Drive past the corner of Alexander and Baker right now and you'll see chain-link fencing where a quiet, underused ball field used to sit. Walk the crushed-shell trail at McIntosh Preserve and you'll still get the same 2.2 miles of oak canopy and open prairie you've always gotten, but ask a city ranger what's coming next and the answer takes a while to finish.
Plant City's park system has spent years adding a splash pad here, a resurfaced court there. What's happening in 2026 is different in kind, not just degree. Two of the city's most visited green spaces are mid-rebuild at the same time, on public timelines, with dollar figures attached. If you already live here and use these places on a normal weekend, the version of Plant City's outdoor life you're used to is genuinely ending, and what replaces it looks nothing like the incremental upgrades the city has made before.
The rebuild at Rowena Mays is bigger than pickleball
Rowena Mays Park has sat at Alexander and Baker since 1978, and for most of that time it's been what City Manager Bill McDaniel called a passive park that was greatly underutilized. That changed on November 18, 2025, when the city broke ground on the Rowena Mays Athletic Park rebuild, a $5.9 million project.
The finished park will have two lighted basketball courts, two lighted tennis courts, eight lighted pickleball courts, a pavilion, grills, and picnic tables. Completion is targeted for November 2026, which means if the schedule holds, the courts open roughly a year after the ground was first broken.
| Feature | Rowena Mays before | Rowena Mays after (targeted Nov. 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Courts | None dedicated | 8 lighted pickleball, 2 lighted tennis, 2 lighted basketball |
| Use pattern | Passive, low foot traffic | Built for organized play and league use |
| Amenities | Basic field space | Pavilion, grills, picnic tables |
McDaniel framed the project as a generational shift in what residents actually ask for:
"As the generations pass, interests, needs, and desires change, and the city tries to keep up with those. Here we go, building our first outdoor pickleball courts. Based on the input we get, a vast majority of people are looking forward to it."
The city's design-phase reporting last year noted pickleball's growth nationally, with roughly 34.5 million players and Florida as the most popular state for the sport. Rowena Mays will be Plant City's first purpose-built home for it.
The park rebuild isn't happening in isolation, either. A separate city project is bringing Plant City's first splash pad to the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center property on South Maryland Avenue, alongside a new playground. Two different addresses, two different budgets, one clear signal: this is a system-wide push, not a single facelift.
McIntosh Preserve is getting the same treatment, just slower
If Rowena Mays is the loud project, McIntosh Preserve is the one McDaniel himself has called overlooked. The 363-acre preserve on the north side of town already has 2.2 miles of wide, ADA-accessible trail and a 30-foot observation tower known as the Osprey Overlook, reachable by a 1.5-mile round trip from the parking area.
Phase 2 construction, which the city planned to start at the beginning of 2025 with an 18 to 24 month build window, adds new trails, formal restrooms, a ranger station, and the project's signature feature: a hill built in the shape of Florida, roughly 60 feet tall, tall enough to clear the tree line and see downtown Plant City from the top. A pavilion is planned for its summit. Do the math on that window and the earliest estimate already came and went a few weeks ago. The outer edge of the estimate stretches into early 2027, which means anyone walking the preserve right now is looking at a project somewhere in its final stretch.
McDaniel described the preserve's momentum in blunt terms:
"The sleeper project that is happening right in front of everyone's eyes, but nobody is paying attention to, is McIntosh. That continues to move along."
The trail you assume is public isn't
Anyone who's opened a trail app while planning a walk in Plant City has probably scrolled past the Walden Lake Loop. It looks like exactly the kind of paved neighborhood trail you'd expect to find open to anyone. It isn't. The loop belongs to the Walden Lake Community Association, and access is restricted to members and their guests. It's a small but useful thing to know before you drive over expecting a public trailhead, and it's the kind of detail that only shows up if you've actually tried to walk it.
What already works while the construction fences are still up
None of this means you have to wait a year to get outside. McIntosh Preserve is quietly one of the better birding spots in the region right now, with more than 160 species documented on eBird. The Tampa Audubon Society has named it one of three Birdability sites in the Tampa Bay area, a designation tied specifically to its ADA-accessible trail surfaces.
A few things worth doing at McIntosh this season, construction or not:
- Walk the blue-blazed trail out to the Osprey Overlook tower. The round trip is 1.5 miles, and there are video monitors at the base for anyone who can't make the climb.
- Bring a leashed dog. The preserve allows them on its crushed-shell paths, and the wide, level surfaces make it an easy walk even with a puppy still learning trail manners.
- Watch for the preserve's winter programming to return. This past season's calendar added the McIntosh Green Market, a plant sale and community market pulling in local nurseries and growers, alongside returning traditions like the Great American Camp-Out and seasonal movie nights that run December through February.
If your dog needs off-leash room instead of a nature walk, Gilchrist Heights Dog Park on North Knight Street already exists and doesn't require any of this to finish first. And if you want a more mature trail experience while Rowena Mays gets its courts poured, Alderman's Ford County Park sits about 20 to 30 minutes away on the Alafia River, with a paved trail, exercise stations, a boardwalk section along the river, and dirt options for anyone who wants more distance.
Why this particular stretch matters
Cities don't usually rebuild two flagship parks on overlapping timelines. Plant City is doing it right now, with Rowena Mays targeting a November 2026 opening and McIntosh's Phase 2 somewhere in its final stretch behind it. That's not a small park getting a fresh coat of paint. It's the shape of daily outdoor life here changing on a schedule you can actually watch, one fence panel and one trail marker at a time.
If you're weighing what life actually looks like in a Plant City neighborhood, from the parks people walk on a Tuesday evening to the courts filling up on a Saturday morning, The Key Is Nikii can walk you through it street by street, whenever you're ready to look.
