TAMPA, Fla. — A massive new park is now open in New Tampa, and officials say it’s been quite the journey to get to this opening.

What You Need To Know

  • Hillsborough County held a ribbon cutting for a brand new park in the New Tampa neighborhood

  • Branchton Park is over 40 acres and is now home to a state of the art playground and splash pad

  • This opening is for the first phase of the project for this park, with the second phase being complete in the next couple years

  • In addition the park's current amenities, the county plans on building pickleball courts, a dog park and a longer walking trail

Hillsborough County officials say the expanded Branchton Park has taken about 10 years to get to Thursday’s opening.

“I just remember thinking that we could really do something special and make a destination here,” said Ken Hagan, a commissioner for Hillsborough County.

Hagan says he lived near the site of Branchton Park for about six years and always drove by here wondering if something like this would ever happen.

Now, it has, or at least its first phase has.

“This park has been transformed into a $6.7 million park in the northeast Hillsborough County community,” Hagan said.

It’s the first accomplishment in a massive project to bring a destination park to this part of the county.

Branchton is over 40 acres and currently includes a splash pad, playground and part of a walking trail.

In the next couple of years, according to officials, there will be pickleball courts, a dog park and more additions to the walking trail.

“When we walk out here,” said Jason Mackenzie, Hillsborough County’s park planner and development manager, “we see the smiles. We see the laughter. We see people enjoying themselves. That’s what makes all this worth it.”

They modeled the idea for Branchton to be sort of like Carrollwood Village Park in the northwestern part of the county, which has playgrounds, walking trails and a performance space.

With amenities like that at Branchton, Mackenzie says they want to make this place worth driving 30 or 40 minutes to get here.

“A park where when you entered the park, all of your worries, nobody cares could just disappear and you can enjoy nature,” he said.

Ultimately, this place is about making memories so that kids can enjoy the things that we enjoyed when we were kids.

The county says about 45,000 people live within 10 minutes of this new park.

They say the rest of the park’s second phase, which includes building other spaces like an events pavilion, will be done in a couple years.