From the popular Concerts in the Park series to the renovation of the 601 State Street building now home to the La Gala event venue, Bowling Green’s Downtown Redevelopment Authority played a role in many of the city’s downtown developments under the leadership of the late Ron Murphy.

Now leaders of the DRA are ready for a new chapter for the nonprofit organization after the death last month of the 84-year-old Murphy, who was working on resurrecting more downtown real estate even as he battled illness.

The DRA board of directors in December hired longtime local television and radio professional Barbara Deeb as executive director. Deeb, who had already been working as an assistant to Murphy, said last week that she simply hopes to continue the work that Murphy had begun.

“I’ll be trying to follow in Ron’s footsteps,” she said. “He was kind of lowkey and behind the scenes, but he loved this community. I can’t fill his shoes, but I’ll do my best.”

One member of the DRA board of directors, Jim Bullington, said it was a natural fit to hire Deeb to lead the organization.

“Barb was kind of Robin to Ron’s Batman,” Bullington said. “I feel like she’s ready to step up and do a good job. She has done some really good work already.”

Deeb, a former WBKO-TV news anchor who retired recently from her role at Western Kentucky University’s public broadcasting stations, began her work at the DRA as a volunteer finding sponsors for Concerts in the Park. She said that event and the Winterfest indoor concerts at the Capitol Arts Center are “institutions” that will continue.

“Concerts in the Park and Winterfest are like well-oiled machines now,” she said. “That frees up the bandwidth to look for other projects.”

Chief among those projects is one that Murphy was working on before his death: revitalization of the former Bowling Green Bank & Trust building at 903 College Street.

The DRA initiated last July an option to purchase the three-story, 22,812-square-foot building from Norm Johnson, who has owned it since 2007.

Murphy and the DRA board hired Nashville-based MJM Architects to come up with plans for rehabilitating the aging structure that was home to the Potter Opera House (later the Bowling Green Opera House) from the 1880s until 1925.

One option proposed by MJM calls for a parking deck, a corporate tenant, an interior courtyard and a restaurant to be built on the 0.51-acre lot.

A second option incorporates a hotel and rooftop bar and swimming pool into the plans.

Those options call for the building’s interior to be gutted while the historic walls facing College and Main will be maintained. It’s an expensive project, adding at least $10 million to the $1.46 million cost of buying the property, Murphy said last year.

Both Bullington and Deeb, though, believe the resurrection project can still happen, with the DRA as a catalyst.

“We’re working with some developers we hope will step up and take over the project,” Bullington said. “The thing we think will make it viable are the tax credits.”

Deeb is also hopeful that the property can be revived, saying: “That was Ron’s dream.”

“Discussions are underway with developers,” she said. “It’s feasible.”

As for her new role as leader of the DRA, Deeb said: “I’m looking forward to the challenge. I thought so much of Ron. I just want to do him proud and continue his good work.”