An illustration shows the proposed beer garden and restaurant in Riverfront Plaza's second phase. Another restaurant is planned on the western end of Riverfront Plaza. | City of Jacksonville/Perkins & Will
Published on May 14, 2026 at 1:06 pm
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The next phrase of Jacksonville’s Riverfront Plaza, in the shadow of the Main Street Bridge, was on display to the public this week.
Phase 2, just east of the first phase of Riverfront Plaza, includes a beer garden and restaurant, winding pathways with native landscaping, a water feature, and a bicycle and pedestrian connection to the Main Street Bridge.
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A hotel and residences are planned near the bridge.
The entire plaza will sit adjacent to the new Northbank Riverwalk and Music Garden, which was unveiled near the Jacksonville Performing Arts Center just hours before an open house showing off Riverfront Plaza’s second phase.
Samiha Nazrul came to the open house to see what’s planned. She found the dozen renderings “very exciting.”
“It is going to be great for Jacksonville to have this area activated,” the former Orlando resident said. “So many families and residents are always looking for something to do, and it will bring a lot of action to here. I love Downtown — I like it better than Jax Beach. I am a city person, so I am excited to have something that’s more urban.”
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Andy Zarka said he “loves that the riverfront is getting activated again. He remembers the restaurants that used to dot the waterfront.
“The (plaza’s) cafe space is appealing, and I am interested to see what happens,” said Zarka, who owns the local European Street Cafes. “It’s been way too long since we could do that. I miss those days. I was talking to some people about what used to be here with the Jacksonville Landing and how much I missed sitting with a cold beer and watching the dolphins go by.”
Riverfront Plaza planning
Riverfront Plaza is the first in a series of parks and other amenities planned for Downtown’s St. Johns Riverfront on land once occupied by the former courthouse, City Hall, jail and the Jacksonville Landing.
The new plaza was designed by Perkins & Will four years ago. Its western half focuses on the Northbank Riverwalk, with curving walkways, native plant gardens in a large greenspace and a cafe space with a playground on top of it.
Other first-phase work included rebuilding the bulkhead and riverwalk along the entire length of the plaza to improve flooding resilience and transforming part of Hogan Street into a pedestrian plaza connecting the Performing Arts Center with the park. The first phase cost $33 million, city officials said.
The second phase is estimated to cost $46 million. With public comments heard at previous town halls, the designs for Phase 2 are pretty much set, said senior landscape architect Micah Lipscomb.
“We are showing specific visions of what is planned in the park,” he said. “We are just here to hear from the community — what they like, what they don’t like. As we advance the plans to the next stage of documentation, we can take that feedback into account.”
The renditions also showed a sweeping staircase leading to the planned hotel and residential building planned by Gateway Jax at the rear of the Phase 2 site. The proposed hotel would have a public terrace overlooking the park.
Right next to the Northbank Riverwalk, the plaza’s second phase will have bench-sized swings, Lipscomb said.
“That beer garden space will overlook the river, so a great place to hang out with friends and family,” he said. “There will also be a swing deck — a long line of 12 swings elevated above the Riverwalk so you can get views out to the river, with lots of trees to provide shade, and some other spaces to get views out to the park and the river.”
Another restaurant is planned on the western edge of Riverfront Plaza, as well as a cafe or snack bar in the space under the playground.
The town hall was the time to get final feedback from the community as the second phase gets underway, said Daryl Joseph, the city’s director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services.
“A lot of the plans are pretty consistent with what we have. These are just finalized and redefined, and they actually connect to the private development parcel,” Joseph said. “So we really wanted to show that — show what that is going to look like and make sure those connection points spoke to each other. … Phase 2 is under construction as we speak.”
Phase 2 is targeted for completion by the end of 2027. The cost of the entire Riverfront Plaza site is estimated at $78.5 million, city officials said.
For more information about the project, go to riverfrontplazajax.com.
