City crews removed a troublesome and filthy water feature last year from Chinatown’s Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park. Now Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the head of the Hawaii Theatre Center next door are partnering to make the park attractive and open to everyone.

Caldwell said he hopes the first such public-private partnership under his administration will serve as a template for businesses, organizations or community groups that want to work with the city to improve parks around the island.

“It could be a canoe club, a Hawaiian civic club, anyone who has some kind of special relationship with a park,” Caldwell said. “I’d be very interested in pursuing those types of partnerships.”

Theatergoers would often exit the Hawaii Theatre Center’s doors to the sight of homeless people urinating and defecating in the water feature — and even washing their clothes in the fouled water. Residents and businesses also complained of drug dealing and sex in the park, which was populated with rats.

The water feature also blocked the view of a statue of a young Sun Yat-Sen. The park was named in honor of the 1882 ‘Iolani School graduate often referred to as the father of modern China.

The city tore out the water feature in November 2014, but complaints continued.

The city will now spend $250,000 to build a wrought-iron fence around the 0.4-acre park. The fence is designed to keep homeless people out when the park is closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and could go up next summer, Caldwell said.

The city also will remove a flat-top, meandering wall that homeless people sleep on.

The theater will take over daily maintenance of the grounds and provide security.

“Almost 20 years ago, the community literally saved our beautiful Hawaii Theatre from the wrecking ball, creating a world-class venue and revitalizing the downtown/Chinatown neighborhood,” Ruth Bolan, president of Hawaii Theatre Center, said in a statement. “Now we join together again with the city and our neighbors to restore this park. We will create a safe, green oasis for everyone to enjoy. The Hawaii Theatre Center block will become the artistic heart of urban Honolulu.”

The water feature gave the park “a dark-brown feeling,” Caldwell said. On Tuesday, without the feature, Caldwell said the park seemed “much greener and more open.”

“As much as I like water features,” he said, taking it out “was a good move.”

“We’re having a hard enough time keeping the grass cut,” Caldwell said. “Sun Yat-sen is a park that was trashed every day.”

He called the park “one of the gateways to Chinatown that defines Chinatown.”

About a year ago theater officials approached Caldwell’s administration with a proposal to help improve the park and clear out its homeless occupants.

Caldwell’s office is also talking with the Honolulu Museum of Art and Straub Clinic &Hospital about a similar public-private partnership to improve nearby Thomas Square Park, but no plans have been finalized, the mayor said.

“We want to see if they’re willing to help us do something with that park,” he said.

Similar partnerships “with surrounding communities will help ensure that our parks are maintained,” Caldwell added.