A $500,000 federal grant will jumpstart development of a park just north of the Broadway Avenue Bridge in northeast Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board was one of eight locales nationally to score Department of the Interior money in a new program that provides money to disadvantaged areas.

The money will help to develop the first park in the Sheridan neighborhood, which lies north of Broadway and stretches a dozen block inland from the Mississippi River. The Park Board already owns most of the site, which is tucked between the river and former Grain Belt complex.

The Park Board will match the federal money, meaning that $1 million will be available to create the park around a riverside veterans memorial dedicated last year.

A master plan for the area calls for the memorial, a large grassy open play field, a playground and a picnic area. A pedestrian path would run close to the river, and a bike path would run on the inland side of the park, as part of the East Bank Trail connecting Boom Island Park and NE Marshall Street. That trail is separately funded and is scheduled to open next year if a necessary easement can be obtained from Graco Minnesota Inc.

The $1 million will fund about half of the expected ultimate development cost for the park, according to park design officials.

"This is just one of the many in a string of parks we intend to have as you drive up the riverfront," Park Board President Liz Wielinski, who represents the area, said Tuesday after the grant was announced.

The Sheridan park is one of number envisioned in the 1999 Above The Falls master plan for redeveloping the city's upper riverfront.