It’s actually a bit of a misnomer: the planned makeover of Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park. This $35.5 million project is about so much more than a park, however much a 23-acre public jewel it can become.
It’s about a vision. It’s about synergy. It’s about an investment. And it’s about energizing the western side of downtown and reconnecting a reinvigorated West Tampa.
It’s about investing serious seed money, a good chunk of which ($15 million) comes courtesy, as it were, of BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
And it’s a variation on a fundamental economic theme: It takes money to attract money. This is a public-investment catalyst in the further development of downtown’s best asset.