“Behind The Headlines,” hosted by Eric Barnes, CEO of The Daily Memphian, airs on WKNO Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m. Watch the show now via the video link atop this story or listen to the podcast version that includes extended conversation not included in the television version.

The $61 million redesign of Tom Lee Park will be completed in the summer of 2023 — about a year from now.

But the park will be available before that for the Memphis in May International Festival’s two signature events to return to the park — the Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

“Those two dates won’t coincide,” Memphis River Parks Partnership President Carol Coletta said on the podcast version of the WKNO Channel 10 show “Behind The Headlines,” speaking of the dates for Memphis In May and the redesigned park’s completion and grand opening date.

“We will have our grand opening after Memphis in May is complete, and the reason for that is the park will be completely finished and we want Memphians to see a beautiful, completed park. We’ll do both.”

The park’s redesign is 40% complete and $59.7 million of the $61 million for the redesign has been raised with walkways and hills emerging from what had been a flat surface cleared down to the dirt at the outset of the work. Trees are also being planted.

The partnership recently hired a landscape architect.

Meanwhile, the contractor on the redesign project will remain involved in maintaining the landscaping for the first two years of the new park’s life.

As the features redefine the riverside park, Coletta said the hope is the park is identified as more than the home of Memphis in May.

“I think because the park has historically been so devoid of any features — any creature comforts — the only way Memphians could think about the park was in terms of Memphis in May … because otherwise it didn’t feel much like a park,” she said.

“Now, what we have endeavored to do with the help of the mediation agreement is to develop a park that is a gorgeous park that functions 365 days (a year) for Memphians and visitors but also accommodates a festival like a Memphis in May.”

The mediation process was between MRPP and Memphis In May leaders over a six-month period. The placement of trees in the park was one of the more detailed parts of the talks that produced a written agreement.

Coletta said without the detailed agreement, designing the park to meet the needs of the music festival and the barbecue contest wouldn’t had been possible.

“We know the linear feet. We know where the backstage needs to be and how much pavement there needs to be — what electric requirements there are — how you get from Riverside Drive into the park with heavy equipment,” she said. “We know all of that. And that was all specified in the mediation agreement. That’s why it took us so long, I think, to get that result.”

Some critics of the design have expressed concern about hills and similar contour features near the center of Tom Lee Park.

Coletta said they are critical to the activity at the center of the park, including a playground.

“You can’t have kids playing on the playground right next to speeding traffic. You can’t do it,” she said. “It will be unsafe and miserable. … The places we want it in the park are to ensure that it’s quieter, it feels safer — that’s where the hills are.”

The cut bank bluff across Riverside Drive from the park recently got lights and stone benches added.

The series of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) ramps down the bluff and across from the plaza northern entrance to the park at Beale Street Landing are the most visible part of a strategy to reorient how people access the park.

It relies on people parking near the three small parks atop the bluff at Vance, Huling and Butler streets and walking down the bluff to get into the park.

“That is an important entrance because of the accessibility,” Coletta said. “It’s really important to be able to access the park from the parking that already exists all over Downtown — use that parking heavily.”

But she said there is still work to be done on “connectivity” that is beyond the control of the partnership, which manages and operates 250 acres of riverside park land that includes Tom Lee Park.

“Downtown doesn’t really feel like a downtown if you’ve got surface parking all over it,” Coletta said. “We still have to work on the connectivity. Right off the bluff going east, you’ve got to make sure the sidewalks exist, the railroad crossings are good. It’s not in my control, but we are advocating for it.”

The city plans to have some surface parking where the Cobblestones meet the northern edge of Tom Lee Park. That will go with several dozen on-street parking spaces on the west side of Riverside Drive bordering the park and coupled with sheltered bike lanes.

City Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowen talked in general terms last month with City Council members about the parking plans as the historic river landing is being restored for better pedestrian access and access to the Wolf River harbor.

“That certainly is up to the city,” Coletta said of the details of the parking. “You have to be careful about how you provide parking — when you charge for it, how long people can stay. There are unintended consequences.”