The Promenade Park Amphitheater consists a steel structure and frame, concrete base, metal roof, CMU back up walls with a brick veneer. (Delcia Lopez | [email protected])
An emblem of efforts to improve the quality of life in the city of Edinburg opened its doors last week.
The city debuted the Promenade Park Amphitheater and water gardens which are just a small portion of the city’s plans to revitalize the downtown area.
“I think for our community, it’s so important we continue to do what we can to improve our community the best way that we can and this right here is going to impact our community for so many years,” said Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza. “It’s about quality of life, it’s about how we can keep our community here and bring entertainment.”
Plans for the downtown area have been in the works for more than 10 years now, according to Assistant City Manager Tom Reyna, and some of those plans have already bore fruit.
“(This is) part of our downtown master plan that we did over 10.5 years ago, almost 11 years ago,” Reyna said. “So slowly but surely we have made vast improvements to the downtown area which started off with the McIntyre Promenade which was a walkway all the way connecting the university, city hall, and the courthouse in preparation for the new courthouse.”
After that, the city built a food truck park on the west side of city hall and now they’ve opened the new amphitheater.
City leaders celebrated the opening of the amphitheater with a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week and immediately broke it in, hosting a Dia De Los Muertos event the next day.
“We’re improving the quality of life for the residents of Edinburg,” Reyna said of the projects’ significance.
Future revitalization projects include the Arts, Culture and Entertainment Center which will serve as a conference center but also host cultural arts classes, Reyna said.
“There was an effort to bring a cultural arts center along with other venues to help promote more festivities in the city,” said Councilman Dan Diaz who also sits on the board of the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation.
“Edinburg’s known as the city of festivals so we wanted to have a better venue to have the music events,” Diaz said.
He added that the city’s cultural arts board has been in need of a space to hold their activities so the A.C.E building will serve as that place for them.
Further, the city will construct a new parking garage on the corner of McIntyre and Closner Boulevard. Its construction is part of an interlocal agreement with Hidalgo County which owns the property on which the garage will be built.
The design of the parking garage is about 33% complete, according to Reyna, and the city hopes to have that project out for bids by the beginning of next year.
The city is also partnering up with the county, as well as the Texas Department of Transportation, for the revitalization of a section of State Highway 107 that runs east from the courthouse to the expressway.
Work on that section of State Highway 107, also known as University Drive, will include a roundabout around the courthouse square, walkable areas along the street, and drainage improvements.
Diaz described the work on the street as making it “boulevard-style,” with the inclusion of landscaping and beautification.
Construction on the street improvements is scheduled to start by fall 2023.
The new amphitheater, the A.C.E. Center, the parking garage, and the street revitalization are funded by $23 million in certificates of obligation that were approved by the city council in August.
Additionally, the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation is providing $9 million for the projects.
