A year after the grand opening of Glass City Metropark, the western shore of the Maumee River has quickly become off limits for anyone without a hard hat and a construction vest.
“We are halfway through construction,” Jennifer Van Horn, chief of planning and chief construction officer for Metroparks Toledo, said during an open house at the site Thursday.
Construction for the the next phase of the Metroparks’ $250 million master plan to revitalize the downtown area of Toledo is set to open to the public in the spring of 2026, but in the meantime the Metroparks hopes to keep a buzz around its continued project.
“We were using our riverfront in some of the worst ways possible,” Dave Zenk, executive director of Metroparks Toledo, said about the downtown area before the plan, drafted in 2018, was implemented.
The blocked-off riverfront left people with “no reason to visit” the downtown area. Since then, with the passing of the Metroparks levy in 2020, funds were opened up, and three years later, Glass City Metropark has been a success.
“It's doing what it we wanted it to do,” Mr. Zenk said. “We’ve had about a million visits,” he said of the past year, and this has brought more people to downtown, including private commercial investors.
“We’re seeing a $7-10 return on investment, and that's paid out across the downtown development,” he said.
An initial $5 million investment in Glass City Metropark interested Hallmark Campus Communities to invest $50 million in the Marina Lofts project.
Three years after the 2023 opening, Metroparks Toledo hopes to do it again, this time closer to downtown with the first installment of the Glass City Riverwalk.
All the area on west shore, south of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge and north of Owens Corning’s campus, has been termed the “Build Project,” and will be available and made over along with an expansion to Glass City Metropark that will encompass what used to be called International Park.
Perhaps the most dramatic addition will be Bend Bridge, which has replaced what Ms. Van Horn called “awful metal stairs” that connected the riverfront area to MLK bridge.
Swapping stairs for a grade, Bend Bridge is designed to be up to ADA standards and accessible to all people.
The Build Project will install railings with lights for 24-hour access to the riverfront, swings, benches, public restrooms, shade structures, new and expanded docks kept up by the Metroparks, and glass-embedded concrete for an aesthetic flair.
Floating wetlands with native species will be added to the dock area, and the lighthouse tower building in that area will be outfitted with programable glass panels for more interaction as well as a slide for children.
“There are six neighborhoods that connect into this project,” Ms. Van Horn said, and cited the Garfield neighborhood, closest to the Glass City Metropark, as rising in its percent of owner-occupied housing since the first tier of the master plan was finished. In response to the revitalization of the neighborhood, Metroparks is beginning to shore up Front Street, especially near Waite High School, to make it safer to cross to the park.
By 2026 the center bulk of the Glass City Riverwalk will be finished with the help of a $24 million Federal Highway Build Grant, and Metroparks Toledo has already secured a $19 million RAISE grant from the Department of Transportation to begin the final tier of the plan, affecting the Vistula neighborhood.
A private developer is in talks to bring in shuffleboard, a pickleball court, and a restaurant.
“We're really excited,” Ms. Van Horn said about the progress already made and said the agency is pursuing further philanthropic and grant options for funds.
“We're grateful for the partnerships we already have, and to have had a million visitors,” Ms. Van Horn said. “It's really great to see.”
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