South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Riverwalk may expand for six more miles
TAMPA — In the morning, the runners, power-walkers and leashed dogs rule the 2.6 mile stretch of Tampa’s curving Riverwalk between the downtown high rises and the water. Later in the day, it’s locals, tourists and day-trippers, then the cocktail crowd as the water taxis cruise past.
The Riverwalk packs them in for Gasparilla, the latest Stanley Cup win and the dying o’ the river green. When Tampa hosts a big event, it’s a good bet national TV will show the Riverwalk — recently ranked No. 7 on Fodor’s Travel’s list of the best river walks in America.
“Transformative? Absolutely,” said Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay.
After several decades and multiple mayors to make it happen, Tampa’s Riverwalk is officially a hit.
So, how about a few more miles of it in the next four years?
Unofficially referred to as West Riverwalk or the West River project, the newest addition across the river from downtown will hug the west-side waterline for more than two miles, paralleling the original version on the east bank. That trail will run from Platt Street near the Bayshore Publix in Hyde Park north to an area near the well-known Rick’s on the River bar and restaurant in West Tampa.
But much of the project’s total 6.1 pedestrian- and bike-friendly miles, which will largely be separated from car traffic, will have a decidedly different feel and focus.
The original Riverwalk — in a growing, thriving downtown and accessible to affluent South Tampa via
Bayshore Boulevard — is all plans for a major grocery about recreation and enterstore — believed to be Flortainment along the Hillsida’s premier grocer, Publix borough River and Garrison — in what has been a food Channel. desert.
This next loop also aims South of the interstate to draw in neighborhoods and west of the 25-acre to the west along existriverside Julian B. Lane ing roads — connecting Park — which in recent them with each other and years got a $35.5 million “to all the prosperity that’s makeover — apartments happening downtown,” said and condos have sprouted Vik Bhide, the city’s mobilin a west-of-downtown ity department director. community with restau
“This project is going rants and a neighborhood to transform the west side Duckweed Urban Grocery. of the river,” said Brandie Part of the new projMiklus, the city’s infrastrucect will also include ture and mobility program some already- existing coordinator. linear green space in an
The West River projoak-shaded riverside neighect will stretch north to borhood called Ridgewood Columbus Drive and run Park. along Rome Avenue to the “What (the project) does west, impacting some the is connect neighborhoods city’s transforming neighon each side of the interborhoods. state, which historically
Just north of downtown were separated,” said Bhide. and Interstate 275 across Given the Tampa Bay from Blake High School, region’s deadly reputation public housing has made for pedestrians and cyclists, way for new high rises and the project will emphasize safety. Bike paths will be separated from car traffic by concrete curbing wherever possible — part of a city system called “the green spine.” It will include walker-activated flashing pedestrian crossings and improved sidewalks, among other enhancements.
“Right now it’s stressful to walk and bike there,” said Miklus. “So this will be adding to our low-stress bike and walk network.”
The project is also billed in city documents as a pedestrian and bike link between “the disadvantaged communities in the project area” and downtown jobs and services.
While much of the new loop will travel through streets and neighborhoods, more than two miles of it will run directly along the west bank of the Hillsborough River in traditional Riverwalk fashion. That new trail will take walkers, cyclists and runners along the water with the historic University of Tampa campus — which includes one of the city’s most notable buildings with its distinctive moon-topped minarets — and the sprawling Julian B. Lane Park as backdrops.
The project will also include one of the more charming aspects of the current Riverwalk: overthe-water crossings that run underneath car-traffic bridges at Platt and Brorein streets.
A $24 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will pay for 80 percent of the project, with the rest to be covered by the city. It’s expected to go out for contractor bids this summer and to be completed by the end of 2026, city documents show.
“Tampa’s Riverwalk in just a few years has become such a signature part of the community it’s hard to imagine Tampa without it,” said Mayor Jane Castor. “The project on the west side will be even more transformative, an essential link connecting West Tampa to downtown and other neighborhoods from Hyde Park to Ybor City.”
The existing Riverwalk “spurred over $1 billion in economic activity from 2011 to 2018,” Bhide said. “We fully anticipate and are already seeing it on the west side of the river as well.”
And what’s the future for Tampa’s Riverwalk after this? Bhide said though there are no current plans or funding for extensions, “we do see opportunities to move it further north.”
“Ultimately our aim is to activate the rest of the river up to ZooTampa,” Bhide said. The zoo, at Sligh Avenue near the river, is about five miles north of downtown. “On both sides of the river up to there, we’ll continue to see more and more mixed use development.”
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