|
This Nov. 21, 2008, photo shows the Wings on the Water building on Sophia Street in downtown Fredericksburg. |
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
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.
Councilman George Solley, who is on that task force, said the group met recently to talk about what to do with Wings, and agreed it should be torn down.
"We could not figure out a real use for it other than it just sitting there," he said. "The city is not going to run a restaurant there."
Antozzi said if funds allow, the city will fine-tune the slopes of the land under the deck as the final park plan calls for.
"If we can slope and stabilize it now, you could do all the events that you would be able to do with the bigger plan," he said.
A more expensive element that won't be possible yet is a dock-like structure that would serve as the stage at the base of the amphitheater.
The $100,000 won't take the city as far as building the brick plaza, fountain or public bathroom structure that the final park plan calls for. But some parts of the site will start to look a lot more like parkland, according to city Senior Planner Erik Nelson.
The two properties that the city bought from Tommy Mitchell and Franklin Liebenow--the part of the park site closest to Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church--will be graded, planted with grass and trees, and the sidewalks along Hanover and Sophia streets will be refurbished.
"That actually is going to remain open space, so for that, we can do the finish work this year," Nelson said.
The work won't start until after July 4, because the Heritage Festival uses a lot of that space, and city officials don't want newly planted grass to be disturbed.
But Antozzi said once the work starts and people get a picture of what the final park will look like, he thinks it might spark volunteer efforts and maybe even private contributions that could get the project finished more quickly.
"Doing this phase, I think, is going to facilitate a lot of things, and one of them is volunteer effort," he said. "There are a lot of trees that people can step forward and help plant."
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
