Shelby Farms’ $52M improvement project opens with fanfare
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Culminating a 15-year effort that spanned political and fundraising setbacks and the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, Shelby Farms’ $52 million “Heart of the Park” project formally opened Thursday in a ceremony that park officials hoped would serve as a preview of activities for years to come.
Kayakers paddled in the newly expanded and renamed Hyde Lake, while bicyclists and walkers negotiated redone paths. Others relaxed on expansive lawns, on lakeside furniture or in the shade beneath huge fans at the new First Tennessee Foundation Visitor Center.
The Heart of the Park project, representing the bulk of $70 million worth of improvements made at Shelby Farms during the past six years, expanded what was the approximately 50-acre Patriot Lake into an 80-acre body of water now known as Hyde Lake. It also included the planting of thousands of trees and construction of the visitor center, a lakeside events center that houses a restaurant, as well as such amenities as an events stage, splash park, wetland area, boat house and bikerental facility.
Just as impressive as the facility, park officials say, was the private-public partnership that made it all come together. The park, located in the 4,500acre Shelby Farms complex near Memphis’ eastern edge, is owned by Shelby County but managed by the private, nonprofit Shelby Farms Park Conservancy.
Most of the money raised during the $70 million capital campaign came from private sources, with the only public funds being a $1.6 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, $5 million in additional state money, $3 million from the county and $150,000 from the city. Corporate sponsorships, foundation grants and small, individual donations provided all the rest.
“Not only do we have these beautiful buildings and this incredible landscape, we have a thriving business that’s going to serve as a model ...,” said conservancy executive director Jen Andrews.
Indeed, with the new facilities to take care of, the conservancy’s operating budget rose from $2.6 million in fiscal 2015 to $3.5 million for the current year, with costs expected to level out eventually at $4.5 million a year. Although the conservancy gets some $575,000 a year from the County Commission, it must generate the rest through fundraising events and donations and revenue sources, such as rentals and leasing of facilities. Andrews said the conservancy has a business plan and accumulated enough money to provide a cushion for the first few years, until the park is generating sufficient revenues.