Site work is under way on the McEuen Park project near downtown Coeur d'Alene for which Contractors Northwest Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, recently landed a $14.6 million contract, says Tony Berns, director of Lake City Development Corp., that city's urban renewal agency.

The project will convert the 15-acre McEuen Field from a seasonal baseball facility to a year-round multipurpose park at the base of Tubbs Hill, just east of the Coeur d'Alene Resort.

The city of Coeur d'Alene owns the project, and LCDC is putting up most of the funding through tax increments it collects from within the downtown urban renewal district to pay for facilities and infrastructure.

The work will include demolishing and rebuilding Front Avenue between Second and Sixth streets and replacing the city's Third Street parking lot with a parking structure that will be at grade with the park beneath Front Avenue, Berns says.

Park amenities will include a grand plaza with an open pavilion, a play area, a splash pad, basketball and tennis courts, trails, a dog park, and restrooms.

CNI is expected to complete work on Front Street and the parking structure by November. Other structures, including the pavilion and restrooms, are expected to be significantly complete by the end of the year. Some parts of the project will be completed in 2014, Berns says.

Baseball fields will be removed, and a sports complex is being planned separately from the McEuen project to replace them.

The McEuen project will retain the Third Street boat ramp, but will move boat trailer parking from the west side of McEuen Park to a lot that would be accessed from Seventh Street, south of city hall on the east side of the park.

Team McEuen, a design team led by Miller Stauffer Architects PA, of Coeur d'Alene, designed the project.

Six construction contractors bid on the project, including Spokane contractors Lydig Construction Inc., which bid $15 million, and Leone & Keeble Inc., which bid $15.9 million.