Vision for Davis Park in Rockford includes a ‘starry night’ concert stage, skatepark and more

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A concert stage with overhead lighting reminiscent of a starry night could one day be the focal point for more than 3,000 fans on the great lawn of Davis Park.

That’s part of the vision for a $12 million revamp of the only city-owned park, which spans about 7 acres along the riverfront at 320 S. Wyman St.

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The city held an open house on Wednesday at the adjacent Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront, 416 S. Main St., to show off its early concepts for reactivating the park with a new playground, skatepark, recreation path, concerts, concession stands, restrooms and pieces of public art. Dozens of people attended to get a glance at the project and offer feedback on the conceptual design.

The city plans to complete its designs by fall and put the project out to bid for a spring start to construction.

“Davis Park has always had a special place in the community’s heart. We all have our opinions and we want to be invested and engaged in the future of the park,” said Kayla Acton, executive director of Rockford Dance Co.

Acton said she can see her organization utilizing the stage in the future. With her background in production, she wanted to offer the city feedback on ways to enhance the stage area while keeping the cost for the community low.

“Overall, I’m just really excited that it’s being redeveloped and it’s going to be an incredible space for the community to play, engage and perform,” she said.

The stage is intended to be multifunctional, serving as the home for everything from weddings to movie nights, small performances for a few hundred people and large concerts for thousands.

“We don’t want a stage that sits empty 360 days a year but has five large concerts,” City Engineer Tim Hinkens said. “We want it to be able to have a large concert, but we also want people here every day.

“The more people you have in this park, the more use it gets, the safer it will seem, the more it will attract other people.”

Conceptual designs from SmithGroup and Fehr Graham show an open-air stage near the river at the south end of the park that can be utilized for performance facing either north or south, depending on the scale of the show.

“The LED lights coming down like a starry night type of feel, but still enough to light a stage,” Hinkens said.

Bookings for concerts and shows would be handled by the Rockford Arena Venues Entertainment Authority, which contracts with ASM Global to operate and draw shows to the BMO Center, Coronado Performing Arts Center and Davis Park.

“The stage is built to the specifications that RAVE wants to secure acts,” Mayor Tom McNamara said. “When we say we want it really well activated, they need to perform. So we have been listening to them and their expertise throughout this entire time period.”

Hinkens said designs are about 60% complete. On Wednesday, the city showed examples of potential playground and skatepark designs to get feedback on what the end product will look like.

“We want these to be destination-level amenities,” Hinkes said. “We want people from Janesville, Wisconsin, to say I want to go to that skatepark, or I want to check out that park.”

Hinkens said the park improvements are designed to be “pad ready” so more upgrades can be made when funding is available in future phases of the project. Plans for an urban beach and splash pad were removed from the city’s initial plans for reactivating the park, but those could return in future phases.

“I know the word is overused, but I do believe it will be a transformational gathering place for our community,” McNamara said.

The city said it will try to work its construction around major gatherings coming to Davis Park next year, including the 70.3-mile Ironman triathlon on June 22 in which swimmers exit the river into Davis Park. The triathlon is also slated to come here in 2026 and 2027.

“We’re going to make sure we take the necessary steps so that we can accommodate that event,” City Administrator Todd Cagnoni said. “We’re not quite certain yet on how we stage construction, so that may have an impact on the timeframe because we then also want to get it done for the following year.”

The city also still needs to determine how to stage construction during the annual Davis Park gathering for the Fourth of July fireworks display, which would happen about two weeks after the triathlon.

The park connects to the Embassy Suites, a 13-story downtown hotel and conference center that opened in July 2020 after a multimillion renovation of the former Amerock factory. It’s blocks away from two other renovations: the soon to open Water Power Lofts and the under construction Colman Yards complex at the former Barber Coleman site.

“It’s the perfect addition to the revitalization of this whole corridor,” Torina said. “It’s fresh, it’s modern, it’s inclusive, it’s bringing Rockford up to date.”

Want a closer look at the plans?

Go HERE to see all the renderings.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas