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# Virginia Park saves face
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/virginia-park-saves-face/
- Published: 2004-06-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:28:08.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Pico, #archive-import

*$13M renovation should be done by next summer*

*By Daily Press staff*

PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — A $13 million expansion and renovation to one of the largest parks in Santa Monica is well underway.

The new Virginia Avenue Park will be fully staffed with all programs running by next summer, officials said. Once opened, it will feature 9.5 acres of parkland, basketball courts, playgrounds and community meeting rooms, as well as an outdoor stage.

Work crews this week are building new restrooms and an activity room off of Virginia Avenue, while renovating two buildings along Pico Boulevard that used to belong to Plastic Mart.

The Plastic Mart buildings — at 2101 and 2115 Pico Blvd. — will be used for a youth center, park activity rooms, administrative offices and for a fitness room for the Police Activities League, which serves local youths, said Karen Ginsberg, assistant director of City Hall’s community and cultural services department.

Previously covering 5.8 acres, the new Virginia Avenue Park will be bounded by Pico Boulevard to the south, Cloverfield Boulevard to the east and Virginia Avenue to the north. Residences along 21st Street border the park’s western edge. The police substation previously located on Pico Boulevard will be moved into the park.

“We’ve increased it significantly,” said Ginsberg, adding the project has been in the works for more than a decade. “The building square footage has more than doubled, so in terms of community spaces there will be a lot more available. I think it will be a heavily used park.”

Through the end of this month and into July, crews will be finishing work on the exterior of the park’s buildings, Ginsberg said. Then the workers will tackle landscaping, irrigation and the park’s playgrounds — one of which will include a “waterplay” fountain for children. Work on the project is expected to be completed by next June, and programs will be in place by July, Ginsberg added.

In total, the project is estimated to cost more than $13 million, according to budget documents. Though $10.6 of that money was set aside in previous years, another $2.5 million is in the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Contractors last August were awarded $9 million for the project, with a contingency of $1.3 million, Ginsberg added.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/060204-02_01.jpg)

Workers give the structures of Virginia Avenue Park a facelift on Tuesday morning. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 2, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060204.pdf?ref=smdp.com)