by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Ty Pennington isn’t coming to town with his RV and design team in tow, but two of Downtown’s iconic parks are slated for makeovers in the near future.
The plans are to spend about $6 million renovating Metropolitan Park and another $300,000 on the initial phase of revamping Friendship Fountain.
The plans for Metro Park are the result of a huge public meeting held a couple of months ago in which the public was invited to provided input and suggestions on what to do with the riverfront park near the stadium. That meeting, hosted by Mayor John Peyton, spurred the project that now includes plans to create a definitive entrance to the park, make the river more visible and tie in Kids Kampus, which is just west of Metro Park, but hidden by a mound.
“There was a public discussion and HDR (the design company) took that information and began creating concepts,” said mayoral spokesperson Misty Skipper, adding there is no definitive timeline for the renovations.
Skipper said the mayor’s office is looking for funding sources for the renovations, but will likely use money that was set aside for a capital improvement plan in the Brooklyn area that will not happen.
“We are working to identify capital money for Downtown projects that is not being utilized,” she said. “Money that is not going to be used will be reallocated.”
Skipper said there is the possibility that portions of the Shipyards property could be incorporated into the project if the City takes ownership of the property. Currently, the Shipyards is in default after LandMar didn’t pay its 2008 property taxes and missed a late May deadline to pay the taxes imposed by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
“We want to make Metro Park more of a destination Downtown,” said Skipper. “Metro Park has served its use well for many years, but it is really getting aged. The area down there is not connected. We want to take the open area and make better use of the space and bring it up to date.”
The team that will work on the initial phase of the Friendship Fountain renovations is headed by Sam Mousa, the former COO under Mayor John Delaney. Mousa is currently with J.B. Coxwell and is working for the City on a contract basis on the new County Courthouse. The lead designer/planner/architect on the project is Joseph MacDonald of Urban A&O.
Skipper said the request for proposals on Friendship Fountain went out Sept. 29 and eight firms responded. The City’s Professional Services Evaluation Committee pared that list down Jan. 15 and Mousa’s group was approved April 9.
She said a start date hasn’t been identified, but the long-range plans do not include removing the current fountain and replacing it with multiple fountains.
“The short-term work will be done to soften the area. There is a lot of cement and not much green space,” she said. “In no way would we contemplate getting rid of the fountain.”
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