Coming to Downtown Erie Griswold Plaza to become Station Square.
Pickleball, anyone? Erie businesses plan to transform Griswold Park, adding courts, ice rink, more
Jim Martin
Erie Times-News
There is activity on all sides of Erie's Griswold Park.
Union Station, headquarters of Logistics Plus and home of The Brewerie at Union Station, is fully occupied on the south side. The former post office is now office space and just down the block on 13th Street, Erie businessman Pete Zaphiris has plans to transform the former Metropolitan Dance Club.
But "there's not much going on in Griswold Park," said Jim Berlin, founder and CEO of Logistics Plus.
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That's about to change.
Great Lakes Insurance Services Group LLC has announced plans to revamp Griswold Park and rename it Station Square Ltd. The new park, shown in this rendering, will include an ice rink, pickleball courts, a new fountain, and musical swings.
Great Lakes Insurance Services, owned by Zaphiris, announced that a group of local business owners and professionals have been working with the city to rename and reinvent what will be known as Station Square Ltd.
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According to the Great Lakes, the park will have a synthetic ice rink, pickleball courts, musical swings, and a new fountain with lighting.
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Berlin, who has contributed $100,000 toward the project, said the idea began with a quest to find activity space for his company's 135 Erie-based employees. It quickly grew, he said, into creating a space that the public could use.
"It's a great idea and I think it's kind of caught on," Berlin said. "There is so much going on in the Erie Insurance area of downtown, but not so much in our neck of the woods."
Construction should start this summer
Zaphiris, who will be covering much of the construction costs for the project, said the group hopes to break ground by mid-July and will be doing much of the work over the following 45 days.
Zaphiris credits Berlin with the original idea, but said a long list of businesses are involved, including Rick Griffith Properties, Kellar's: A Modern Magic & Comedy Club, Erie News Now, Sisinni Legal, Urban Engineers and The Brewerie At Union Station.
Zaphiris said the group is eager to do for the neighborhood what the Erie Downtown Development Corp. is doing for the neighborhood around Perry Square.
"It's underutilized," Zaphiris said of the park. "With what the EDDC is doing downtown, our goal is to activate this space and make it lively, family-oriented space."
One of the highlights will be musical swings being purchased from a company in Montreal.
"The more you swing, the more music you make," Zaphiris said. "Each swing is turned to a different note."
Tina Mengine, who has been advising the group as CEO of the Erie County Redevelopment Corp., is excited about the prospect of new activity outside her office window at the former Griswold Post Office.
"All the neighbors are excited about it," she said. "I think it's a great idea. It's a park that doesn't get much use and this end of town doesn't get a lot of attention. I think there are a lot of cool things that will draw people."
Contact Jim Martin at 814-870-1668 or
jmartin@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNMartin.
For more information about the park, visit eriess.com
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