Whitpain exploring possible public-private partnerships for Mermaid Lake

Whitpain Township is exploring the possibility of utilizing public-private partnerships as it moves forward with the planning to how to utilize the Mermaid Lake property its purchased in 2020.

Below is the announcement from the township:

As part of the ongoing planning process for Mermaid Park, the Township recently released a request for information or RFI.  An RFI will help gauge potential interest in possible public private partnerships for the property, but it is not binding and is not a formal request for proposal process.

A public survey indicated that residents were interested in paying for some park improvements through public private partnerships, and the RFI will be a leading indicator in determining if this is a viable funding mechanism.

AroundAmbler.com has no knowledge of any interest from any private companies, however, there is one company in the region that has been very active in utilizing public-private partnerships especially to grow its billboard business. The proximity of Mermaid Lake to 476 can’t go unnoticed.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article about Catalyst Experiential from 2019 that provides details on how it constructed a dog park for a Pennsylvania township. Catalyst basically pitches municipalities to allow it to construct a billboard in return for it solving a community need.

Our sister site for the Conshohocken area, MoreThanTheCurve.com, also reported on Catalyst offering to construct a parking lot in West Conshohocken in return for allowing digital billboards at the intersection of Matsonford Road and Front Street (near the base of the bridge to Conshohocken). This proposal never moved past the pitch phase.

More to come.