Tony Hawk retired from professional skateboarding in 1999, but his influence has remained. Now, it’s come to Jersey City.

The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency broke ground Tuesday on what will be the city’s largest skate park and park pavilion, funded in part by a Tony Hawk Foundation Grant. The nearly 12,000-square-foot skate park at Berry Lane Park will be the first poured-in-place concrete skate park in Hudson County.

“It’s incredible to see the transformation that continues to take place at Berry Lane Park, especially considering this 17-acre property was once filled with old rail lines, junkyards and auto repair shops,” said Mayor Steven Fulop in a statement. “With the new pavilion and skate park, Berry Lane Park will become the area’s premier park as we remain committed to invest in the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood.”

The project is expected to be completed by Neptune-city based contractor Tsivikos Enterprises Inc. by spring. The pavillion will feature walkways, curb extensions, benches, and bike racks.

The Tony Hawk Foundation uses a selective process to choose locations nationwide to invest in building high quality, public skate parks.

“Berry Lane Park is on its way to becoming a state of the art recreational facility, so it is an exciting time to break ground on the latest phase of construction,” said JCRA Executive Director Diana Jeffrey in a statement. “The city has done a tremendous job in transforming acres of brownfields into useable open space for our residents and community to enjoy.”

Plans for the skate park, which will be one of the state’s largest, include a lay back bank, hipped quarter pipes, a roller, A-Frame ledge combo, split level A-Frame with gap, three-stair rail, bump to ledge, kicker gap, flat rail over gap, clam shell, quarter pipe extension, pump bump, and a backyard bowl at a 6-foot maximum depth with a 3,600-square-foot circumference.

This is not the first skate park Tsivikos has built in New Jersey. The contractor built a 7,000-square-foot skate park in Plainfield in 2017.

The Berry Lane Park skate board project is partially funded by the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund Grant.