Tom Lee Park on Riverside Drive in Downtown Memphis, is set to reopen Sept. 2, 2023, with a complete overhaul to the original design of the park. The new landscape includes new basketball courts, a playground, a sunset pavilion, nighttime lighting, and more.
During the 2023 Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival, roughly 80% of the newly designed park was open to the public. Carol Coletta, President and CEO of Memphis River Parks Partnership, says the feedback from the music festival was positive, with people saying "they liked the seating and shade" created by the new design.
However, Coletta adds that the new park comes with some unknowns, like damage costs from the festivals held in the park, which will have to be worked out in the years to come.
Coletta appears on this week's Channel 10 Behind the Headlines with host Eric Barnes and The Daily Memphian reporter Bill Dries. In addition to the reopening of Tom Lee Park, Coletta talks about the future of Mud Island and Beale Street Landing.
