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Thursday, October 09, 2008 —Construction is set to begin next month on Diamond Teague Park, which will serve as a green gateway from the Nationals’ baseball stadium to the development planned along the Anacostia River waterfront.
The first phase of park construction is expected to be completed in the spring, when the park will open.

Plans for the park include new piers for commercial and recreational vessels, garden and wetlands areas, and a 30-foot-wide riverfront promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The park’s design will incorporate the former Capitol Pumphouse on the site at First Street and Potomac Avenue SE.

The space ultimately could cost $20 million, with developers contributing a large portion of that. The latest donation came Monday, when Maryland-based Florida Rock Properties gave Mayor Adrian Fenty an $800,000 check toward work on the park.

FRP owns a nearly six-acre site next to the park and the baseball stadium that it’s developing into RiverFront, a mixed-use project that will include more than 1.1 million square feet of residential, office, retail and hotel space.

The park is named for Diamond Teague, a 19-year-old member of the Earth Conservation Corps who was shot to death Oct. 9, 2003, in Southeast.

“We are so grateful that this has finally happened,” said Florence Teague, who has been working to see the park’s construction through since shortly after her son’s death. Teague said she was informed it would be years before anything would get done and to keep pushing for the park.

“I’m just glad I stayed persistent,” she said.

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