City officials, local business owners, members of the Promenade Area Residents Association and a representative of the contracting company Valley Crest pose with renderings for the promenade’s final phase of upgrades. Photo by Sarah Bennett
Just two months after breaking ground on Harvey Milk Promenade Park, city officials again gathered along the Downtown pedestrian walkway Saturday to kick off construction of the planned improvements that will be coming soon to its northern stretch.
Bike racks, dog-walking areas, specialized landscaping and a hideout with a few chess tables are just a few of the enhancements revealed for the third and final phase of the promenade’s transformation, which will bring its already-upgraded parts to a northern terminus at City Place.
Second District Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, local business owners and members of Promenade Area Residents Association were on hand to reveal the official plans and look back on how far this space has come.
“I hope what used to be here is now a distant memory,” Lowenthal said. “…What was once a dark space of underutilized concrete is now developing into a great area. Look down this last block of the promenade and envision what she can be—what you want it to be. Imagine it and build it with me.”
The completion of the Promenade Master Plan will happen despite the recent demise of the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, who first developed the plan in 2007. Under the RDA, first and second phases added greenery and specialized lighting to the promenade’s Middle and South blocks and included the construction of both Promenade Square (over the old amphitheatre) and a new Bikestation building.
The third phase will bring improvements to the North block, which runs between Broadway and Third St. and includes the newly dedicated Harvey Milk Promenade Park, which will place an interactive soapbox monument in an area to be built on the other side of Third St.
With new restaurants already planned for many of its remaining empty storefronts and work underway in the historic buildings just east on Broadway, this final phase will—as Long Beach’s Director of Development Services Amy Bodeck mentioned—continue to facilitate the “place-making” that has gone on along the promenade, which she also referred to as “the spine of the neighborhood.”
Total project cost in the redevelopment of the three-block Promenade is estimated at $11.7 million. The project is expected to be completed before next year.
{FG_GEOMAP [33.76982244902508,-118.19110704445802] FG_GEOMAP}