Connecting communities is the goal of the revamp of Buffalo’s LaSalle Park.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and Ralph Wilson’s widow, Mary Wilson, announced Sunday more money is on the way for the project to transform the park into the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park.

“The city of Buffalo will contribute $3 million to the comprehensive park project,” Brown said.

“We are committing an additional $5 million to the pedestrian bridge,” Wilson said.

“And the state will contribute $10 million to the project,” Cuomo said.

The project to revamp the park started last year when the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation committed $50 million to the venture. The additional funds will go towards a new lagoon and replacing the park’s Hudson Street Bridge. Cuomo believes developing the waterfront is one of the key pieces to Buffalo’s resurgence.

“The progress in Buffalo and Western New York is undeniable. You see it in every statistic, you see it in young people coming back, job creation, unemployment is half of what it was, the success is undeniable,” Cuomo said.

One of the major goals for the project is to connect Buffalo’s west side with the waterfront.

“The west side can enjoy, can have the green space, the ballfields, the pool, everything the new park is going to be, but it’s also connected to the west side and communities that have for a long time been blocked from the waterfront,” Cuomo said.

Wilson said her late husband loved connecting communities and would have been 100 percent behind this project.

“The only thing missing here today is Ralph, but I think his spirit is here and he is really just going crazy giving all this money away,” Wilson said.

Cuomo said a design for the new pedestrian bridge will be chosen at the end of the month.