In its first year, Promenade Park transforms landscape of the Summit City

The Parks and Recreation project has become a focal point for residents and visitors of Downtown Fort Wayne.

City officials say the park is helping turn the three rivers area into a destination for recreation, arts, and cultural activities.

In its first year, promenade park has already received multiple awards for design and architecture.

Fox 55's nico pennisi explores how the park has become a staple of downtown fort wayne.

Look live: it wasn't that long ago that the area behind me was just asphalt.

The city's over 20 million dollar project has transformed the landscape of downtown.

Landon nichols has lived in fort wayne his whole life and remembers neighbors leaving downtown.

Sot landon nichols: "as a kid, growing up, fort wayne was growing out, and we needed a reason to come back down town.

Everything that has happened this year, i guess these past five or six years, in terms of beautifying downtown has really helped us and our economy."nichols loves to take his nephews out for a game of catch in the park.

He says having this recreational space available to him and his family has made living in the summit city even more enjoyable.

Sot landon nichols: "this has been a great addition to fort wayne, just giving people a reason to get out and a place to explore."

Promenade park used to be an industrial site -- warehouses, manufacturing, and parking lots.

Deputy director of planning and development says downtown lacked the green space residents wanted.sot alec johnson: "there weren't really spots you could access the river and so that was the number one thing - a place where they could recreate on the river, on the banks of the river."

That's why the city pushed to build the park, which celebrated its one year anniversary in august.

In this short time, promenade has been recognized with several awards including project of the year by fort wayne magazinesot alec johnson: "people want to live in a place where there's lots of stuff to do, we love to be around other people."

Park goer kara mueller says that's been hard to do because of covid-19.

Places like promenade park give residents an escape from their homes, at a time when going to indoor public spaces can be risky.

Sot kara mueller: "from what i know about covid-19, being outside is a little bit better because you have more space between people and you have the ability to avoid people who aren't wearing masks."tag: fort wayne parks and recreation says they've been working the past six months to expand the project up and down the river.

In promenade park, i'm nico pennisi, fox 55 news.

For more information about promenade park and other upcoming parks and