Riverfront 2025: Plans revealed for Riverfront and Downtown Jacksonville development

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — City leaders proposed big changes to Downtown Jacksonville and the Riverfront by 2025.

The city’s downtown and riverfront has been in the development stages for years. The city and Jesse Ball Dupont Fund hosted Riverfront 2025 Wednesday night, and firms who are all in different stages of development were there.

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Action News Jax spoke with two of them, Rivers Edge and Life on the St. Johns, who are bringing town homes and parks next to DCPS headquarters on the Southbank.

Ramiro Albarran is the managing director for American Lions LLC, the firm bringing these town homes to the Southbank. He said that within the next few months, people will begin to see more work above ground.

“The construction should start sometime later in the summer, but the entirety of the horizontal infrastructure for the park should be done in the summer of 2024,” he said.

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Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said the Riverfront Plaza is at 100% construction drawing, so the final product will look very similar to the renderings.

Action News Jax told you in September when the project from American Lions LLC would receive just under $36 million in city incentives and also benefits from $27.5 million construction loan from the city. Aaron Shirian, a representative with the company, said that now they’re working through a redevelopment agreement.

“We expect those to be wrapped up quickly and to be in the grounds simultaneously with the park,” he said.

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Boyer said that they are hoping to get through this within the next two months.

“Between board approval and city council filing, we are going though drafting contacts and documentation getting ready to file legislation with city council,” she said.

Some of the projects talked about are roughly a year away from starting construction while others are ready to bid now. However, they didn’t have a total cost amount for how much the city would pay if all this fully comes to fruition.

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