Photo courtesy of the City of Norwalk

A Norwalk couple say they are buying a 125-acre former power plant site in their city from a developer that bought it last year.

Instead of high-end homes or other uses, Austin and Allison McChord told the New York Times, Manresa Island will become a public park and events venue.

The purchase price has not been disclosed, but the couple plan to hold a press conference Tuesday with Gov. Ned Lamont. The McChords told the Times they plan to self-fund the site’s cleanup, restoration and redevelopment and endow its operations in perpetuity.

Austin McChord, a Norwalk native, founded cybersecurity company Datto and sold it for $1.3 billion in 2017. Alllison McChord is an architect.

Manresa Island’s fate has been debated for years since the NRG Energy power plant there was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and closed in 2013. The site was bought by New York City developer Argent Ventures for $4.6 million last fall but the company never filed specific redevelopment plans.

The McChords told the Times that they hired landscape architecture firm SCAPE to design a public park for the site and cutting-edge Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to design a renovation for the power plant’s buildings that would convert them into an events space, community recreation facilities and a center for coastal studies.