Riverfront Plaza park gets July 5 date for starting construction on razed Landing site
The day after the Fourth of July fireworks spectacle brings crowds to watch where the Jacksonville Landing once stood, work is slated to officially start on building a new park that city officials say will bring people to that riverfront parcel year-round like the Landing once did.
The city tore down the riverfront mall after it closed in 2019 and then rolled out a design competition among firms vying for the right to design the new park on what's now called Riverfront Plaza. Perkins&Will won that competition in July 2021 and has done the design for the park.
The date for actually beginning the work has been a moving target. At one point, the city had said it could begin this week but that got postponed to July 5 in a move agreed to by Mayor Lenny Curry's administration and incoming mayor-elect Donna Deegan's team.
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That July 5 date would come after some other events that bring people to that part of downtown such as the Fourth of July fireworks and the July 1 inauguration of Deegan at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts that is immediately next to Riverfront Plaza.
The first phase of the park construction will take 18 to 24 months, according to the city. Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said when that work is done, the park will draw residents from both inside and outside downtown.
"I don't think it will be exclusively downtown people," she said. "It will benefit downtown development and residents have it there, but clearly, these parks are viewed as destinations for everyone in Jacksonville."
The park will have a festival lawn for outdoor concerts such as the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and the Jax River Jams. A projection system will be able to show films on the side of the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, and it will have a playground for children to use. A series of winding walkways will thread through the park.
The presence of concessions, restrooms and restaurants will make it a place where Jacksonville residents and visitors "can enjoy an outing for the day," Boyer said. "It's not just limited to a special event."
The second phase of park construction is slated to start after the first phase wraps up. The second phase will involve constructing a connection for walkers and bicyclists between the Main Street bridge and Riverfront Plaza, along with a staircase foundation for the future installation of public art.
Perkins&Will won the competition in part because of a proposed 151-foot tall, polished stainless steel statue whose looping design would evoke the twists and turns of the St. Johns River. But the design split public opinion with some praising it while others said the design seemed to spell "derp" rather than "Jax" and would cause bad publicity for the city. It also carried a heft $18 million price tag.
The first phase of the park does not include the statue and whether it will be in the second phase remains to be determined. Boyer said the Jessie Ball duPont Fund is working with the artist to look at ways to refine the design and cost.
"Really, it's a question of what is the appropriate scale, what is the appropriate content and how can we raise private funds for a substantial part of it," she said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Work on new Riverfront Park at Jacksonville Landing site delayed
