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This Nov. 21, 2008, photo shows the Wings on the Water building on Sophia Street in downtown Fredericksburg. FILE/BEN FREDMAN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

Riverfront park closer to reality

City to start work on riverfront

BY EMILY BATTLE

Date published: 5/25/2009

BY EMILY BATTLE

The old Wings on the Water building on Sophia Street will come down after July 4, as Fredericksburg tries to get moving on part of a riverfront park that city officials and residents have been talking about for at least 25 years.

The city will spend $100,000 this summer to demolish the Wings building and deck and to make other improvements to the block of Sophia Street riverfront between Charlotte and Hanover streets.

The Economic Development Authority agreed this month to contribute $50,000 to this work, and the city is matching that with some of the money it had set aside for buying land for the park.

There's been talk of doing something to highlight downtown Fredericksburg's riverfront for more than 25 years.

Three years ago, council members pledged to close the city-owned parking lot next to Wings on the Water by St. Patrick's Day 2007 in order to send a message that they were serious about doing something on the river.

The parking lot remains open, but the council has spent $2.7 million over the past few years buying three properties--including Wings--to amass land for the park.

Parks and Recreation Director Bob Antozzi said officials are using a schematic plan for the park that the council-appointed riverfront task force put forward two years ago to plan the work that will occur this summer.

That plan is estimated to cost up to $4 million to bring to full fruition, but Antozzi said the city will focus on doing things with the $100,000 that won't have to be un-done if the city ever has more money to spend on the park.

The idea of tearing down the entire Wings on the Water structure hasn't always drawn unanimous support.

Before they voted to give money to the park, EDA members had said at meetings that at least some of the deck should be preserved in the final plan.

One downtown business has even submitted a plan to council members, proposing a seasonal restaurant in the building.

But the riverfront task force plan calls for using the natural bowl in the land under the Wings building and its deck to create an amphitheater that could be used for performances and other events.

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Date published: 5/25/2009

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