Philly opens new 10-acre waterfront park

This week, Philadelphia debuts a new park along the Delaware River — a 10-acre green space featuring a broad open lawn, upland trails, native meadow, modern restrooms, parking, and hundreds of freshly planted trees and shrubs.

From a once fenced-off and polluted industrial site, the lawn now opens to sweeping views of the river, reclaiming the shoreline for community use.

Robert A. Borski Jr. Park in Bridesburg marks an effort to reunite residents with a waterfront that industry had cut off since the 1800s by the Kensington & Tacony rail line, the Philadelphia Koppers Coke Co., and then a more recent cement company.

The park on Orthodox Street is named after former U.S. Rep. Robert Borski, 76, a native of Bridesburg who served in Congress from 1983 to 2003. Borski began discussing turning the blighted property into a park 20 years ago.

A full effort began 10 years ago with help from the city and nonprofit Riverfront North Partnership. Borski founded the partnership in 2004.

“It’s overwhelming,” Borski said Wednesday while walking the park as crews were putting finishing touches on the parking lot and grounds. “This is a hidden gem, I hope you’ll agree.”

The park, with 400 newly planted native trees and shrubs, overlooks the river just north of the Betsy Ross Bridge. A separate, higher lookout has a bench with views facing an old pier — as well as Palmyra Cove Nature Park half a mile across the river in New Jersey.

“We had a lot of industry around here,” Borski said of the effort to acquire the tract. “We had to navigate our way through a lot of private ownership.”

The ground for the park was originally acquired by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC), a nonprofit formed by the city and the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia as an economic development corporation.

The city and Riverfront North Partnership worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s voluntary Act 2 program, which is designed to clean up and reuse contaminated commercial and industrial sites.

The partnership broke ground on Borski Park in 2023.

» READ MORE: Philly breaks ground on new 10-acre waterfront park in Bridesburg

Before Philadelphia reclaimed the site, its most recent commercial owner used it as a concrete dump. The dumping created a “lava mountain” along the shoreline.

This week marks the completion of the first phase of the park, which cost $7.1 million. That included environmental work, earthmoving, planting trees, creating the meadow, installing the half-mile trail, and building a bathroom, according to Christopher Dougherty, director of projects for Riverfront North.

The second phase, expected to cost about $5 million, will include an amphitheater, concert venue, and boardwalk facing the river, Dougherty said. He expects the work to take place over five years.

“The community recognized this as a great promontory that will frame the river and the bridges,” Dougherty said. “It’ll just be a spectacular spot.”

Stephanie Phillips, executive director of Riverfront North, said the ground was topped with two feet of material that serves as an environmental cap from the soil below, polluted by prior oil refining and operations around coke, a hard substance made from coal. The trail is made of a proprietary material, she said, that “acts like a sponge” to help manage stormwater.

Parts of the first phase, such as bathrooms, are still being worked on, Phillips said, and should be complete by August. But officials wanted to open the park sooner so that residents could use it this summer. Security lighting and cameras will also be installed.

On Wednesday, Phillips walked the trail, noting a meadow that rises above the lawn. She said soil was previously dumped on the site to raise the land. The soil provided a base for the new meadow.

“We started a dedicated community engagement in 2019 before we even broke ground,” Phillips said. “We wanted this park to open with a full roster of programs and neighborhood ownership.”

She said a volunteer Friends of Borski Park group was formed.

“We have 25 people in the friends group. And every time they come out, they like to linger,” Phillip said, noting the view. “It’s really wonderful.”

The park is part of the 11-mile North Delaware Riverfront Greenway, as well as the regional Circuit Trails and East Coast Greenway trail networks. Borski is the eighth and final park in Riverfront North’s original master plan created over 20 years ago.

“It is not every day that the city opens a new riverfront park,” Parks and Recreation Commissioner Susan Slawson said in an announcement of this week’s ceremonies.

The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the park at 3150 Orthodox St. On Saturday, a community celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with music and games.