Instead of offering verdant vistas, the area’s next big park will be a concrete home in the shadow of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation announced Thursday it had signed an agreement with the Charles River Conservancy to build a long-promised skate park at the North Point Park in East Cambridge. Work is expected to begin in 2013, after more than 10 years of starts and stops.
The 40,000-square-foot skate park will be the largest in New England. Skateboarders, inline skaters, and BMX bikers will all be able to use the park for free once it opens, and spectators will also have room to watch.
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“We look forward to seeing the skate park built and thriving,” DCR Commissioner Edward M. Lambert, Jr. said in a statement.
The conservancy will fund the construction of the park with $2.5 million it has raised from private donors, including the Lynch Foundation, the Highland Street Foundation, and the Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority, the City of Cambridge, and the state have also provided funding.
“We are proud to be spearheading this project in an historically underutilized area, and hope that this facility will serve to better the community and help to foster more active use of the parklands,” Renata von Tscharner, president of the Charles River Conservancy, said in a statement.
Johanna Kaiser can be reached at johanna.yourtown@gmail.com