Depot Park is combining its rich history with new beginnings.
Depot Park, located at 200 SE Depot Ave., officially opened Saturday morning. Planning started for the park in the 1990s, said Josh Blackford, the principal/project manager for Oelrich Construction. It’s an opening that has been in the works since the city bought the property, intending to turn the once polluted soil into something great.
Construction happened over the past five years. Before the park could be designed, cleanup and construction needed to happen. Before Oelrich Construction began planning and constructing the park two years ago, new ponds, soil and stormwater treatment centers had to be installed.
“It’s kind of like an iceberg,” Blackford said. “There’s a lot more under the surface here than what anyone really knows about.”
Today, there’s no danger, contamination or pollutants in the ground, he said. The group took every measure, more than is even required, to ensure the park would be safe.
Every department and agency in town had something to do with the park, said Cindi Harvey, Depot Park’s lead project manager. In the early 2000s, after the city purchased the land, it removed 200,000 tons of contaminated soil.
After years of uncertainty, planning and construction started. The redevelopment cost the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency upwards of $5.9 million, she said. The money for revitalizing the park came from a mixture of different local funds and state grants.
The large building under construction in the park will be the new location for the Cade Museum, which is currently across the street. Opening in the fall of 2017, it will be a place for 6- to 12-year-olds to experiment with creativity and inventions, said Leslie Ladendorf, the development director for the museum.
The museum will be an anchor property that will rent the space from the city for $1 each year for 75 years.
Harvey said the playground, which sits at just over a football field in length, tells the story of Gainesville. It starts with a large train jungle gym that sits near the old train depot. As the pathways twist, visitors end up in the Sweetwater branch, which drains into the ponds at the park.
The playground ends with a large climbing rock with fossils imbedded in it. It also has a splash pad, made to represent the Floridan aquifer.
Currently, Depot Park has only half of its staff. With a full staff, the park will have around-the-clock two-person teams from dawn until dusk to secure and watch the park. At dusk, security cameras on the south side of the play area will turn on, Harvey said.
Over the next year, an event space, leased by the owners of the Wooly, and a café will be installed in the depot building, she said. At this time only Pop-a-Top is open, but it sells everything from food and drinks to toys and sunscreen.
“Once the Depot is full and the museum is complete, families will be able to come here all day,” Harvey said. “It’s going to be a one-stop shop.”
