Best of times lie ahead for popular park

Deck

Attendance is up at Pinecrest Gardens, despite delayed improvements and additions intended to turn the park into the village’s ‘downtown.‘

Opening: 3PP

BY KATHLEEN FORDYCE [email protected]

When Pinecrest officials bought the former Parrot Jungle site, they envisioned turning the lush gardens into a popular park with a library, community center, water playground and amphitheater.

They’ve made progress, and the park is drawing more visitors, but the larger projects have been delayed by hurricanes and rising construction costs, officials said.

Delayed projects include a two-story, 30,000-square-foot library and community center that was originally scheduled to be completed by September, but now won’t open until 2007.

“We hope to break ground in the next couple of weeks on the library,” said Mayor Gary Matzner. “But between hurricanes and some negotiating with the county because the prices have gone up since we started the project, we had to renegotiate.”

In 2004, fewer than a dozen people a day strolled through the park on average. Now, about 150 people visit on weekdays and about 500 on weekend days.

The gardens also are a popular wedding site - about 40 a year - and are rented for about 300 other events annually, including birthday parties, bridal and baby showers, company picnics and field trips.

The park costs $1.1 million a year to maintain and staff. In the fiscal year ending in September, the park brought in about $150,000, all from special-event rental fees. The village had to fork out about $950,000 to cover the remaining costs. That amount is expected to drop each year as

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Headline: Improvements on tap for park

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the number of special events grows.

To help fund projects at the gardens and other parks, the council created the nonprofit Pinecrest Foundation. The group hopes to raise money to renovate the amphitheater.

“The foundation was formed to improve the park and get the neighborhoods involved and hopefully come up with different components and improvements that will make it more enjoyable,” President Gary Shear said. “We are working hand in hand with the city to create and make it the best ultimate outcome for Pinecrest.”

The new library and community center will cost about $6.7 million to build, but the county is contributing $3.58 million for the library.

“I am most excited for it all to come together in one package,” said Matzner, who calls the park the “gem” of the village. “Particularly since we don’t have a downtown, this is our equivalent of our downtown.”

Other planned projects include building a cafe and restoring the original entrance building, which will include a community room.

The amphitheater, which was used for the famous bird shows and can seat about 500 people, will be enclosed so it can be air-conditioned. It’s also scheduled to get a real stage instead of the dirt one there now.

“We can have indoor concerts, theater productions, jazz concerts and that sort of thing,” said Leslie Bowe, vice president of the Pinecrest Foundation and aide to Miami-Dade School Board member Evelyn Greer.

Plans for the cafe are proceeding, too. It will be similar to the one that Parrot Jungle operated and be located in the building at the entrance. Matzner said the village is getting ready to put a request out for proposals and hopes to have it open by the end of the year.

“It was very popular, especially for brunch on Sunday,” he said.

Since the gardens were bought in 2002, a water playground and butterfly exhibit have been added and the concession stand renovated.

The petting zoo that the park inherited from Parrot Jungle still holds pigs, goats and rabbits, and the park offers art, horticultural and exercise classes.

Matzner also did away with a controversial $5 entrance fee last year after residents complained that they shouldn’t have to pay to enter a public park.

All the changes have made a world of difference, some residents say.

Christy Falco, a mother of two young daughters, said she comes to the park about three times a week.

“It’s such a nice place to go to get out to see nature with your kids,” she said.

The water playground is a big draw, she said. She joins other mothers and their children there in the summer.

“It’s a small contained area where we can sit and watch them have fun,” she said. “We love to come here.”

Photographs: 3PP

LUSH SURROUNDINGS: Above, park visitors are greeted by a pond at the entrance of Pinecrest Gardens. Left, Craig Morell, Pinecrest Gardens horticulturist, tours the property. Hurricane damage last year cost the gardens some of its canopy.

Credit: PHOTOS BY JOHN VANBEEKUM/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Photograph: 4PP

TROPICAL VISTA: Swan Lake is in the middle garden area of Pinecrest Gardens, former home of Parrot Jungle.

Credit: JOHN VANBEEKUM/MIAMI HERALD STAFF