Closed for years, Columbia’s Finlay Park to reopen after $24M+ remodel
Downtown Columbia’s Finlay Park will finally reopen this November.
After being closed for years, first due to disrepair and then to make way for sweeping improvements, the city announced Friday that it will host a grand re-opening event on Nov. 15 to celebrate the park’s more-than-$24 million transformation.
For more than a decade, the once beloved park near the center of downtown Columbia has left a lot to be desired. The park’s centerpiece, a 27-foot spiral fountain, had been dry since at least 2015, and the park’s amenities fell into disrepair.
City leaders have since at least 2019 been talking about what to do about the languishing property, which stretches across the space between Taylor and Laurel streets, nearly at the center of the city’s downtown grid.
In 2023, they broke ground on a construction project that promised the restoration of the iconic fountain, the addition of “strolling gardens,” new event space, playground equipment and more. And the process also included cost increases: rising from an estimated $18 million when first pitched in 2019, to $21.5 million by 2022, to now more than $24 million as the work nears completion.
But after years of planning and new construction, the park finally has an opening date.
And city leaders have plans to make sure the park doesn’t meet the same fate it had before. Those plans include budgeting $2 million for operations during the first year of the park being open to the public, and hiring park rangers to keep an eye on the park.
There had also previously been nonprofit organizations that provided meals to homeless residents at the park, and city leaders have said they want to curb that practice moving forward, instead hoping to centralize where those meals are provided at a different location.
Among the new features at Finlay Park include a new-and-improved event stage, security measures including cameras and call boxes, and public art installations.
The Nov. 15 grand opening promises to show off the remodeled park’s event capabilities, as the Jam Room Music Festival, the popular indie rock celebration that has taken over a fall Saturday on Columbia’s Main Street for more than a decade, is set to make its Finlay Park debut that same day. The festival announced that it will present 10 acts on two stages, including the park’s brand-new amphitheater. Hopkins native and current “America’s Got Talent” contestant Steve Ray Ladson and cult indie rock band Silkworm will be featured among the performers.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 9:50 AM.
