Prospect Lake Clean Water Center, Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale’s Prospect Lake Clean Water Center opened on Oct. 15, 2026, replacing a plant the mayor said was held together by “rubber bands and spit.” The $666 million facility, a figure that includes enabling works, can treat up to 50 million gallons a day. The 1953 Fiveash plant it succeeds topped out around 30 million.

The city delivered it as a public-private partnership. A project company formed by Ridgewood Infrastructure and IDE Technologies handles design, permitting, construction and a 30-year operating period, while the city keeps ownership. Kiewit Water Facilities Florida was design-builder, with Kiewit’s in-house team as engineer of record.

Project Scope

The plant sits on the city’s Prospect Wellfield, off Prospect Road west of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and about three miles from Fiveash. It treats groundwater with nanofiltration and ion exchange, a combination aimed at the dissolved organics that have tinted the city’s tap water yellow for years. Fiveash’s lime softening couldn’t remove tannins, and WLRN reported it couldn’t handle PFAS either.

The building is designed for Category 5 hurricane winds, which Fiveash never was. Construction started in January 2024, after the city signed its P3 agreement in 2023. Treated water started moving into the distribution system in September 2026, and flows will ramp up as the plant comes fully online. Fiveash becomes a storage and distribution site.

IDE and Ridgewood committed to fund 25% of project costs when the deal closed in February 2023 and took on construction and long-term O&M risk. That’s the real product here. The city didn’t just buy a plant; it locked in an operator for three decades.

Why It Matters

Beyond the city itself, the plant serves Port Everglades and all or parts of Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Tamarac, Davie, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Sea Ranch Lakes. Customers may notice taste, color or cloudiness changes through the end of 2026 while the system switches over.

The price drew a fight. The City Commission approved the deal 3-2 in 2023, with some members balking at the cost, and WLRN put the full amount water customers will repay over the 30-year term at about $1.4 billion. Rates are set to rise 9% through 2027 and 5% a year after that.

Water P3s are still uncommon in the U.S. next to transportation deals, and this one went from financial close to an operating plant in under four years. Utilities sitting on 70-year-old treatment plants and tightening contaminant rules will be watching how the operating years go.

Project Team & Details