The city of Cape Coral broke ground for a new neighborhood park at Cultural Park Friday, with plans set to begin construction on additional new facilities in the coming weeks.

Cultural Park, one of the new parks the city promised residents as part of the $60 million Parks Master Plan, is expected to be completed within six to nine months. It will be funded with money from general obligation bond financing voters approved in 2018.

Mayor John Gunter said the new parks and the enhancements to the 17 established parks will improve the quality of life in the city.

“It’s nice to finally get these parks going. The neighborhood parks are very important because we reached out to the neighborhoods to find out what they wanted,” Gunter said. “Each neighborhood park has its own little twist for that community, so it’s great we engaged with them.”

Kerry Runyon, Parks and Recreation director, said it’s a great time to be in parks and rec for the city.

“This is like dream come true for us. It’s also a great time for the community because they get more parks, including this one which has three buildings already with three organizations at the facility,” Runyon said.

Cultural Park will be behind the theater, the historical society and museum and the Cape Coral Art League. It will have a playground, an event area with utilities, a rose garden, outdoor exhibit space, restrooms and walking and multi-use paths. It is expected to cost $3.9 million.

Some of the parks, including Cultural Park, were scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. However, COVID stalled construction.

Because of increased costs in labor and materials, the cost for all the parks is now expected to be between $70 million and $75 million, Gunter said.

“The cost for any type of horizontal construction is costing us more money. The vertical construction here, and all we’re doing is putting in a bathroom, are pretty much still at the numbers we expected.”

It is the second neighborhood park groundbreaking. The city broke ground for Gator Circle Park, near Island Coast High School in the northeast part of the city, earlier this month.