CLEVELAND -- Plans for Cleveland's new waterfront are beginning to take shape, and people on Thursday got their first glimpse at what's in store.

If everything goes accordingly, five years from now a large part of the area behind Browns Stadium will be entirely transformed.

The plans for the city's new waterfront call for the eventual transformation of the land occupied by the Port of Cleveland into a year-round mixed-use development, consisting of walkable streets with shops and restaurants and an interior park system.

Architects hired by the Port of Cleveland gave residents a glimpse at their conceptual plans. The firm counts Baltimore's Inner Harbor and New York's Battery Park among its many projects and says Cleveland is actually starting out with more.

"We have a transit system at the waterfront, we have all this harbor infrastructure in place, we have beautiful buildings, icons, we also have all this under public ownership," said architect Stanton Eckstut. "I'm thrilled that I have the opportunity to work on something that's so well advanced."

The three phases of development may take 25 years to complete, taking into account the port's move to East 55th Street, but the architects said the key is doing a lot of the work in small steps.

"The hardest part of large scale development is getting started and doing things incrementally so that each part looks and feels complete and people are not anticipating another 20 to 30 years before they can enjoy it," said Eckstut.

Enjoying it is what many of those in attendance Thursday are looking forward to doing.

"If you compare it to what other cities are doing, you realize that there's just so much more that can be done with our waterfront," said Natasha Vernon, of Cleveland.

Not the least of which is giving the city an expanded signature look.

"If we can make the lakefront our front door instead of our back door I think we've got a real good thing going on here," said Russ Hill, of Berea.

The architect points to East 4th Street as an example of how something small but done right can have a huge impact.

So much needs to be worked out, not the least of which is funding, but developers are optimistic that phase one could be completed in five years.