A new 9-acre park just opened across from downtown Minneapolis between Boom Island Park and the Graco Inc. headquarters.

Graco Park features new trails, trees, native plants, public seating along the riverfront, lumber sculptures, and a river landing. There’s geothermal heating technology in the pathways to melt ice and snow and prevent salt from getting into the water.

Still to come at Graco Park are a 4,000-square-foot park building slated to open in 2025, a gravel beach, and a trail connection under the Plymouth Avenue Bridge to Boom Island Park. The building will be home to Spark’d Studios, which will offer free media and arts programming to young people.

Lumber sculptures incorporated into the riverfront seating area are a nod to the land's lumber yard history. Photo courtesy of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board purchased the land from the Sherer Brothers Lumber company in 2010 with the intent of rehabilitating the land, MPR News reported. Graco Inc. and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board in 2018 reached several agreements that resulted in this new park across from the recently-restored Hall’s Island, according to a Monday announcement.

Park and Recreation Board officials, including Superintendent Al Bangoura, gathered Wednesday to celebrate the opening of Graco Park. They said the new park is part of an ongoing effort by the City to provide North and Northeast Minneapolis residents with access to the riverfront and other bodies of water in their neighborhoods, like those in South and Southwest enjoy.

“This is something that we’ve advocated for and worked on for decades, and now these parks are no longer just ideas, plans, or illustrations; they’re real,” Bangoura said in a statement. “We’re in the middle of a golden era of riverfront park development in Minneapolis.”