Merriam Park Recreation Center Projects

Project Overview

Merriam Park, located at 2000 St. Anthony Ave, St. Paul, MN 55104, is a lively 10-acre park that serves the Union Park neighborhood. It has a recreation center and fun spaces for people of all ages.

With funding from the city's new Common Cent Sales Tax, the City of St. Paul Department of Parks and Recreation is planning to improve the park. These changes will help make Merriam Park even more welcoming and easy to use for everyone.

Funding Source: Common Cent Info(External link)

Planned Improvements Include:

Playground
Court Amenities (Tennis & Basketball)
Athletic Fields & Community Plaza

Project Updates

Final Concept:

Thank you to all that joined us at the April Open House to review the final concepts for Merriam Park Site Improvements! We are grateful for all the support and contiued enthusiasm for Neighbors and Design Advisory Committee members for helping this vision come together! We’ll plan to go out to bid this fall and pending the contract process anticipate some initial ground break items later this year, with the bulk of construction in to next spring and summer.
Please see boards from the Open House below:
- Merriam Park - Open House Boards (16.71 MB)
  
  Merriam Park - Open House Art Activity (1.06 MB)
Open House Comments link is below (Comment survey will close June 1st, 2026)
- Merriam Park Comments

Future Skate Park:

Summer of 2025, the City secured a $500,000 grant towards development of a new Skate Park for Merriam Park! The location of the updated skatepark will be identified as part of the overall Site Improvements Plan this year, with design and construction for the skate park as a separate, future phase.

Project Timeline

2024 - 2025 – Community Engagement & Concept Development
Fall 2025 - Spring 2026– Vision Plan, Design, & Engineering
Summer 2026 - 2027 – Final Plans, Bidding & Construction

Contact Us:

Project Manager
Mary Norton
Saint Paul Parks and Recreation
Mary.Norton@ci.stpaul.mn.us
P: 651-266-6407

Project Documents

Expand All

DAC Meeting 1

The City of Saint Paul and DAC conducted a site walk to gain a clearer understanding of the area and its current usage. The walkthrough provided an opportunity to observe the site firsthand, discuss its features, and identify key points of interest. Below is a summary of the site walk, along with a proposed timeline and pictures from the initial meeting.
- Merriam Park - DAC 1 Content_Site Walk Through.pdf (13.29 MB)
DAC Meeting 2

The City of Saint Paul and DAC met again to figure out what was most important and what could wait. They also looked at examples of designs to get a better idea of what improvements they want to make. Below is a summary of what they talked about, a video of the meeting, and the design examples and priorities.
- Video recording of DAC Priorities & Precedents click here
- Merriam Park - DAC 2 Meeting Notes and Comments.pdf (1.42 MB)
DAC Meeting 3
The City of Saint Paul project staff joined the Union Park District Council and DAC members at the "Ice Cream, Peanut Butter, and Jam" event in Merriam Park on September 21, 2024. Thank you to everyone who came by the Parks and Recreation table, staff were able to hear from lots of families and community members about their ideas for future park improvements!
- Merriam Park - DAC 3 Community Event-Tabling Photos.pdf (3.08 MB)
DAC Meeting 4
The City of Saint Paul and DAC reconvened to further refine the design direction. During the meeting, the design team presented the feedback gathered at the Ice Cream, Peanut Butter & Jam event. The group also reviewed key trends and insights that emerged from the community engagement session.
- Video recording of DAC Design Direction click here
- Merriam Park - DAC 4 Design Direction.pdf (27.79 MB)
Design Process Updates
- October 27th, 2025: Staff held a Design Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting to introduce the consultants to community members and share findings from an in-depth site analysis highlighting potential opportunities at Merriam Park. During the meeting, HGA presented three concept options to help identify community priorities and determine which elements were less important to include in the final design.
  Links to the concepts and site analysis can be found below.
- 2025 1027 DAC Meeting-Reduced.pdf (13.45 MB)
- September 20th, 2025: Staff attended the PB&Jam community engagement event. Parks staff were joined by consultants from HGA. The purpose of this event was to introduce the consultant team to the community and present concept designs to gather input on project priorities.
  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and shared their feedback!
- 20250918 - Merriam Park - Concepts.pdf (4.63 MB)
- 2024-2025 Surveys: Community feedback helped inform City staff about the key improvements and priorities residents would like to see in the park. This input was gathered through an online survey in 2024. Survey responses highlighted concerns about maintenance, park infrastructure, and issues with the playground equipment. A summary of the survey results can be found below.
- 20250715 - Merriam Park - Survey Results.pdf (1.55 MB)
  
  Open House
  On April 22nd, 2026 the City's design team hosted an open house to share final concept with community members for feedback. Meeting content is below.
- Merriam Park - Open House Boards (16.71 MB)
  
  Merriam Park - Open House Art Activity (1.06 MB)
  
  One-Page Flyer Merriam Park (738.84 KB)
  
  open-house-photosmerriam-park.pdf (2.26 MB)