FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD)- Fort Worth has started construction on a park that will be built with a combination of public and private money on the Near Southside. Fire Station Park will replace an open lot near the corner of Hemphill and Allen Avenue.
Fort Worth has committed a total of $1 million for the project. Several non-profit foundations are donating a total of $300,000.
Dickies will also donate $300,000, and a skate park at the facility will be called, "Dickies Skate Plaza." Magnolia Skate Shop donated $80,000. A complete list of donations is available HERE.
The park will also include green space, a dog park and plaza in addition to the 15,000 foot skate park.
"We're going to create a destination park that has something for everybody," says Mike Brennan, president of Near Southside Inc.
"It's a fantastic way to bring people together, and this park is programmed with so many different things that it appeals to a broad cross-section," says former City Councilwoman Ann Zadeh, who now leads the non-profit, Community Design Fort Worth. "That means those people who might not interact in their regular lives come together in a place like this."
As the area south of Downtown Fort Worth has grown, Zadeh says this park will ensure green space remains available to neighborhoods that have been changing.
"Rosemont, South Hemphill Heights, Ryan Place and Fairmount along with Hillside/Morningside on the other side of 35, this can be a drawing place for the entire southside and Historic Southside," she says.
Brennan says growth and higher density development in the Near Southside highlighted the importance of taking action to ensure some green space could be preserved.
"That's what makes it even more important that we seize these opportunities," he says. "Those opportunities are few and far between. Land is expensive, and just the size of the parcels generally isn't big enough for a traditional park."
Construction is beginning now, and the park should be completed in October.
Richard Zavala, director of Fort Worth Parks and Recreation, says he expects a renovation of Fire Station Recreation Center, in the same block as the park, to be included in the city's next bond proposal. The city council is expected to finalize plans for the bond next month.
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