Tom Charlier

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

It's a soggy mess right now, replete with a sandy heap left where a skating rink had been situated early in the winter, but Mississippi River Park soon will be cleaned up and transformed into a vibrant recreation area, Riverfront Development Corp. officials say.

Plans discussed Monday by RDC board members call for beautifying and renovating the former Jefferson Davis Park with playing fields, children's climbing equipment, including tree houses and rope "net lounges," a meadow, as well as a booth for food vendors. A temporary pop-up park proposed on an adjacent stretch of Riverside Drive would add basketball courts.

The project is part of a national initiative known as Reimagining the Civic Commons, funded a group of private foundations and devoted to revitalizing such public spaces as parks, libraries, plazas and trails. Memphis was one of five cities receiving $5 million grants — all matched locally — to pay for improvements to a four-block stretch of Downtown deeded by the city's founders for public use.

Pop-up park may temporarily close Riverside

RDC President Benny Lendermon said the park project will be completed by this fall and cost about $1 million. Responding to board members' concerns about the future costs of operating the more developed park, he said it shouldn't be too much of a problem to manage the generally "low-maintenance" facility.

"Certainly there's money to install it and maintain it through the course of this project, which is a three-year Civic Commons grant. Now, what happens at the end of three years and where those maintenance costs come from are another thing. We don't think they're super-elaborate, but it's a little bit of money," Lendermon said.

"Like anything else you do on the river ... it's just more money to maintain it. It's just part of doing business."

Board member Chase Carlisle said RDC should work with the Memphis Area Transit Authority to ensure low-income residents can get to and from the park "efficiently and safely."

The park, located at Jefferson and Riverside, most recently was the site of a temporary ice-skating rink that had been another initiative of the Civic Commons group. Acknowledging there have been complaints about the unsightly sandy area that remains where the rink had been, Lendermon said RDC officials deliberately "took our time" in dismantling the rink platform so that it can be re-used in the future. The sandy area will be cleaned up and re-sodded, he said.