![]() He said that the park has transformed the "front door" to Cincinnati and the region. The Smale Riverfront Park includes playgrounds, splash fountains, public art and picnic areas. Jim Goetz, chair of the Cincinnati Park Board, highlighted the transformation of Smale Riverfront Park over the past 13 years. "This is a wonderful component here today, but there’s still work to do."Kish said Parks is already evaluating the south side of the ICON Music Center as an area of possible expansion for the Smale Park system. Smale Riverfront Park is not done yet," Kish said. With that said, we're not going to stop with this project. “We're here to celebrate the completion of this beautiful event lawn and we're incredibly excited for concerts and music that will take place here. Kara Kish, director of Cincinnati Parks, said the event lawn will provide additional opportunities for programming and entertainment on non-concert days. The new event lawn is the continuation of the award-winning Smale Riverfront Park system, 45 acres of urban green space along the riverfront between Great American Ball Park and Paul Brown Stadium. ICON Music Center is owned by MEMI, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO). ![]() "At the end of the day, we wanted to contribute to this park because we knew that a relationship between CSO and Cincinnati Parks would be synergistic and really valuable for the city." “I want to thank the Mayor (John Cranley), Commissioner Denise Driehaus, Hamilton County, and the City of Cincinnati (for making this happen)," said Robert MacDonald, board chair of the CSO. The infrastructure component of the Phase IIIB project cost an additional $29 million, which came from a combination of state, county, city and grant dollars. The rest of the funding came from a combination of funds from the city of Cincinnati and private donations. The state of Ohio contributed $1.7 million and Music and Event Management Inc. The extension of Smale Park cost $6.9 million. The Banks is a public-private partnership between the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The Banks Public Partnership evenly shares the public portion of investment in The Banks. He credited recent leadership from Hamilton County for "not only embracing the idea, but also helping pay for it." Army Corps of Engineers on matching federal funds to share the cost of what will become a $15 million project with terraces and plazas sloping down to the Ohio River much like the Serpentine Wall at Bicentennial Commons in Sawyer’s Point.Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley praised the new park space, saying it will highlight a "beautiful new music venue."Ĭranley recalled a long history of proposals for a music venue along the riverfront but admitted candidly that for him to support a proposal it would have to be at The Banks. If the parks department gets the full $3 million in city funding to add boulders on the shoreline, it will become part of a much larger restoration project. ![]() “This is a $100 million investment … and it’s our responsibility now to do what’s needed to protect this asset and protect this park forever,” Barron said. Perhaps the most visible repair needs exist at Smale. They are Smale, Fairview, California Woods, Bellevue, McEvoy, Mt. The city parks department identified its most pressing deferred maintenance projects at eight parks with a combined repair cost of $14 million. So far city administrators have recommended spending $3.5 million on deferred maintenance projects at three parks - split almost evenly between Smale, Inwood Park and California Woods. Ray Pfeffer Smale Riverfront Park has 11,000 linear feet of unprotected shoreline.
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