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Juan Patino of Wetlands construction works on the renovation of Military Park in Newark . The statue Wars of America by Gutzon Borglum is behind the worker and the work is part of a $3 million renovation of the park.

(Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger)

For 200 years, Newark’s Military Park was a training ground for soldiers. In 1869, it installed the first public electric lights in the country.

One-hundred-and-forty-five years later it will have its first eatery.

Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, which is giving the nearly 350-year-old park a makeover, said today the owners of Maritime Parc restaurant in Liberty State Park will open a venue in Newark when renovations are completed in 2014.

Daniel Biederman and the Military Park Partnership began rehabbing the underused and often overlooked swath of urban greenery in May. Biederman hopes he can do for Military Park what he did for Manhattan’s Bryant Park, changing it from a drug-invested meeting place into a mini cultural center.

According to a news release, the yet unnamed restaurant “is expected to be casual, comfortable, unpretentious and delicious, specializing in hand-crafted burgers, salads, donuts and shakes.” It will serve wine and local craft beers.

"We've wanted to expand beyond Jersey City for some time,” Maritime Parc chef and co-owner Chris Siversen said in a statement, “but the right opportunity never presented itself ... until now.”

Biederman said Siversen and his partner Marc Haskell “know how to make a restaurant complement a park environment."

Manhattan-based designer Stephanie Goto has been commissioned to design the eatery.

The restaurant will sit near the epic statue “Wars of America” by Gutzon Borglum, who also sculpted the four presidential busts into Mount Rushmore. It will be across the street from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, as well as the Prudential office towers that are being constructed on Broad Street. It will also be near the new apartment and retail center being built at the former Hahne’s & Co. center and the planned apartment building on Rector Street that includes NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal as a backer.

In addition, Theater Square Development Corp. recently received the final funding needed for an apartment complex in the same neighborhood.

According to the Military Park Partnership, the new park will be financially self-sustaining.

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