Work begins to transform cluster of downtown parking lots into urban park

Edmonton's newest urban park is set to soon spring from a large, overgrown parcel of parking lots in the city's core.

The downtown Warehouse Park Project, located north of Jasper Avenue between 106 and 107 streets, will be the size of three football fields.

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"Once opened, Warehouse Park will provide a much needed space for events, connection, celebration and recreation," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said Wednesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the $44.8-million park, which is slated to be built by the end of next year.

"We have to remember that downtown is a neighborhood, too."

The funding for the park comes from the Capital City Downtown Community Revitalization Levy.

According to the city, more than 13,000 people live downtown, with another 2,300 homes currently under construction.

The city says Warehouse Park, a temporary name for the project, is designed for year-round use, featuring a hill for summer picnics or winter tobogganing, as well as walking paths, a playground, an off-leash dogpark, a basketball court and a pavilion.

The pavilion is slated to include a public washroom, a bookable community space, seating and fireplaces, Craig Walbaum, the city's acting deputy city manager of integrated infrastructure services, said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

A part of 107 Street next to the park has been closed and will be converted into a pedestrian promenade.

The site of downtown Edmonton's Warehouse Park Project between 106 and 107 Streets north of Jasper Avenue. (CTV News Edmonton)Suzanne Young, the city's director of open space planning and design, said surveys showed the community had a "strong interest" in the creation of the park.

"I would say the three primary themes that we heard was really around safety and security, making sure that we had year-round surveillance, that we were managing the park and that we were keeping it clean throughout its use," Young said Wednesday.

The creation of the park is a "gigantic step" toward making sure downtown is "safe, inclusive and revitalized," Cheryl Probert, the president of the Downtown Community League, said at the ceremony.

"Safety and security are our primary concern, but also having spaces where folks can get out of their apartments and can enjoy being outside and in nature and having more access," Probert said, adding while downtown residents have "amazing access" to the river valley, it's not accessible for everyone living and working downtown.

"This is really important for us to have a space that's hyper-local, that's going to provide some shade.

It's going to provide an opportunity for folks to gather. More people on the street, in our minds, means more safety and more security."

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson