5th Street Plaza pop-up park planned for Bainbridge Green this summer

The corner of 5th and Bainbridge Street at Bainbridge Green in Queen Village is about to get a makeover.

Friends of Bainbridge Green announced last week that on May 25, 5th Street Plaza will be reactivated this spring and summer with a pop-up park, featuring nightly food and drink offerings from nearby restaurants and events like free yoga.

“For now our goal is to build the space and have it predominately be a passive use space for neighbors and visitors to use,” Jonathan Rubin of Friends of Bainbridge Green told Curbed Philly. “There will be bistro tables and chairs, and four new city benches will be installed. We expect people to take their lunch there, to just hang out and enjoy the green.”

The improvements to the space are part of the group’s long-running goal to improve all of Bainbridge Green, a stretch of median and some green space that runs in the middle of Bainbridge Avenue from 5th to 3rd streets. Since 2013, they have had plans to add 20,000 square feet of green space while eliminating 10 percent of parking.

For 5th Street Plaza, three parking spots will be temporarily removed and used for daytime programming and yoga classes. There will also be a setup for a bar and picnic tables, where three nights a week local restaurants will serve their food and drinks.

Rubin said a portion of the money raised from those restaurant nights will go toward funding the rest of the park, which is estimated to cost $20,000. Rubin says much of the funds raised from its Bainbridge Green Brunch Fest in October 2016 will fund the pop-up park.

“Eventually, when we receive funding and we build the park for real, this plaza will be a very active space, with small-scale concerts and performances,” Rubin said. “We support the arts and believe this plaza can be an active and engaging experience.”

• Queen Village residents still hope for bigger, better Bainbridge Green [Curbed Philly]