MIDLAND, Texas — Talk about an upgrade: the 120 acres at Hogan Park are about to look a whole lot different.
We are talking a splash pad, outdoor grass amphitheater, turf baseball, softball, soccer and football fields, 7-mile trailhead, and a whole lot more.
It is all thanks to a $55 million renovation brought about by the Midland Quality of Place committee.
The committee is filled with people from the private and public sector, native Midlanders, transplants, and those young and old.
The members are determined to improve the quality of life here in Tall City.
Over the past two years, the committee has been working with the city council and Midland Development Corporation to get the Hogan Park project rolling.
Why Hogan Park? Well, it makes up more than 10% of the city's green space.
All those acres makes for a whole lot of opportunity.
“The location of Hogan Park is such a selling part for this project," Lori Blong, Midland City Council District 4 and Quality of Place committee member said. "It’s centrally located, it’s right off the loop, it’s a huge land area, that’s really going to attract Midlanders to this facility.”
Here are a few of the things the quality of place initiative has envisioned for the park:
“We’re gonna have baseball fields, soccer fields, football fields, covered basketball, volleyball, hike and bike trail in and around the park, connected trail to Sibley, splash pads, food truck pavilion, expanded green space, new pavilions and green space within the park for concerts, new park facilities, raised park facilities,” Chris Ginsbach, Quality of Place Committee member, said.
The big thing Blong wanted to include in the park’s renovation: better fields for youth sports.
"We really, really, need the sports facilities to level up in Midland," Blong said. "We have been exporting kids and teams to other communities to play club sports of all different types, so many families are traveling and spending money at hotels and restaurants in other communities because we haven’t had the amenities to attract those sports tournaments here.”
The City of Midland has committed $10 million to help renovate the park already. The other $45 million will be raised from donations.
As to why now? To the Quality of Midland Members the answer is simple: why not?
“Midlanders are amazing and I think people know that and that’s why they stay here," Kristina Johnson, Quality of Place Committee member, said. "So I think we want the park to just meet the level of character Midlanders have, this park and the initiative we're doing…it just is going to meet that quality of life.”
On Tuesday, the Midland City Council agreed to work with the Luck Design Team, out of Austin, to start construction on the park.
They will start working on the park in the next year and if everything goes as planned it will open in the spring of 2024.