MIAMI, FL.- Following years of planning and widespread anticipation surrounding the transformation of Miami’s Bicentennial Park into a new Museum Park, work crews have begun an environmental remediation process that will prepare eight acres of land on the park site for vertical construction. The remediation process marks a crucial first step toward the development of new buildings for Miami Art Museum and Miami Science Museum. The remediation process, managed by Suffolk Construction Company and John Moriarty & Associates of Florida, Inc., is slated for completion by the beginning of November 2010.

Museum Park’s remediation will be funded by the City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (Omni CRA). That allocation followed the announcements that Miami Art Museum is eligible to receive $100 million in Miami‐Dade County bond proceeds and that Miami Science Museum’s building plans have been approved by the City’s Urban Development Review Board.

Construction of Miami Art Museum’s Herzog & de Meuron‐designed building is scheduled to begin soon after remediation is completed this November with delivery planned for 2013; groundbreaking of Miami Science Museum’s new 250,000 square foot building by Grimshaw Architects will take place in late 2011 with the museum opening its doors in 2014.

“After years of patiently waiting for signs of life at Museum Park, the Miami community can now look at this beautiful waterfront site and see visible progress,” said Aaron Podhurst, chairman of Miami Art Museum’s board of trustees. “Museum Park’s future role as a cultural hub for the arts and sciences in the heart of Downtown Miami is gradually transitioning from a vision into reality.”

“Beyond providing our community with world‐class venues for arts and science exploration, the development of Museum Park will yield a short‐term impact in the form of economic development in our urban core and much‐needed job growth,” said Dan Bell, co‐chair of the Miami Science Museum board of trustees. “Museum Park will be a ‘triple win’ for our City’s museums, its residents and visitors, and our local economy.”

The construction of Museum Park is expected to direct $20 million to local businesses, create more than 1,700 jobs, including 100 new museum jobs, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue, and attract up to 600,000 visitors to downtown Miami annually, according to a report from the City of Miami’s Museum Park Community Benefits Committee. The park is expected to spur a $2 billion economic impact in its first decade.