‘A new landmark.’ Lexington breaks ground on $39 million downtown park
After nearly a decade of planning, construction has started on a new downtown 10-acre park.
The $39 million Town Branch Park will stretch from the back of Central Bank Center and Rupp Arena to Oliver Lewis Way bridge between Main and High streets.
“We have a climbed a mountain,” said Allison Lankford, executive director of Town Branch Park, during a Tuesday groundbreaking ceremony behind Central Bank Center.
“Since its inception, Town Branch Park was envisioned as Lexington’s living room, a place where everyone is welcome and the community can flourish,” Lankford said.
The public park will include a large permanent stage and performance lawn, children’s play areas, water features, dog park and art installations. Private funding built the park and it will be managed by a private foundation.
More than 16,000 people participated over several years in the planning for the park, she said.
Unlike most cities, Lexington will tear up a parking lot to create a green space in the heart of downtown, Lankford said.
Ann Bakhaus, chairwoman of the Town Branch Park committee, has been involved with the park from its early years nearly a decade ago.
The committee was frequently told no one had ever raised $31 million in private fundraising for a public park, Bakhaus said to the crowd.
Bakhaus said the committee surpassed anyone’s expectations.
“We raised $39 million,” Bakhaus said.
Bakhaus, using heavy equipment, helped crack the pavement in the parking lot to start construction during Tuesday’s official ground-breaking ceremony.
The long-planned park is one of the final pieces of a redesign of the Central Bank Center area. The renovation and expansion of the venue was completed last year. Town Branch Commons, a section of the Town Branch trail, which will go through the park, was completed in October 2022.
The revamping of the High and Manchester streets area started under former Mayor Jim Gray, who is now the secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
“Great cities have great parks,” said Gray. “Build it first for your own people then others will come.”
Part of a larger, expanded Central Bank Center, downtown
When the park is completed in 2025, it will hopefully become a destination for people downtown and from far away, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said.
“We are creating a new landmark, a new destination, a place for community celebration, a place to bring your children, a place to bring visitors from out of town,” Gorton said. “It is not everyday in our city that the private sector comes together to fund something like Town Branch Park. This is a big deal. Frankly, there were a lot of people who said it couldn’t be done.
“This park is a gift. It’s a gift of improved quality of life to each and every one of us,” she said.
A redevelopment of the Central Bank Center’s High Street parking lot, which will include an entertainment venue, apartments and retail, could begin later this year.
Private investment in the area of downtown has followed the public investment. The Manchester, a boutique hotel, opened on the other side of Oliver Lewis way bridge in the Distillery District earlier this year.
But there have been hiccups along the way.
The park had originally planned a major entrance along Main Street where the Jefferson Street bridge once stood. But a dispute with Main Street Baptist Church, a historic Black church, over parking meant the entrance was shifted to High and Manchester streets. The city finalized a deal with the church over its parking in May after nearly five years of negotiations.
In addition to private fundraising, the city has kicked in more than $7.1 million for the public infrastructure needed to build the entrance on the Manchester and High street side.
The changes in the entrance to the park pushed the groundbreaking from 2022 to this year.
The fundraising for the park is not over. Kip Cornett, one of the members of the Town Branch Park committee, said those fundraising efforts will continue this year as the park raises more money for an endowment to cover day-to-day operations of the 10-acre park once it opens in 2025.
This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 2:05 PM.
