A ribbon-cutting ceremony for significant enhancements to Harbour-8 Park in Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood is just weeks away.
Today, the Standard drove past the developing park located on the Richmond Greenway at Harbour Way South, north of Ohio Avenue. We found a newly erected, although not yet finished, entry archway, a nearly completed community plaza near the senior center, a brick wall with seating for the oft-used Harbour Way bus stop, and the beginnings of a mini sports field.
We’ve learned from Toody Maher, executive director and founder of Pogo Park, that the mini sports field should be completed in about three weeks, and a grand opening event will follow.
Pogo Park built Harbour 8 Park in 2014 with its staff of Iron Triangle residents. The nonprofit, which also built Elm Playlot and is behind the ongoing Yellow Brick Road Project in the neighborhood, received about $600,000 in grants for the enhancements at Harbour 8.
A successful private-public partnership involving city and local businesses, such as Chevron Richmond, aided in achieving the funds needed to make the improvements, Maher says.
In 2017, Pogo Park received a $1 million grant from the Chevron eQuip Richmond Economic Revitalization Initiative to launch Pogo Park Products, a for-profit social enterprise. The investment enabled Pogo Park to create a for-profit business out of its growing line of park designs and structures, and to strike contracts with city and county governments on park projects. The nonprofit’s staff of Iron Triangle residents, along with the community they live in and serve, have benefited from the partnership, Maher said.
To read more about the ambitious short and longer-term visions for Harbour 8 Park, click here.
