close
close

After 8 years of waiting, Mystic River Boathouse Park will become a reality this fall

After 8 years of waiting, Mystic River Boathouse Park will become a reality this fall

July 27, 2024 2:00 PM • Last updated: July 26, 2024 4:21 PM

An artist’s rendering shows the view of the Mystic River Boathouse Park from the Mystic River. (Courtesy of the Mystic River Boathouse Park Implementation Committee)

The location of the Mystic River Boathouse Park in Stonington on Friday, July 25, 2024. (Joe Wojtas/The Day) Buy photo reprints
The location of the Mystic River Boathouse Park in Stonington on Friday, July 25, 2024. (Joe Wojtas/The Day) Buy photo reprints

Mystic ― After an eight-year wait, residents will finally be able to see the long-awaited waterfront park come to life in the coming months.

But there are still some financial hurdles that need to be overcome.

“Hopefully we can see the ground breaking by the end of the fall,” First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough said late last week.

As the city prepares to put the $4.8 million Mystic River Boathouse Park project out to bid this summer, the city is simultaneously awaiting the results of two living shoreline grant applications totaling $1.14 million dollars, which could offset the city’s current $1.18 million project deficit.

The project began in 2016 after residents approved $2.2 million in bonds to purchase the 1.5-acre Greenmanville Avenue site just north of the Mystic Seaport Museum. With environmental remediation grants, the city funded $3.67 million of the newly estimated $4.85 million project.

Chesebrough noted that prices have risen significantly since 2016. While the city has been proactive in seeking grant funding and could spend $300,000 of its remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding on the project, there could still be a shortfall.

“I want to be very transparent. I had this conversation with the Finance Council just last week and we may talk more about it in the fall,” she said, explaining that while the project was moving in a very positive direction and the city was looking for every way to avoid it, there was still the possibility that it would cost additional taxpayer money.

Chesebrough said the bidding process will begin this summer and likely last until early fall, at which point work such as leveling the site and removing a barn on the property could be completed before work shuts down for the winter.

The pause will allow Stonington Community Rowing Inc. to begin construction on a two-story boathouse that will house the Jim Dietz Rowing Center.

As part of the project, SCRI will fund the relocation of the historic Lovelace House and connect it via a vestibule to the future Hart Perry Boathouse on the site, after which it will be deeded to the city for $1.

On Friday, SCRI Secretary and Director of Rowing John Thornell said SCRI is carefully coordinating with the city to ensure the two concurrent projects do not interfere with each other. He said the boathouse could be completed as early as spring 2025.

“We don’t want the city to finish the park and then have us come in with heavy equipment to build the boathouse. So we have to coordinate our schedules,” he said.

He said SCRI will begin construction once the city has cleared and prepared the site this fall. Once that is complete, the city can resume work to get the park ready to open in the fall of 2025.

He said the organization is aiming to raise $500,000 this fall, but that construction on the $2.5 million project could begin regardless.

He noted that SCRI currently has $1.6 million in donations and estimates that another $300,000 in unspecified dollar amounts has been pledged, which will cover work such as pouring foundations, moving the Lovelace House and building the boathouse. If necessary, parts of the project can be postponed while SCRI raises the rest of the money.

“Even if we have to implement the rowing center project in phases, having a boathouse to store equipment and train athletes is a big step toward having our own home and, ultimately, offering rowing programs to the community,” Thornell said.