Pavilion construction progresses at Greenbrook Adventure Park

The director of operations of Lakewood Ranch's Inter-District Authority said Greenbrook residents will begin to see progress on the construction of the new Adventure Park pavilion in January.

Tom Merrell said the steel roof of the $500,000 pavilion will be in the manufacturing phase through the end of December and will be installed by the end of January.

Construction of the restrooms will coincide with the pavilion installation, but they’re not expected to be finished until March.

Smoldering fireworks ignited and burned down the previous pavilion at the Adventure Park on July 5, 2023.

Since then, local residents have been waiting for a replacement.

“We saw them clearing it and cutting the weeds six months ago,” Waterside’s Kathy Surro said. “But then nothing happened. I’m so excited it’s coming back. We’ve been missing the pavilion.” 

Surro babysits for a 1- and 3-year-old twice a week. They visit Greenbrook on one of those two days every week because the kids love it. 

Surro prefers Greenbrook because the park is so far from the street and even the playground is set back from the parking lot. She feels safer with two little ones in tow. 

But given the challenges of potty training, she’s looking forward to getting the restrooms back. 

“It’s tough with the kids in the portapotties,” Surro said. 

The new pavilion will maintain the same color scheme as other shade structures in the park with a green roof and beige posts.

In other CDD news, during the October CDD4 board meeting, Vice President Keith Davey said the shell paths around the Adventure Park are so washed away that it’s like walking in sand on the beach.

Merrell said the paths are re-shelled annually regardless of hurricane season, but this season “wiped out the trails.” He expects the paths will be re-shelled within the next several months. 

“It would be nice to have it done when we open up the new pavilion,” Merrell said. “But that might not be the reality. We’re still in the throes of cleaning up from Hurricane Milton.”

While the activity areas of the park are cleaned up, there are still trees down in the woods, large piles of debris to be removed and “hangers” to deal with. 

Hangers are broken limbs that haven’t fallen yet, but Merrell said they’re dangerous because they will eventually fall. Because the hangers are a safety issue, they’re the top priority.