A downtown nonprofit wants to take Williams Park and turn it into the likes of Bryant Park, a local and tourist gathering spot that includes the New York Public Library in Manhattan.

The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership enlisted Dan Biederman, who turned around Bryant Park in the 1980s, to help make it happen. His vision: Concerts, fitness classes, lectures in the park. They would accompany shuffleboard courts, carts with art supplies and programs for toddlers. The park will continue to host the Saturday Morning Market in the summer.

That could start to take shape by the end of this year for Williams Park, a focal point in the city’s urban core that has long been neglected and served as a gathering spot for people experiencing homelessness. The park is scheduled for an extreme makeover.

The city begins a $3 million project this spring to revamp the iconic bandshell; the Downtown Partnership will also spend the $800,000 it received last year from the Florida Legislature for more visible and accessible entrances, added planters, better lighting, a higher tree canopy, and landscaping under guidance from Biederman and in partnership with the city. The Downtown Partnership is also seeking private donations of about $500,000 for park programs and says it already has half of that committed.

Biederman said between Williams Park’s location, the residential buildings that surround it and relatively low crime, efforts to revive the park will work.

“We’re very optimistic this is going to be a great park,” said Biederman, who travels around the country revamping smaller city parks between 3 to 6 acres.

Williams Park became the city’s first park in 1888 and is about 3.3 acres, said Shaun Drinkard, the former senior vice president of public programming and operations at the Tampa Downtown Partnership who joined the St. Petersburg organization last year.

The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership has worked for years to spruce up the city’s urban core. It once pitched a special assessment for surrounding business owners that never took shape to help clean up parts of downtown.

After a restaurant owner across from Williams Park fatally stabbed a man and claimed self defense last summer, downtown residents and business owners rallied around the Downtown Partnership’s pitch for a program to help people experiencing homeless there and clean up the park.

Amy Foster, the city’s housing and neighborhood services administrator, confirmed that it will use a $1 million federal grant for street outreach, support for those experiencing homelessness with severe and persistent mental illness and connect those individuals with stable housing.

The city next week is initiating a plan to hire ambassadors and a special clean up crew for a Downtown Improvement District, which the Downtown Partnership has been pushing for.

Throughout downtown, the cleanup crew would help with litter and graffiti removal, add landscaping and report any code compliance issues to the city. Ambassadors would help tourists, residents and workers find their way around, build relationships with local businesses and deter nuisance behavior.

To help fund that project, the city is installing meters for 400 parking spaces that are currently free for two hours. Those spots are between Third Avenue North and Fourth Avenue South from First Street to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street. Those newly metered spaces are expected to provide an initial annual program budget of $630,000.

Downtown Partnership CEO Jason Mathis said his group is talking with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to turn a ticket office at Williams Park into a coffee shop with tables and chairs. Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority spokesperson Stephanie Weaver confirmed those discussions.

“We spent a lot of time talking about programming and what do we do to really change the dynamic in Williams Park so people see it as some place that’s welcoming for everybody in the community,” Mathis said.