The newest part of Northville's riverfront is the furthest along. The Rouge River ran through a culvert under the old fairgrounds and racetrack for more than 60 years. When Friends of the Rouge sampled it in June, they found 11 fish species living in it. Meanwhile, River Street's drainage and parking, the Downs Central Park, and the trail connections into the rest of town are all still under construction this fall.
Downs River Park is the first fall for the new riverfront, and that gap shapes how you can use it. The water and the trails along it are ready. The streets and connections around them will be closed or fenced into spring.
A river that was a pipe
In 1962, about 1,200 feet of the Rouge was put into a culvert to create land for fairgrounds and later the Northville Downs racetrack. Hometownlife reported that the channel was opened back up in August 2025. It now runs through a 10-acre bioswale park with 1,400 hardwood trees, native wetland plants, and a winding channel built to slow and filter stormwater.
Ten months after that, on June 15, 2026, Friends of the Rouge surveyed the new stretch. According to the group's July 8 newsletter, the crew caught 176 fish from 11 species. Two of them, the rainbow darter and the mottled sculpin, are species the group identifies as pollution-intolerant. The others were largemouth bass, bluegill, creek chub, white sucker, johnny darter, brook stickleback, blacknose dace, bluntnose minnow and fathead minnow.
At the June 17 opening, Mayor Brian Turnbull mentioned "nine different species of fish." That was his summary of the Friends of the Rouge visit earlier that week. The group's own count is 11, and it's the more precise number. Either way, fish that don't tolerate dirty water moved into this channel within a year of it seeing daylight. In his Sept. 29 newsletter, the mayor suggested walking the park and peering "under the bridge at all the aquatic life."
The park around the river is just as complete. It has 2.5 miles of walking and biking trails, pedestrian bridges, native landscaping, and more than 1,400 new trees. The relocated Mary Gilbert Log Cabin is also on site, and the city says it will eventually serve as a welcome center. City leaders put the project cost at $19.6 million. Lead developer Hunter Pasteur contributed $17.8 million. Public money included $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds from Wayne County and a $1 million brownfield grant from EGLE, Michigan's environmental department.
The edges are still being built
The river is ready. The streets, parking and trail links that would make the park easy to reach are not. Here's where each piece stood in the mayor's Sept. 29, 2026 newsletter, the most recent update available:
Piece of the corridor | Status as of Sept. 29, 2026 | What's next |
|---|---|---|
Downs River Park | Open since June 17 | Log cabin to become a welcome center eventually |
Ford Field gateway overlook plaza on Hutton St. | Done | Dedication in October |
Downs Central Park | "Will be completed soon" | Dedication in spring |
River Street | Construction ahead | Drainage, street, utility poles and parking, late fall into spring |
Seven Mile Road and pathway | Road finished | Pathway still being finalized in front of the market area |
Linden Street | Under construction | Completion late fall |
River Street matters most to anyone walking the park, because it runs right along it. A June WXYZ report listed parallel parking beside the park and other access improvements as future work. The city's late-fall-into-spring River Street schedule includes the parking. So the park will probably be easier to reach next spring than it is this month. That's an inference from the published timeline, not an announced date.
The whole riverwalk is on a longer timeline. In August, the mayor wrote that the pathway system from Mill Race Village to Cass Benton Park should be ready "in the near-term." He also said that once finished, it will link city, township, county and state parks into trails that run north to Mackinaw City and south to Ohio. A February 2026 task force presentation listed one missing link: a 1,200-foot riverwalk extension through Ford Field East, with two bridges and two pedestrian crossings. Construction on it is scheduled for summer 2028.
Ford Field got the steep part fixed first
The Ford Field end of the corridor is newly finished too. Its upgrades were about getting down the hill. The city's grant tracking sheet describes the Hutton Street gateway as a barrier-free entry built to cross a steep slope and stabilize the hillside. It cost $1.445 million in total. A $910,000 grant covered most of it, the city put in $400,000, and $135,000 came from other sources, including a Downtown Development Authority contribution. The plaza sits by the CVS, and the mayor reported it finished as of late September.
Next to it, the Randolph Drain and Serenity Point riverbank project is listed at $979,800. In August, the mayor pointed visitors to the ADA entryway and paths, Serenity Point, and a new fence at the waterfall area. Serenity Point is also where the city plans a central art monument featuring 200 Northville families for the 2027 bicentennial.
Six paintings to look for between the cabin and Mill Race
The corridor also has art. Northville is one of the Detroit Institute of Arts' Inside|Out partner communities for 2026. The DIA's Northville map places six outdoor reproductions around town, and two of them are in the new park.
- "In the Garden" by Mary Cassatt, at the River Park Log Cabin, River St. and 7 Mile
- "On the Nile" by Sanford Robinson Clifford, at the River Park Overlook, River St. near Johnson Ave.
- "The Wedding Dance" by Pieter Bruegel, at Lucy & the Wolf, 102 E. Main St.
- "Solitude" by Jean-Léon Gérôme, at the Northville Community Center, 303 W. Main St.
- "Still Life: A Letter Rack" by Collyer, at American Legion Northville, 100 W. Dunlap St.
- "Girl and Laurel" by Winslow Homer, at Mill Race Historical Village, 215 Griswold St.
Taken together, the six stops cover the same ground the finished riverwalk is meant to connect, from the cabin at Seven Mile up through downtown to Mill Race. The sources don't include a street-by-street route map, and River Street work will change some approaches this fall. Treat the list as a set of stops, not a marked trail.
The mayor describes the riverwalk's south entry as across from the Chamber's Farmers' Market. In the same update, he suggested pairing a park walk with a stop at Custard Time. Custard Time has served frozen custard and Guernsey hard-scoop ice cream outside downtown since 1976. It closed for the season on Oct. 4, so that stop waits until next year.
What's on the October calendar near the river
The market by the south entry keeps going after the custard stand closes. These dates come from the mayor's Sept. 29 newsletter:
- Oct. 9, 5 to 8 p.m.: "If Stones Could Talk" tour at Oakwood Cemetery
- Oct. 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Maybury Farm Festival, with the Maybury corn maze open weekends
- Oct. 12, 8 to 10 a.m.: The year's last car show at the Northville Community Market area
- Oct. 14, 7 p.m.: Houdini in Detroit at Mill Race Village
- Oct. 15, 7 p.m.: Movie in the Park during Witches Night Out, showing Hotel Transylvania downtown
- Thursdays through Nov. 1: The Chamber's Farmers' Market, which the mayor tags with "Get your pumpkins"
The mayor also notes that Parmenter's Cider Mill is open. A Thursday market visit is the easiest way to combine the calendar with the river, since the market is across from the park's south entry. From there you can head toward the cabin, the Cassatt, and the bridges.
Why this fall's version won't last
Construction keeps going on the rest of the site. Toll Brothers is building homes and condominiums on the south end of the former racetrack property, and apartments, condos and retail are planned for the north section.
Central Park opens in spring and River Street reopens after its rebuild. The Ford Field East link is scheduled for 2028, and the Serenity Point monument is planned for the 2027 bicentennial. Every one of those projects changes how you get into the park. None of them changes the river. Fish that need clean water are already living in a channel that was still a buried culvert until August 2025.
I'm a retired firefighter with a contractor's background, so a project like River Street's drainage and parking rebuild gets my attention. Most people only notice it when a road reopens. If you live near The Downs and want to know what the next year of construction means for your street, your commute, or your home's value down the road, I'm happy to walk through it with you. Craig Hickey | Let's Connect.
