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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > June 1, 2009
City of Aurora selects World Festival Productions for site development project
Published June 1, 2009 - BizTimes Daily
Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. today announced that its consulting division, World Festival Productions, has been selected to participate and consult in a major site development initiative to create a new multi-purpose park for the City of Aurora, Ill., a southwestern Chicago suburb.
Under the agreement, World Festival Productions will serve the Aurora Park Collaborative, a design team consisting of public and private groups responsible for developing and implementing the RiverEdge Park Master Plan.
The RiverEdge Park Master Plan promotes redevelopment, recreation and resource restoration. Under the plan, the park will be intertwined with the Fox River. An outdoor performance venue will anchor the design as the primary functional element of the park.
“RiverEdge Park will offer a music venue, a garden and natural areas,” Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner said, “But the primary goal of the park is to attract additional mixed use development to the area, similar to the impact Millennium Park had in downtown Chicago and Henry Maier Festival Park had in Milwaukee. As a result, we will improve our tax base and strengthen Aurora’s economy.”
World Festival Productions will focus its design expertise on the outdoor performance venue. The vision calls for two permanent buildings; a permanent stage with sound/video towers and an ancillary building with permanent bathrooms, vending and an upper level viewing area. The park grounds surrounding the venue will be designed to accommodate additional temporary stages, portable restrooms and vending to serve approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people.
“Milwaukee has something very unique and special that other cities and markets are recognizing. It is a compliment to our city, Summerfest and to Henry Maier Festival Park when other municipalities reach out, study and work to recreate attributes we have here in Milwaukee,” stated Don Smiley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. “World Festival Productions allows us to maximize our resources and expertise in world-class site development, operations and event programming while generating incremental revenue for the organization.”
