Less than two decades after the transformation of Detroit's riverfront began, the eastern RiverWalk is nearing completion.
The project has opened up the city's east riverfront to residents and visitors, converting once vacant, blighted and industrial properties to public parks and inviting green spaces.
"It's mind-blowing," said President and CEO Mark Wallace.
"It's something our community has wanted for a very long time and something the Riverfront Conservancy has been working on for close to 20 years."
Now the nonprofit shepherding the project, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, is extending its work to the west riverfront and the two-mile span of RiverWalk planned there.
It completed the first two pieces of the west RiverWalk this summer, projects leading up to development of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park (formerly known as West Riverfront Park.)
The park, funded as part of a $100 million grant from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation in 2018, is expected to wrap up in 2023.
There are places in other cities like farmers' markets or in New York City, Central Park that attract a large number of people, said Wallace.
Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park is going to be that "magnet" for Detroit, he said.
Completion of the park will leave a roughly one-mile stretch of the west RiverWalk to complete the conservancy's vision for a 5.5-mile span stretching from Gabriel Richard Park, east of the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle, west to the Ambassador Bridge.
If things go according to plan, construction on the final leg of the east RiverWalk — a roughly half-mile connection across the Uniroyal site to Gabriel Richard Park — could be completed by early 2022, Wallace said.
The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in late August teamed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a $2.9 million project to clean up contaminated sediments along the Detroit River, setting the stage for construction of the final portion of the east RiverWalk.
As the east span has progressed, it's sparked a series of public park developments and greenway paths to connect the neighborhoods to the riverfront.
At the same time, greenway paths have taken shape to give residents access to the river.
The Dequindre Cut Greenway opened along a former, below-ground Grand Trunk Railroad line in 2009, provides a biking and walking path from Detroit's Eastern Market to the river. And the city-developed, 1.2-mile Joseph Campau Greenway is nearing completion, Wallace said. It will connect the East Vernor Highway and Joseph Campau Avenue area on the city's east side to the riverfront.
Those pathways send "a strong message that everyone who lives on the east side deserves a permanent path to the riverfront," he said.
Work on the two-mile span of the west RiverWalk took a leap forward this summer with completion of the first two pieces of the west RiverWalk: a small length along the river side of the former executive parking lot for Joe Louis Arena, property owned by The Platform Group, and a boardwalk 17 feet off land's edge to continue the RiverWalk over the water in front of Riverfront Towers. "Those two projects are incredibly significant for us... they connect the east riverfront to the west riverfront," Wallace said.
Next year, construction is expected to start on the next piece of the west leg along property owned by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority, taking the RiverWalk to the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park. Construction on the park is set to begin in early 2021 and wrap up by the end of 2023, Wallace said.
As planned, the final connection of the west RiverWalk extends roughly a mile from Centennial Park to Riverside Park on the west side of the Ambassador Bridge. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy doesn't yet have control of that site, Wallace said.
"It's a complicated site. From what we understand, the Morouns own the land and there are some long-term leases with some of the national train companies."
"That's been part of our vision since 2003. When the opportunity arises to move forward with that, we'd certainly like to see that project get done," Wallace said.
The goal for the west riverfront is to provide an experience that's every bit as exciting for residents there as the east riverfront is for east siders, he said.
The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and others on plans and land assembly for the May Creek Greenway. As envisioned, the greenway will start at Vernor near Michigan Central Train Station and end at Centennial Park, running alongside the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel. The goal is to complete it in 2022.
The conservancy has invested $169 million in the RiverWalk project so far, Wallace said.
Work on the last piece of the east RiverWalk and up through completion of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park on the west riverfront are expected to bring total costs into the neighborhood of $325 million-$375 million, he said.
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With east RiverWalk nearly complete, focus turns west - Crain's Detroit Business
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