At Rash Field Park, the sounds of volleyball players competing on sand courts have been replaced this summer by the whir of construction vehicles.
Most of the 8.3-acre waterfront park has been closed for more than a year as crews transform it. The second phase of the $35 million Rash Field Park project has faced weather and funding delays — and may just barely hit its target of a summer opening.
On a recent Thursday, construction workers spread sand and unpacked recliners, chairs and hammocks for the new beach area.
The project arose from a survey of city residents in 2013, the 40th anniversary of the Inner Harbor redevelopment. Asked what they would change about the Inner Harbor, Charm City residents said they wanted more green space, shade, trees and parks along the waterfront.
Rash Field is across the Inner Harbor from Harborplace, the one-time jewel of the waterfront that now sits nearly empty and awaits its own redevelopment.
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The nonprofit Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore secured funding for the park project under an agreement with the city, which owns the park. The nonprofit and the city both program events and help maintain the property.
The project’s first phase, completed in November 2021, includes a pavilion sponsored by BGE, play areas and a skatepark.
The second phase includes a fitness zone with outdoor exercise equipment, volleyball and pickleball courts, a beach, a plaza for outdoor concerts, a nature walk and an open field. It includes seating and 230 trees, just as Baltimoreans asked for back in 2013.
Most of the work is done, said Dan Taylor, president of the Waterfront Partnership. He said the group is planning to have a grand opening event early next month.
Mak Davis, 30, skates at the park on his off days during the week. It’s relaxed, but there are enough people for an audience.
“You’ll have joggers. People be around. It’s like a functioning atmosphere,” Davis said.
On a recent weekday, a Taharka Brothers truck pulled up to offer free ice cream and juice while it played popular R&B tunes. The sounds of kids playing and skateboards rolling filled the park.
The Waterfront Partnership’s programs aim to draw people to the park — even if they have to listen to beeping and drilling from the nearby work site while they’re there.
About 22,000 people use the first phase of the park in a given month, Taylor said, citing cellphone data.
“We kind of needed to prove to everyone — and by that, I mean like the people of Baltimore — that there was a fun, active reason to come down to the waterfront,” Taylor said.
Joseph H. Rash Memorial Field opened in 1976, named for a former food company executive and Baltimore park board president who died two years earlier. It was initially a recreational space for local sports teams, including teams from the old Southern High School and, later, Digital Harbor High School, then evolved into a staging area for big events and a home to beach volleyball leagues.
“A lot of people have very fond memories and thoughts having all those beach volleyball courts on the Inner Harbor like that,” said City Council member Zac Blanchard, who once played in the league and now represents the 11th District, which includes the park.
Many of Blanchard’s constituents have asked if the volleyball courts will return. They will. Others have expressed concern that dirt bike riders who often race along Light Street and Key Highway will venture onto the park’s new trails. He doesn’t see that happening.
“The south side of the Inner Harbor has always been the most boring part,” Blanchard said. “The whole south side of the Inner Harbor is now going to be nice, and people will want to use it.”
When 28-year-old Josh Hall has time, he likes to bring his three kids to the playground.
“I get to give the little ones something to do,” Hall said as his baby girl asked for another go on the metal slide. “You can see the view, sit by the water.”
A large blue-and-green banner along the work site has said for months that the second phase would open this summer, but Taylor said the crew has lost 33 workdays due to weather since starting Phase II in April 2025, including 21 during this year’s winter storm.
Team members have tried to make up for the lost time by working Saturdays, Taylor said.
Gaps in funding also delayed the project, Taylor said. In all, the state has contributed $18 million, the city $15 million, and private donors — such as BGE, Brown Advisory, T. Rowe Price, and the Abell Foundation — $2 million to complete the park.
Adam Boarman, the chief of capital development for the city’s recreation and parks department, said design, development, permitting and regulatory reviews can take two years. In this case, he said contractors also had to work with the Maryland Department of the Environment, since they’re building near the water.
Then construction often takes another few years, Boarman said.
“This has been a long time coming,” Boarman said, adding that the city should be proud of the result.
The park could open just in time for more change: This fall, MCB Real Estate is expected to start demolishing the Harborplace pavilions.
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