Ferry Point Park plan adds a 20-foot slide, soccer fields and higher ground

Bronx Community Board 10 meets Thursday, Oct. 15, to look at a $160 million redesign of Ferry Point Park that is tied to Bally’s casino project. Once members have reviewed the plans, the board could send a letter backing them.

Hargreaves Jones, a landscape architecture firm, drew up the design after gathering input from the community. The work would touch five sites: two near Throgs Neck and the rest along the waterfront. The main draw for children would be a new playground built around a 20-foot-tall slide, with climbing equipment and a splash pad close by. Grown-ups would get shaded lounge spots and new walking routes by the water.

New fields and courts planned for Ferry Point Park

Away from the water, the plan adds tennis and pickleball courts, a baseball field, upgraded basketball courts, new plantings and shaded benches. On the shoreline side, three soccer fields, a scenic lookout and paved paths along the East River are proposed. The park’s NYC Ferry landing would stay.

Some of the work is about keeping water out. In certain spots, designers would build the terrain up as much as 10 feet higher so it stays clear of flooding. A detention basin already on the site would also shrink to about a fifth of the space it takes up now, leaving more open ground for visitors.

How the Bally’s casino ties in

The park work comes alongside the $4 billion resort Bally’s plans to build. The state granted the company its casino license in December. In its application, Bally’s describes a complex of more than 3 million square feet, with a 500-room hotel, a 2,000-person event center, 250 table games and 3,500 gaming machines.

Neighbors worry about how people from other parts of the Bronx would get to the park. There is no subway station nearby, and the closest bus stop is a long walk away. One community representative wanted a second baseball field added, so that students at Herbert H. Lehman High School, a short distance away, would have a field to host their own games.

“This park belongs to the community and residents helped shape the vision for its redesign from day one,” said Jessenia Aponte, the NYC Parks Bronx borough commissioner.

Anyone eager to try the slide will be waiting a while. For now the plan is in the hands of the Public Design Commission, a city body, and nobody expects shovels in the ground at the park before 2028.