the opening promenade park in 2019 was phase one of Fort Wayne's riverfront development.

The park's popularity is now encouraging work to create more public and gathering spaces while growing as a regional destination.

>> Last fall groundbreaking began on a new riverfront park face the compliments the city's efforts to revitalize the area.

And on this week's Prime Time, we'll get the latest on all things riverfront plus an update on new work at Franki Park.

>> And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

And with us today is Alec Johnson, deputy director of Park Planning and development at Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation.

And we invite you to join the conversation as well.

Just call in your questions or comments by using the number you see on the screen as we widen out.

>> Welcome Alec to the broadcast.

Thanks for being here, sir.

Thank you, Bruce .

>> It's my pleasure to be here.

It it really kind of shocked me in the first sentence when I realized that this prominent park was five years ago.

>> That's right.

I would have given you three right.

Never really thought five.

>> Does it surprise you that it's been half a decade since?

It does surprise me actually when you say it like that it surprised me.

But I think that the reality of and one of the reasons I think we feel that way is because people have really responded to the park and it's just become like something that we feel like has been there for forever or at least for a very long time.

So it does make sense that we that we feel like that.

>> Yeah.

When did the clock actually start when it comes to riverfront planning to get a prominent park for example?

>> Sure, sure.

Well to go way back you know it started over 100 years ago with George Kessler who did the first city plan for Fort Wayne which is based upon the rivers and and the boulevards and creation of boulevards.

And so that was the first sort of discussion about the rivers and then fast forward to I think about 2007 we were starting to talk about the anniversary of Kessler's plan and what we could do and we put together an application for legacy grants that that was actually contemplating a riverfront study and how can we start to take advantages of our of our rivers?

And and I've heard that that that proposal gained the majority of votes of any of the proposals and so that was kind of the first step the river front.

And so we were able to hire asway landscape architects, which is a world renowned landscape architecture firm that does this kind of work to come to Fort Wayne to sort of set to set the groundwork and the conceptual plan for Fort Wayne riverfront at a sort conceptual scale, not detailed drawings and plans but just a conceptual scale and so we started with a really, really with a great consultant and with a great idea which was to reconnect people to the rivers.

>> Yeah, yeah.

When I think of the rivers it at least two different kinds of rivers come to mind.

>> One is the one you have to contain with levees and be concerned about flooding and it's constraining that resource and the other is the one where you're embracing that resource for the community and economic development opportunities that they provide.

>> Right.

You see so much of it.

>> I do.& And we made a very conscious effort in this and this riverfront planning especially when we get specific to Promenade Park but in general to not fight the rivers.

I mean we we're not going to win that fight in the end levees breaking and floods floods keep coming and so we knew that we had to account for that that flooding.

You know, that's just a fact of life and so rather than try to wall it off and and create more levees, we decided that we were going to plan for it and we were going to design the public space to accommodate those floods in that water which would keep the development that wasn't public space out out of danger.

And so that was that was sort of the shift that you that you referred to there where we decided no, let's not let's not try to fight this and wall it off.

Let's let's work with it and understand that it's going to happen.

>> Your website gives some insight into how much guidance comes into the planning room with a downtown blueprint plus plan a riverfront conceptual plan, a riparian management plan plus public comment.

>> How do you coordinate all of that?

Yeah, well we've got a great staff in the city that was all hands on deck when we were doing this planning wasn't just the Parks Department that's for sure.

It was community development and public works and city utilities and the mayors office.

And so that's kind of how you you have to go about it and you have to understand that these are all different systems working together and so everybody needs to be at the table and so like anything pelse, when you have multiple people working on a project it's it's much more attainable than and trying to do it on your own.

So it was a complex it was a complex problem to solve.

It was a complex opportunity.

And so I think we came at it in a in a way that that ended up being very effective when President Park had his ribbon cutting, if you will, from that point to this point.

How has the success story been written?

>> How do you look back and kind of measure what reality's doing to the expectations that you had at the time?

>> Yeah, well for me honestly the the most effective way is for me to quietly sit in the park on maybe a Saturday afternoon and and just watch and see what people are doing and seeing how they're living their lives.

They're enjoying the park.

They're doing things like proposing to their high school sweetheart, their kids or maybe even taking their first step.-Is for life to happen and and so that's the biggest measure of success for me.

>> There's other things we we we thought that the development of riverfront, the public space would result in possibly for every dollar that we spend publicly in ten dollars of private investment and that was sort of the promise that was made to us from the consultant if we did it right.

And so now we're also seeing that as well right across the street we have a new development mixed use development riverfront promenade and we have lots at Headwaters right down the street we have another few developments coming.

And so in addition to just those personal stories, there's also some some economic proof that it's working and it's a public park and public input in managing that in the in the mix too.

Sounded like it was one where there was the whiteboard and there was an action board and maybe some flip charts but all sorts of suggestions came for yeah.

And you have to have a lot of different ways to gather that input.

Not everybody wants to show up at a public meeting.

Some people would rather fill out a survey at home.

Some people would rather maybe just send an email or have a conversation privately but the majority of the input that we got there was from surveys it was from actual open house meetings where we where we talked to people and we asked them, you know what what are your dreams?

What do you really want to see with riverfront?

And in the end the message was we want to be reconnected to the rivers we haven't been for a long time.

We see an opportunity here for both recreation and as a catalyst for development as I mentioned.

And so I I personally feel like this was one of those projects where there was just an overwhelming amount of public positive public sentiment to do this riverfront development.

>> Yeah, and as permanent park is phase one, remind us what phase two was before we take a look at to be sure so phase two sort of jumped ahead a little bit.

>> We were planning all of the phase two together but the layoffs at headquarters that I mentioned that's just east of Promenade Park.

That was a parking lot at the time Promenade Park opened the gravel parking lot and so once that development started we really thought it would be great if we could open up at least a section of phase at the same time as that development was opening.

And so phase two is essentially a connection.

>> It's a it's a bridge between promenade park and design wise promenade park is a very modern design is a contemporary design headquarters.

Park is a Beaux Arts.

It's more of a classic design and so this space connects physically but it also sort of connects those two different styles as well.

>> We have a map we'd like to share before we take our virtual tour just to give you at home an idea of what phase two looks like relative to phase one and beyond.

>> Give us a sense of context or sense of orientaton.

Sure.

I'll certainly try so you can see Promenade Park there sort of in the middle bottom the bright green on both sides of the river and then just to the just to the right of that another another bright green space that's a riverfront to a so to be is all of the rest of the colored area across the river there to the north and to the right and then on the left which is if you know Fort Wayne it's between the Wall Street Bridge and the Ewing Street Bridge to the west and it's between the Harrison Street Bridge and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge to the west or to the east I'm sorry.

>> And this this really as you say, creates quite a continuum and in some of the material related to the project to be able to say that it now allows the city to connect beyond its its rivers as well.

>> Yeah, that's absolutely that's absolutely true.

And we can begin to also use riverfront as a method or a mechanism to start to connect neighborhoods even to the to the north, to the east to the west start to connect some of those neighborhoods through riverfront into into downtown.

>> Well, let's go ahead and do our walk through if you will.

You don't have to get up.

We'll do the walking for you this time around.

But there's a great video we can share and Alec can provide some commentary as we go forward.

>> So sure.

So it looks like we're starting here at the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and we're heading west and so this is the the North Lawn.

This is another area that is set up for lots of events, public events.

>> You could imagine a concert here with the amphitheater seating a city in the background.

You can see the MLK Bridge there.

We're cutting back here towards the bridge.

One of the things that promenade park that was most successful believe it or not where the swings, these gigantic swings, bench swings and so we've got three more of those here and we're going to back up and I think spin around head back west back towards Promenade Park and off to the left in this view is a new dock and looking back up towards the amphitheater here in the shot you see sort of a representation of some potential private development there adjacent and now we're right on the river and we're looking back at this dock.

So this is another this is another way for people to actually access the park and access the river and in this case we've provided some parking believe it or not, we've had a lot of demand for places where people can park their boats, tie them off and go get dinner downtown, go enjoy the park and then get back in their boat.

So that's what that is the north dock and now we're heading west and we're going back towards Promenade Park.

There's a pump station that's a city utilities infrastructure there on the left and now we're entering the Esplanade and this is sort of the really active area of phase two , the most active area.

And we've got the summit which is basically it's a boulder mound, a climbing mound.

It's fully accessible.

There's a path that gets everybody up to the top of that mound and we've got seating we've got a hammock grove which is something unique.

So we're going to start out by providing hammocks and people can enjoy those will probably take them down at night so we don't have overnight stays by.

>> But the idea is just just more and more recreation opportunities.

But at the same time this is probably I can imagine going to be a very active active area and there's always there's already some work on the shop building that's just north of there.

Some renovations there that are happening and so that's going to be a nice interface between that probably restaurants and things like that.

And so this is the summit walk.

This takes you in a winding path kind of up to the top of this this space and the perch which is sort of gives you a vantage point out over over the Esplanade and then another popular feature of Promenade Park is the tree canopy trail.

>> So we continue that tree canopy trail again and we have we have a section of tree canopy trail that goes from Harrison Street and we're following that right now all the way to where that pump station is.

And so these are four amazing views they get you right up in the canopy of the trees.

>> We've tried to save as many trees as we possibly could in the planning and we'll be planting tons more as part of the project and so much the same feeling is the tree canopy trail that we have now but with really completely different views in this case it seems as we're watching this that it's easy to see why we are now a destination from other municipal these interested in accentuating the positive benefits of their own community, right?

>> Yeah.

Yeah, I have answered quite a few emails and phone messages phone had phone calls with other cities and other other people in my role and other cities and parks planners and designers and sort of sometimes when you're first starting in this process it can be difficult understanding how to make it happen.

So it's been fun being able to offer advice and we just saw there the get down.

We've got a few of those in the project we're there again opportunities to get right down to the river's edge.

There's a wetland boardwalk that that sort of winds underneath the tree canopy trail and this is this is a really cool I think feature that gets people right at the right at the water level.

There are certainly be times when the wetland boardwalk is going to be flooded and won't be accessible.

It's a still great system so everything will flow through that and it won't be a problem.

But that's going to be a unique experience in this case.

>> We've heard about the wedge you talked about it makes use seems to be a significant dynamic in success around this facility and this is again an example of that.

>> Yeah, So the wedge right now is just sort of visualized as a as a blank box but they're working on that development.

But we also have another dock here, another floating dock to meet that need for river parking and that's something I never thought I'd say seventeen years ago was river parking.

But we do have we do have a significant we've seen an increase in traffic on the river with people in kayaks and stand up paddleboards as well as pontoon boats.

And so we didn't have any parking in the first phase and-e that and this is a nice little outdoor plaza adjacent to the new development and we're not sure exactly what that's going to look like.

It won't look like that exactly, but that's the public space that sort of coincides with that.

So that could possibly be a restaurant or something like that that looks right out over the river and that is another key in all this too is creating the space where those public private partnerships can really happen and I assume fertile territory.

>> Yeah, I think I think so and well I don't live that exact world of redevelopment and community development.

I know just from experience from talking to folks that that's what it's happening.

People are coming in and when you do something right like this and like Promenade Park it's a kind of a no brainer for a developer and and they work together because the more people that are living adjacent and downtown the healthier the park will be.

And so we knew when we were developing promenade and while we're developing riverfront that this is going to be a lot of people's neighborhood park in addition to being a tourist attraction and something for everybody in Fort Wayne , this will serve as a lot of people's you know, probably over a thousand people at some point their neighborhood park and so we think about it and that through that lens as well.

>> Yeah, So an unfair question where are we now?

>> I know the phase two was initially billed as a twenty four month construction experience shows we still have into twenty five at very least certainly so the construction that started was an early bid package for phase two .

The design is essentially completed and so we knew that we could get some things going for that early bid package and that's mostly infrastructure utility kinds of things.

But we're coming close behind and we're we're getting very close to building out the rest of the project.

The things that you just saw in that video, we're very close to building that out and we're waiting for a couple federal permits and so that's that can be one of the most difficult parts of this process.

It's something that we don't have control over and so when you're working with the Army Corps of Engineers and and levees that they manage it can be a complex and and long process to do that permitting.

And so we believe we're very close.

>> We're waiting for that one final permit and then we can build this thing out.

It's exciting and by the way, a quick mention for the website Riverfront Activity can be yours online and you can see all about that.

We'll put that contact information on screen here.

There you go.

Fort Wayne Parks Dog or Riverfront Dog will also get you there.

One thing we want to share is that while they're waiting for the permits to be approved, there's no waiting on more construction over at Franchi Park.

>> Tell us what's going on there.

Yeah, so a few years ago we did a master plan for Franchi Park.

Franki Park is our largest park, one of our most visited parks.

We have the children's zoo there, the beloved Children's Zoo the following year theater all of those things contribute to a very active park and and sometimes a very crowded park.

And so we knew that we wanted to do to come up with a master plan for the entire park to make sure that we can accommodate any kind of growth but as well as just accommodate parking and there's not great circulation system currently in the park and for pedestrians.

And so we're going to add all of that.

But this is the first phase of that plan.

So we're looking right now at phase one which is a new entrance off of Ocean Road and the lower left corner and that comes in and you sort of pops out right at this new pavilion yet let's go to the close up of the map for a second and there we go.

>> Yeah, this is on the east side I believe.

That's right.

So you're coming in off the left off Goshen Road and that sort of large block there, that white block in the upper left hand corner is the new McMillan Family Pavilion and so that pavilion is our largest park pavilion is rentable sort of continues our tradition of grand pavilions and parks that are rentabl at an affordable cost.

And you can see here in this rendering how beautiful it is.

It'll seat over 400 people, which is something that we've been asked in the past.

You know, do you have any facility that will see 300 or 400 people and we didn't and so this is going to serve that need but again rentable by anybody in the city and reasonable at a at a reasonable cost.

>> Wow.

This next then this is the West Side.

This is one Goshen Road is perhaps what tucked in the lower left.

That's correct.

Yeah.

So we've got the drive coming in.

You see a bridge that goes across Biron Creek the new pavilion and then it just sort of connects into the the rest of the park and just off screen there to the writer of the image is Franki Park Day camp facilities and so this will be that first phase this is going to connect into the rest of the circulation system in the park but it's just the first phase and this will be completed in November.

So we'll have a grand opening in November.

If you drive by on Goshen you'll see the new entrance that's not open yet but you'll see it and and here's another view of the of the new pavilion .

I wonder if some may be watching saying well, I don't see where the theater is in the map and I don't see we're at the zoo.

>> There is that much space that is.

That's right.

Stewarded in this case, right?

That's right.

It's a it's it's a large park and this is one little section of the park.

The next phase we haven't nailed down exactly what the next phase is going to be.

But I'm if I had to guess if you had to pin me down, I would say it's going to involve it's going to involve some improvements to the parking situation out there when you have a show at the theater the for longer theater, you have the zoo busy.

You have somebody running pavilions.

They're pretty much at capacity for parking and so we've contemplated you know, not right in the middle of the park and in the middle of the park.

But there's some there's some spaces up adjacent to Goshen Road that makes sense for parking and that's all in it's all in the Franki Park Master plan which anybody can can access and take a look at on the park's website.

>> Well, as we have a moment and we are heading into as you say, this is the apex of all things where the activity for the the summer months some general thoughts on how folks can also connect with their communities through Lee Parks and Rec.

>> Yeah, well, there's a there's there's hundreds of programs that are happening right now in parks throughout the system and we partner with a lot of different organizations to do things and and we have you know, we have facilities like the Botanical Fonnegra Fryman Botanical Conservator downtown which is a parks run facility.

A lot of these things that are available to our citizens but also serve as tourist attractions.

And so we know that people love parks in Fort Wayne and their neighborhood parks are just as important to them as is Promenade Park and sometimes more important to people.

Yeah, to be able to have access to nature.

And so we're we're certainly sort of evangelical about the idea that spending time outside in parks is is good for everybody.

And I think we saw during the pandemic sort of proof of that when the only thing that you really could do sometimes was take a walk in the park.

And so I think that now we really even more than we did before and you know, understand the value of that and it's and it's great, you know, that time outside the green space it's great physically.

It's great mentally it has implicate culturally and with safety and crime and and learning and all of those things.

So we take Park Development Park Maintenance Park program and very seriously and department but we also love to have fun with it as well obviously and it's an absolute key.

It is family friendly across all age levels.

Yes, across all sections the city very quickly there was a reference to a new urban river paradigm that will offer a quality of life that attracts and engages and that's something that usually you think well for a park it should be a bike trail.

>> But this is the real deliverable, isn't it?

It really is.

And and you know, there's there's metrics that you can look at, you know how parks increased property values of adjacent you housing and other things and and those things are all true but it's really all about community for us and parks are places where people gather where you meet friends.

It's where sort of life's milestones happen sometimes you know, you might see Lakeside Park which is near where I live.

You can see a wedding one day and you can see maybe somebody's fiftieth anniversary party in the pavilion on the same day a little kid learning to walk or ride their bikes and so we know it's it's a special place and a special responsibility that we have to to be stewards of those those park properties in those parks.

So we love to do it and we take it very seriously.

>> Like I said, this is a great opportunity then for you to do exploring with your screens and then get the sneakers on and check out all the stops salable Fort Wayne Parks Doug, you see the phone number as well and you'll even find a reference to Alex Johnson, our guest today, deputy director of Park Planning and development at Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation.

Alec, thank you so much.

Thank you, Bruce .

It was a pleasure.

>> Thank you and thank you for allowing us to be a part of your evening for all of us with prime time, I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care.

We'll see you again next week.

Goodnight