New Life at the Esplanade

The Esplanade Association (TEA) is ready to spend twenty million dollars renovating an area long closed to the public into a new space for visitor services, performance space, and a sports field. The area was originally home to the Lee Pool, whose state of disrepair closed it to the public for two and a half decades. It was redeveloped into an open field in 2019 by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The facility slated to replace the field, christened the Charlesbank Landing, would include visitor services like bathrooms, cultural space, performance areas, and a youth regulation-sized sports field. 

Outdoor renovations would restore habitat for local wildlife. TEA expects to give twelve million dollars upfront to the state government to construct the riverfront pavilion and over an acre of outdoor improvements. A further eight million dollars would be needed for an endowment to fund the initial thirty-year period TEA would care for the building. According to TEA, it’s one of the largest private gifts to the park system in the Commonwealth’s history. Eight million dollars has already been raised, and efforts are underway to gather the rest. While fundraising occurs, proponents of the plan push to finalize government approval. There’s still final design, engineering, construction planning, and environmental permitting. The hope is to break ground, perhaps in 2023. 

Overall, the TEA hopes to break ground in 2023 to renovate a long-closed area into a new space for visitor services, performance space, and a sports field for twenty million dollars. The outdoor renovations would restore habitat for local wildlife.