forward to what the year 2050 will look like.

Riverfront Park is also on the horizon, set to start construction in the spring… but the biggest statistic: over 1.4 million people visited Downtown Bowling Green in 2025.

“We have this baseline going ‘Okay, we have a lot more people coming here than we realize, which is… it’s good news, but now we have a means to better use tax dollars to figure out how to maintain spaces better, how to keep them safer with more policing or different security, what kind of new things that may be implemented to keep areas of downtown even more preserved or more safe?,” Downtown Development Coordinator Telia Butler says.

As for 2026, you can also expect the early stages of phase two of Riverfront Park to get underway.

There are also plans for a 250th celebration for America in the works. We’ll bring you more details as we learn more.