Erin and Ben Napier Announce the City They'll Transform on 'Home Town Takeover'

This small town is about to get a major makeover. Erin and Ben Napier announced Wetumpka, Alabama, as the lucky location to receive a total overhaul on their new HGTV series Home Town Takeover.

After transforming their own hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, on the hit HGTV show Home Town, the demo dream team announced earlier this year that they were taking applications for another community in need of a renovation. HGTV selected Wetumpka, a city of 8,278 located northeast of Montgomery, out of more than 5,000 entries representing nearly 3,000 towns across the country.

Courtesy of HGTV

Known as "The City of Natural Beauty," the small Alabama community was chosen in part because it's "going through what all small towns go through," Ben said during the announcement on Today with Hoda and Jenna last week. "Young people were leaving and not coming back; major highways had been diverted to avoid the town," he said.

Erin added that the town has also faced adversity, having suffered devastating damage from a tornado in January 2019. "And then on top of all that, the thing that really mattered most is that they have so much community spirit," she said. "They love their city and they want to revitalize it."

HGTV's criteria for the chosen town required three things: a population of fewer than 40,000 people, homes with beautiful architecture "longing to be revealed," and a main street that could use some updating. Applications, which also called for photos and a short description of the town, were accepted through the Home Town Takeover's website through February of this year.

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"This is a big one," Erin says in the original release announcing the show. "HGTV has never, ever taken on a whole town renovation and restoration project and we're so proud and excited to be leading the team that will get it done."

Although no official premiere date has been announced, the six-episode series is set to air sometime in 2021. And once Erin and Ben hit their streets, you can bet that Wetumpka, Alabama, will never be the same.