The Detroit Riverwalk is now continuous from Belle Isle to Wilson Park

The Detroit Riverwalk became continuous on October 25, 2025, the day Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park opened on the west riverfront. A new stretch of path west of Riverfront Towers closed the last gap, and the system now runs unbroken for roughly 4.75 miles from Gabriel Richard Park, just east of the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle, west to Wilson Park.

You can now walk, jog, bike, or skate the full length without leaving the path. Gabriel Richard Park anchors the eastern end. The new 22-acre Wilson Park anchors the western end, at 1801 West Jefferson between 8th Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard, with on-street parking along Jefferson and Rosa Parks and additional paid parking nearby at the Bagley Mobility Hub on Wabash Street.

The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy led the project. Closing the western gap meant working out access across privately held parcels just west of the former Joe Louis Arena site, and the final segment opened alongside the park. The Conservancy describes the new connection as letting people move between Belle Isle, downtown, Eastern Market, and Michigan Central along the Riverwalk and its connected greenways.

The full goal is 5.5 miles of continuous public riverfront, and the October opening brings the system close to that mark. Board chairman Matt Cullen called the park "a massive step towards the completion of our vision for 5.5 miles of perpetual public access to our revitalized riverfront," in the Conservancy's grand-opening announcement.

The path also reaches beyond the water. The Southwest Greenway, a paved trail running from Wilson Park to Bagley Street, links the riverfront to Michigan Central and to the Joe Louis Greenway, a 27.5-mile loop that connects nearly two dozen Detroit neighborhoods plus Highland Park, Hamtramck, and Dearborn. Together those routes make it possible to travel between the riverfront and the wider network largely off the road.

The Riverwalk has been built in pieces over roughly two decades, including the Dequindre Cut, the Uniroyal Promenade, Robert C. Valade Park, and the stretch through the former Detroit Free Press parcel where Wilson Park now sits. USA Today readers have voted it the best riverwalk in the country.

The final push came after a hard stretch for the Conservancy. Former chief financial officer William Smith pleaded guilty on November 15, 2024, to wire fraud and money laundering, admitting he embezzled from the nonprofit between November 2012 and May 2024 and agreeing to pay no less than $44.3 million in restitution, according to federal prosecutors. He was sentenced in April 2025 to 19 years in prison.

To keep the riverfront work moving through the fallout, the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan set up a $35 million fund to pay contractors and finish the remaining projects, including Wilson Park. The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation contributed a $10 million grant, and the Wilson Foundation backed a $25 million line of credit against the rest, per the Community Foundation. The Conservancy has since brought in new leadership and new financial oversight.