The plan for Riverfront Plaza, including a cafe with rooftop playground and a planned waterfront restaurant. | Downtown Investment Authority
Published on April 17, 2024 at 12:56 pm
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Q: Riverfront Plaza is the park under construction at the former site of the Jacksonville Landing, and opinions have been strong on its various design elements (even beyond “lerp“). Beyond those opinions, a couple of Jacksonville Today readers are left with questions about what exactly is planned for the riverfront site in the shadow of the Main Street Bridge. First up, William B. wonders where people will park.
“I loved the Landing and enjoyed visiting it, but parking was always a bear,” William says.
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Where will patrons park at Riverfront Plaza?
A: As for paid parking options, the city has numerous surface lots and parking garages within blocks of Riverfront Plaza. But the former East Landing parking area, which was under the Main Street Bridge and to the east, will not remain a parking spot, Jacksonville Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer tells Jacksonville Today.
“There are many available garage and surface lots spaces within the vicinity, as well as on-street parking,” Boyer says. “There will be some additional on-street spaces added on Water Street as part of the Hogan Street Emerald Trail project. The owner of the garage next to the Marriott (just north of the plaza) is also adding onto that garage as well.”
Boyer also says the planned Ultimate Urban Circulator might ease parking issues just in time. The first phase of the autonomous people mover loop is set to be done next year, starting with a 3.2-mile stretch that includes Bay Street as well as Water Street and Independent Drive on its western end, taking it right past Riverfront Plaza.
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The $49 million project that got the green light three years ago will kick off with a dozen or so driverless electric people movers on the road.
“The U2C should be operational by the park opening, providing shuttle service to nearby garages along its route,” Boyer says.
Q: Next, Valerie B. asks whether the park will be built on top of an elevated concrete platform, as it appears in some renderings.
“Does the Riverfront Plaza overall design include a concrete-based park space on top of concrete pillars?”
“From the scale of the people to the base of that park area in the news, it sure looks like the park space is a floor above. Haven’t seen a detailed plan, but that looks odd. What forms the base of the elevated park space? Is it grass on top of concrete, with the concrete base serving as a roof for uses underneath?” she asks.
Work to transform the former Landing space into a park with eateries and and an improved Northbank Riverwalk began in July. The first phase includes a central lawn in the middle of the property plus development of a distinctive playground-topped cafe near where Hogan Street ends.
“The Playground at Riverfront Plaza is further elevated, sitting atop the Community Services Building, or what many folks quickly refer to as ‘the café,’” city spokesperson Sheri Webber says. “In the original Perkins + Will design, the play space sat along the riverfront and would have been subject to floodwaters and the inevitable washing away of its soil berm. This consideration factored into its relocation.”
The rest of Riverfront Plaza will not be built atop anything, she says, but instead will be equipped to “accept and recover from floodwaters.”
“The (riverfront) bulkheads are being raised throughout Downtown, yes. But the parks are being kept at grades that make the parks accessible from the Riverwalk and will be expected to flood in a major hurricane,” Webber says. “Any buildings within the parks will be at elevations above the new-recommended resilience standard and will be constructed of resilient material.”
On April 2, the city issued a permit allowing The Haskell Co. to build the shell of the cafe, at a projected cost of $3.5 million. So far, no tenant has been announced for the site. (The DIA board has also approved a riverfront restaurant for Riverfront Plaza, but it hasn’t been designed yet.)
Have a question you’d like the Jacksonville Today team to look into? Email news@jaxtoday.org with #AskJAXTDY in the subject line.
