Riverfront reborn: Daytona Beach's Riverfront Esplanade is complete and open to the public

DAYTONA BEACH — It is another world, a tranquil place where gentle breezes drift in off the Halifax River, pink and lilac-colored flowers bloom under the sunshine, and water trickles down a meandering stream with waterfalls.

It is the southern end of the new Riverfront Esplanade, a tree-canopied escape within downtown Daytona that was opened to Beach Street business owners Thursday evening, one day before its public grand opening Friday at 5 p.m.

"I feel like this is a celebration for Beach Street merchants," said Cici Brown, who along with her husband Hyatt have donated tens of millions of dollars to make both the north and south ends of the esplanade possible.

She listed all the struggles Beach Street businesses have been through over the past several years, including the Orange Avenue bridge and road project that disrupted their operations, severe flooding from multiple tropical storms, COVID and construction of the esplanade.

"It just has to come to an end, and I think we're there," she said.

The grand opening celebration for the public was Friday night.

The esplanade has had to navigate its own challenges to become a reality. When the project was launched in March 2019, the plan was to spend around $15 million and complete the overhaul in two years.

Supply chain problems, inflation, a pandemic and the reality of what it would take to create the elaborate vision for the greenspace that runs along Beach Street more than doubled both the original cost estimate and the amount of time needed to get the work done.

The north end of the esplanade didn't open until June of 2022, and the southern end faced completion delays as well. Last week's unrelenting rain was the final interruption for the southern stretch, slowing down the completion of a riverside trail within the esplanade until Monday or Tuesday next week.

The cost has also soared. The initial $15 million estimate skyrocketed to what is expected to be a grand tally of $36.5 million.

Reinventing Daytona's downtown Riverfront

The 22.5-acre esplanade, which stretches from Main Street to Orange Avenue, was created by a collaboration among the Browns, the city and a private foundation.

Cici and Hyatt Brown established the Brown Riverfront Esplanade Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a board. Then in 2019, the foundation entered into a 50-year lease agreement with the city of Daytona Beach that allowed the foundation to redevelop, operate and manage the Riverfront Esplanade.

The land that makes up the esplanade was formerly Riverfront Park. The city still owns the property.

The esplanade has been planned, funded and run by the foundation.

The Browns are donating the vast majority of the $36.5 million that has made the project possible. The venture also received $500,000 in grants from the Daytona Beach Racing and Recreational Facilities District.

The city has been giving $800,000 per year, which was originally earmarked for maintenance and is now going toward capital costs.

The esplanade's $2.2 million annual operating and maintenance budget is now being covered by generous donations from several prominent community members and businesses. Key sponsors include Advent Health, Brown & Brown Insurance, Halifax Health, ICI Homes, Jon Hall Chevrolet, NASCAR and P&S Paving.

The Browns also donated another $3 million to create an endowment that will cover the salaries of the park manager and an assistant.

"This is a community effort. It's not just two or three people," Hyatt Brown said.

Daytona's Beach Street has new hope

Before the Beach Street business owners were treated to a stroll through the southern esplanade on Thursday ahead of the public, the Browns spoke to them at an invite-only event inside the Cinematique Theater on Beach Street.

Cici Brown said now people can have an evening meal in one of Beach Street's outdoor dining areas, watch the sunset, and then walk through the esplanade before heading home.

"This is a great community and we love it dearly," she said.

Hyatt Brown told the group how Beach Street corridor thrived in the 1940s, and he recalled playing in Riverfront Park as a child and being enchanted. As he got older he watched the park and downtown decline, but he said now there's "a new day dawning."

His family's business, insurance brokerage Brown & Brown, helped that effort tremendously by locating its new headquarters building on Beach Street. Now people need to live downtown, Brown said, noting that's poised to happen with some planned apartment projects.

What's inside the esplanade?

The creation of the esplanade began in June 2020. Riverfront Park closed to the public, construction fences went up and the sliver of land hugging the west bank of the Halifax River began to undergo a dramatic reinvention.

The mile-long property has been recontoured to add berms and rolling land. The riverfront is now peppered with new ponds and various types of palms, magnolias, Chinese elms, pink oleanders and yellow daisies.

The north end of the park has a unique raised overlook point behind the News-Journal Center, a jogging path, a picnic area, a fenced dog park with an agility course, swings overlooking the river, an event lawn that's been used for outdoor movies and festivals and dozens of mature trees, bridges and plazas.

Manatee Island, which is connected to the northern end of the esplanade by a wooden footbridge, will now be available to be rented for $1,500 per event.

The southern end has flower gardens, the lazy river, a trellis that could be used for weddings and other events, swings, plenty of benches, a jogging path, a shaded picnic area, and relaxing music pouring out of speakers. A highlight is a large state-of-the-art splash pad with colored lights and water that shoots out in constantly changing heights and rhythms.

The southern end of the park has more than 8,000 individual plants that are of 63 different varieties. There are 261 new trees including 74 cabbage palms, 112 rose plants of 10 different varieties, and 100,000 glass tiles creating mosaics of mayflowers and orange blossoms.

Both ends of the park have restrooms modeled on historic downtown buildings.

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"We couldn't be more pleased," said Beach Street restaurant owner Paul Zappitelli.

"For me, it's one of those monumental moments," said Beach Street property owner Jack White. "This is the start of the next generation."

You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach's downtown riverfront has a new $36.5 million attraction