GREENER PASTURES
City unveils timeline for grand downtown San Antonio park
A groundbreaking Hemisfair park project finally has a date for its anticipated groundbreaking.
Construction on Civic Park, dubbed “the grandest of Hemisfair’s park series” and part of the three-park plan for the urban park district, will begin this fall. The City of San Antonio will accept contractor proposals for first-phase construction on its website starting February 15 and construction will begin after the San Antonio City Council, which reviewed the plan February 10, approves a contractor.
Civic Park is to be completed in two phases — the first involving 5 acres of the 9-acre park and accounting for a $28 million price tag — and all construction is scheduled to be completed by April 2023. The multiple-phase plan for the park was developed by the Hemisfair team, along with the City’s Public Works Department and park designer GGN.
“This is a huge step toward the long-anticipated groundbreaking of Hemisfair’s Civic Park,” says Hemisfair CEO Andres Andujar. “Parks have proven to be essential infrastructure in the pandemic as people turn to the safety, open spaces and fresh air of the outdoors. We look forward to reviewing the proposals from contractors who want to have a significant role in delivering a world-class park to San Antonio.”
The first phase of the Civic Park project was funded mostly through a city bond program, with the park originally expected to open in 2022, but pandemic challenges pushed back that timeline. Fewer details, including funding sources, are available about phase two of the project, which is estimated to cost $20 million.
Hemisfair recently received a $1 million donation from the Mays Family Foundation for the creation of the Peggy Mays Garden, which encompasses an area between the planned Civic Park and Yanaguana Garden, which opened in 2015 as the first of Hemisfair’s three planned public parks.
The third, Tower Park, is slated for construction in 2023 pending funding, according to Hemisfair. Though there are conceptual designs for Tower Park, more info about the timeline of that portion of the project isn’t yet available.
