After years of promises and debate, residents could finally start seeing work begin on the old Jacksonville Landing site. A new park will eventually be built on what is now called Riverfront Plaza.
There won’t be a big groundbreaking ceremony, but crews are expected to begin work in the area on Monday.
First, the road that runs in front of the plaza, Independent Drive, will be closed off to be reconfigured. Down the line, there will be other changes as the area is transformed.
The city hopes the area will eventually become a park with a large green space, a café, a children’s playground and private development alongside it.
But before that can happen roadwork and bulkhead work has to happen first.
“So there’ll be a lot of infrastructure-type work initially. And it will be, goodness, I mean, you’ll see barges arrived to do the bulkhead, but it’s going to be six months or longer before you start to see any of those finish things on the surface that we look forward to,” said Lori Boyer, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority.
Mayor Donna Deegan said she’s excited to see what comes next for the area.
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“I want to see that be, you know, a thriving place where people all over our city will want to be and that’s part of invigorating downtown, but also using the number one asset we have in the city, which is our beautiful river, so I can’t wait,” Deegan said.
The initial phase is expected to cost around $25 million.
As for the controversial “Jax” statue, that’s not set in stone. Other development will take place first and then a decision will come later on what the public art will actually be.
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