the opening of Promenade Park in 2019 was phase one of Fort Wayne's riverfront development.

>> The park's popularity is encouraging work on the creation of more public spaces.

The focus now on riverfront phase two and continuing those efforts to revitalize the city's central riverfront.

And we'll get the latest on phase two plans and all things riverfront on this week's prime time.

>> Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

With us today is Steve McDaniel.

He is director of Fort Wayne's Parks and Recreation Department and we'd like to invite you to join our conversation if you have any questions or comments just call the number that you see on the screen as we widen out and welcome Steve to the broadcast.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you very much for having me.

You know that old saying about how it takes years to be an overnight success?

>> Yeah, it feels sometimes like that's how riverfront and Promenade Park it's been on everyone's mind for years now.

It's on everyone's radar and GPS device that's got to feel good.

>> It is.

And we've we've been working as you mentioned years and years on the design getting into the permitting and then actual construction and in twenty nineteen when we opened up Promenade it was a success on so many different levels so the staff and all the people within the city that worked on it plus our citizens were able to to use it to come down and it was it was a great success.

>> How did we get to now I mean President Park is certainly decorative and functional but it's in and around an active confluence of rivers that tend to flood addressing a variety of different issues downtown that folks have other memories of or over and over time.

>> What are some of those those important purpose points the private and riverfront are attempting to address?

>> One of the things I think we did with Promenade is to make sure that we had access to the river and for many, many years we didn't have that we would have flooding.

We would have levees that were built up but nobody saw the rivers even when you passed the bridges you didn't get to see it.

>> And so when I'm going to say early 2010, 2012 that was the discussion of what can we do to to bring people back to our rivers to have that activity and recreate back on our rivers.

>> So we had a long discussions.

We we had a lot of public input and it was to look at how do we bring those people back to it legacy funds helped us out and helped us get to that point and really with the mayor's leadership and vision we put those plans into place and were able to get people again back to the rivers to be able to recreate use the water and that that means that we've not been able to do for many, many years such an amazing natural asset obviously and to be able to treat it in such an important way.

Let's show the map, by the way, so we get a sense of you are here when you are looking initially at Pramila Park and phase one this is how I guess you you tackle any large projects you take a bite every so often we call them phases.

>> What are the boundaries we're seeing this so the map is actually turned to the to the right so north is to the right south is to the left and on the left hand side that is Superior Street, the angled street going up on the top of the page is Wall Street and then Harrison Street is on the bottom of the page.

>> So it is again facing to the right there is in the north and you can see the river right kind bisecting both sides of promenade and now the next image takes from design to real world and what an unveiling.

>> So this is drone footage from our grand opening so you can obviously see that there's some things in the river that are events that we took place that the first three days but also you can to see how the whole area has changed a large pavilion in the background.

>> You've got different areas within Promenade Park.

You've got the amphitheater and the lawn and just the different elements that make up a very I must say somewhat smaller space.

>> So this is images of the grand opening of the amphitheater and being able to just be a natural venue and I'm sure that that meshes quite well with the arts and music and performance.

>> Yes.

Community So I mean this is a picture of the bandshell so we designed our bandshell so we had you could use either side of it to do performances.

This is performances onto the the lawn.

The other areas go into the plaza.

We did a dining garden that again picnic tables.

The idea is to meet your neighbors, meet the people in their community that maybe you wouldn't have met and try to be as all inclusive as we possibly could.

>> I love this next one because sometimes people think this would be a lovely place for a little low fire gathering and by golly there it is.

>> Yeah.

And again just bringing those elements to bring people together and enjoy the space in our downtown but also get us close to that river.

>> Also plenty of opportunities for the young and the young at heart to discover life at the riverfront and there's something about being the child in all of us wants to stick her foot in the water.

You can never put your foot in the same river twice.

>> Right.

So again, water elements getting people back to that river we wanted to make sure that it was safe for the kids.

>> So we did a small water bill where you're very little water flowing through there.

But again kids can get in there, jump from rock to rock and be able to dove into then the splash pad and then as we culminated that first night we lit up the river and this is one of the images that will live with me forever.

I don't think I will ever forget that night and that many elements that are floating in the water that produced color and was just a great evening.

>> It it really does look even larger than life and now life itself is allowing all of the river front to become enlarged.

>> We have riverfront phase two which probably no surprise because this is the sequel's looking as good as the original right it is.

>> And what we wanted to do we had to build something to start with and so that was Promenade Park but from there on is phase two and so people ask are we going to go to the left or to the right of promenade?

We are answers.

We're going to go both directions and so you can see promenade in the green in the middle there and then the development on on either to the north to the MLK Bridge and Clinton Street or to the west that takes us over to the Ewing Street Bridge will expand upon that that open space.

It's very linear.

It's the little space between the river and whatever property owners adjacent to it.

But it's taking those elements and completing that and tying it in.

We broke phase two into two areas to a and B and so on.

The bottom of the screen just to the right of Promenade Park is to a and yes please.

>> It's a small area.

It connects promenade to headwaters and it is also right in front of the new development of riverfront promenade that six or seven storey building right adjacent to Promenade Park.

And so with that it connects those two spaces from headquarters to promenade and people will be able to walk and gather and flow from one park to the other because I think as riverfront develops that's the the goal of that is to be able to get people from one area to the other and to have that connectivity to be able to walk.

We also love that it gives us an opportunity to have spaces for private development.

So as I mentioned, riverfront promenade, we've got a lofts at headquarters that are going to be starting and there will be other things coming in the near future and recognizing too that I believe to is on the cusp of having a ribbon cutting of some sort.

>> It is so sometime probably towards the end of this month we're looking to have that grand opening.

It all depends on how the last bit of construction goes but we're very excited about how that will open up and then again connecting those two parks together.

>> And so what we have now we're going to take a look through the miracle of designs, computers and visionaries and public input.

>> A lot of that going into the development the riverfront and explore a little more about phase two .

>> Let's start with the lawn at North River and this is a way of getting in by purpose of introduction.

>> Where are we?

So we're off a Fourth Street and Clinton Street and we're looking at that North Lawn area.

>> This is going to be again long linear park but we'll have the North Lawn that will have ampitheater in it is adjacent to the Moore Brewing that is going to be building construction starting soon as we look down towards the MLK Bridge and then the downtown area we're going to swing into were the North Lawn Swing's again big element for promenade that people love to the swings being able to sit there and enjoy the river, the view of the river.

But as we work our way down to the river's edge, we want to be able to get people down and have a dock element so we will see and how big how much more activity are you seeing with watercraft on the river since since promenade and such has come together it exploded.

>> We still see about 90 percent of our watercraft, our personal watercraft.

So it's the kayaks, the paddle boards and canoes.

But we are seeing some more pontoon boats and some other events like that.

So we wanted to be able to provide enough space for people to park their boat and walk down, visit restaurants, visit ice cream shops and whatever there is in the downtown area and this gives them the opportunity to have multiple places where they can put in put in to the water but also to be able to dock in and walk around the riverfront area.

>> Let's continue the tour because we we see some some buildings that look like are being what built into some of the bank area will creep up on those right now I think on the left side on the left side that is actually a pump station that is on Third Street and that is part of our city utilities.

We want to decorate add up a little bit.

It's still a functional building that needs to stay there and so that will stay.

But we want to decorate the outside of it and how it is impacted on the landscape around it.

>> There is a feature within Promina Park that I saw is is being reprised in a slightly different expanded way and that's Boulder Mound.

>> Yeah.

So this summit is gives us an opportunity to get people up to a higher elevation.

It's all accessible.

We wanted to be able to put some heighth to it and we know that as kids are playing they want to be able to to play around and get some of that activity and energy out and this gives them that opportunity as we move in from the Boulder Mound, we're going to go right into the the hammock grove and the gardens and again just different opportunities and that's one of the things that we saw with promenade is promenade is built into with so many different small Meisei rooms or areas in it.

We wanted to do the same kind of thing here so provide seating and maybe not so much fixed seating.

So we want to be able to move tables around for your party ends up being six to eight people, pull the tables together, pull the chairs the other and enjoy each other and enjoy the community.

There are some elements that are going to be fixed as some seating as you see there on the right hand side into the into the mounds and the hills.

But the rest of it is is being able to be a compilation of both movable and fixed furniture.

>> I think for all the parents watching the charges, you know, enjoy the park, the hammocks are going to start looking like this should be set up on timers.

>> Forget the perch there.

You've got the area on the left hand side on the right hand side of what was formerly the sharp metal.

And so again another opportunity for development to happen adjacent to the river front which is kind of what we want.

We put we put the city dollars in it but we also want private dollars coming into it and so this is an artist's rendering.

>> I don't want to say that this is what it's going to look like but this is something that what it could look like and there are developers that are working on plans on on on making this fruition and taking it too far from what it was to a new use.

And we're very excited about how that blends in with what we're building as part of riverfront.

>> And I know we were talking before the show started the notion of private investment drawing folks because you'd love to dine with the river view.

You would love to have a meeting place, some additional social time.

What have you in a variety of venues and it certainly seems that opportunities to incorporate that along the way sure exist right now.

>> It is and I think that's part of what the vision of what we're doing riverfront it's not just building that public space but it's also building the private space and and what goes along hand-in-hand and we be the the front the front door the front front yard of those type of developments something called the cascading steps is down next up on our our tour.

>> Tell me about this.

So this is an opportunity we needed to be up at a certain level and you can see the people at the top of that level we needed to be able to get up there but we also wanted to be able to use that space.

So think of it as a for us and recreation.

We're going to be able to do a class or something there.

But you could also have a performance where somebody is at the lower level playing a guitar and you can fill that whole area up with people and listen to music.

You could do maybe a little bit of a skit or something like that.

So we're as we were designing the different areas, we wanted to make sure that we had multiple uses for all of those.

And so as we look to the back side of that Cascade steps, the the the pathway will wind us up through garden spaces that discovery will get us up to that summit and for us it's it's being able to make it all accessible because for us riverfront is for everyone in our community.

>> But we needed to be up at a higher level because another element that we're we're we're copying from promenade is a tree canopy trail and we needed to be up to a point where we could get over the flood walls and some of the other things that are required for our community because we do know we flood and so it's to get up above that.

So that the trail takes us up to this higher level and then puts us right out on top of that tree canopy trail we go and this this also is a complement to what's taking place a promenade with this view and it does kind of change your perspective.

>> Obviously it is.

And one of the great things is it gets you up about twenty feet above the river's edge and you get to look out at the the skyline of the downtown area but you're also being able to see how that impacts the river impacts the the banks, the shore and with flooding events that do happen.

And again, none of this is we're not changing how the flooding happens in our community but we're we're we're complementing it with being able to be up on that tree canopy trail.

You can see the floodwaters come up and as you look down on from the tree canopy trail we have a wetland boardwalk that will go through the trees at a lower level but the tree kind be betrayal will be at that higher level and for us it is providing different opportunities at different elevations to see our rivers and to interact with people in our rivers.

>> And I believe as we go forward we'll have an opportunity to share some of that.

This again just for the purpose of where you are on the tour.

Most of most all of what we've been sharing is from the center of the screen up into the right correct.

>> And then the existing park area with the tree canopy trail and other activities for adults and children are both sides of the river and then to the south west side we start moving into Weg territory we do and as some of those again did the development will go both directions.

This will go along our existing riverfront River Greenway Trail to the right is new development that will happen and we'll have a couple of pictures later on that will show that oh there we go and then to the right takes us down to the river's edge and here we're looking at a dock space that is probably more of a floating dock again our waters will rise and fall and we want to make sure that the docks are accessible during those events but also gets us down to that water's edge.

And again, it's the interaction it's a connectivity for people who are recreating on rivers to be able to get from the pathways down to the water in something that ties these new buildings together the new construction, the riverfront, the lofts, the wedge is that magic phrase mixed use.

>> Yes.

If you call it mixed use they will come up here what what how what's in the mix and the mix is a little bit a lot more residential.

It is commercial.

It is those type of things that restaurant shops and it's the things that will bring people on foot traffic to the downtown area.

But it would also be providing the opportunities maybe it's a small deli or something like that for the people that are living there.

But again keeping that opportunity and again the building behind us is a representation.

The actual building might change and look look a little bit different but we wanted to provide that open recreation space that that will connect the private development to the reverse and be that front door.

And so just again, different areas plaza sidewalk trail system and with the calendar being a also an ally in the work that's taking place now phase two a ready to come on line so to be is not too far behind that then give us a little behind the scenes on there's a phase three and a four we've been looking at when we started the design for phase two we looked at a little bit of what phase three would be and what how that would impact.

And I think just knowing what we've seen from original plans probably from like 2014 that looked at a bigger area, bigger footprint.

So that would take us all the way to the Van Buren Street Bridge.

So that would incorporate Bloomingdale Park Gilden Park.

We're also looking towards the east towards Loten Park and possibly a little bit into where the old fort .

So how that all plays into the riverfront development all the way over to the confluence.

So over the course of the next few years we'll start developing what that next phase how that all impacts and how it all blends together in the midst of this there has been there have been reports about the acquisition of the PepsiCo facility and that is another one of those great things can happen.

>> Stay tuned.

Yes.

And I don't want to jump into what what could be but there have been many different ideas of how to blend the infrastructure that we're building here on the riverfront with the private development and making sure that we're it's all cohesive and so there are plans they're there at the very beginning I think at this point.

But we know that that's a great opportunity to expand that area but also to provide some of the things that are needed in that area as we have a chance.

Let's let's share some of that video again that kind of provides a way of taking each of these items that we've been looking at and kind of tying it all together in a cohesive whole and as the video will be on its way there we go.

I wanted to get your comment on on this, Steve, where it was reported out of the city that the goal in all this is to create a vibrant mixed use.

There's that word district diverse housing opportunities, employment opportunities, connecting hubs and neighborhoods to each other and the riverfront.

>> This is a big box that it is and I want to just right up front say that it's not just a Parks and Recreation thing that is working on phase two .

>> It's a whole city.

The the collaboration that we have in multiple departments from community to development to redevelop the board of works our city utilities and obviously it's all led by the mayor's office.

>> But we want to make sure that we're we're looking at a bigger picture.

How does this new development and what you're seeing here how does that tie into the neighborhood just to the north of it?

How does it tie into the current infrastructure on the roads and things like that?

So we want to make sure that as we build this we've got the infrastructure, the water line sewer lines prepared for everything.

So it it it's a blend of making sure that we see the big picture but but also keep our eye on the prize of of the the final details because the devil's in the details and making sure that we're hitting the mark.

>> I think we did a really great job with Prominent Park and we just want to make sure that we build on that same momentum and and pull those elements that were great but also provide some new elements and it is a wonderful lay of the land for some additional community programing.

So it's not only a community setting community programing and opportunities to develop with youth something called Riverfront River Rangers or something for adults where they can be plan air artists and of course music and the venues.

>> This is another dynamic within Parks and Rec.

Right.

And so for us we also brought in our recreation staff to say hey, as we're building this, what would you be putting and what would you be programing in this space?

And they're very creative people give them great credit because they come up with some great programs and one of the things that we try to strive for is that we're providing programs of all different types for all different ages and that there's something for everyone.

So as you walk down through this Esplanade area here, you have different elements, different stations that will provide opportunities one day there might be music in one area.

The next day there there might be games and in other activities.

But we also want to make sure that it's accessible again for everyone as we walk up this Esplanade Gardens and up to the top top area you can see off to the right that we still have to deal with flood wall that is part of the Army Corps of Engineers.

So we had to design around that, make sure that it was still functional because we want to make sure that when if there is a flood of that magnitude that we're not impacting the neighborhood to the north but we also want to be able to pick elements like this tree canopy trail and be able to get out over the water's edge.

As we come up to this corner, we're going to look off to the right and down below you'll see the the wetland boardwalk and that's going through and you can see the people walking through there.

That element I think is going to be wonderful because it's going to get you right down to the water's edge.

There was the wildlife the plant material that's down there but to be able to snake through the trees it at twenty twenty five feet in the air and look out over the river.

You see the skyline, you see the downtown but you also see the the MLK Bridge there there are some great elements within our city that I think this this plan highlights and focuses in on and really gets to share with the community what makes Fort Wayne great and what a wonderful way to wrap up and summarize where we are now and to encourage another Steve McDaniel program so we can learn what all has happened in another half a dozen months for more information you can see Fort Wayne Park STG is the way to go riverfront F.W.

Dog another way to go before way Parks Dog will have everything including still a wonderful summer guide to be sure there is always something on your weekend calendar.

>> Well, thank you for having me here.

Steve McDaniel is the director of Fort Wayne Parks and Rec and unbruised and for all of us with prime time thank you for allowing us to be a part of your evening.

>> Take care.

We'll hear next week.

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