A year ago, if you walked east on the Southbank Riverwalk from San Marco, you ran out of path not far past Friendship Fountain. This fall the east end is where the action is. The Third Thursday evening crowd has moved there, a stage is under construction there, and the riverside path keeps going past where it used to stop. Heading the other way gets harder. The Main Street Bridge has lost its southbound walkway until late January, and a 1,200-foot gap still keeps the Southbank Riverwalk from meeting the Fuller Warren Bridge path toward Riverside.
So the river loop you knew has a new shape. Here is what it looks like on foot this season.
The walk that used to stop now ends at a marsh boardwalk
The RiversEdge parks opened on November 24, 2025, on the old JEA Southside Generating Plant site. There are four of them, which the Jacksonville Daily Record calls Central, Fitness, Marshfront and Northwest. Together they make up a $35 million public park area inside the $693 million RiversEdge: Life on the St. Johns development. Preston Hollow Community Capital is the site developer, and it markets the individual parcels to other developers.
For San Marco walkers, the bigger change is that the path no longer breaks. Since opening day, walking paths and a marsh boardwalk have connected the riverside route without interruption from Friendship Fountain to RiversEdge, as Jacksonville Today reported. The city also completed this eastern Riverwalk extension in November 2025.
People found it quickly. In a February 2026 parks presentation, the City of Jacksonville put RiversEdge Park at more than 40,000 total visits, less than three months after the ribbon cutting. In August, News4JAX described the parks as drawing events, fitness groups and community members to the Southbank.
The western anchor of that stretch is still Friendship Fountain. Its $8 million renovation was finished in 2024. It reopened in April 2025 after a temporary maintenance closure, and the history-themed St. Johns River Park playground opened beside it that same month. The park's last pieces are its restrooms and pavilions, and the city's I Dig Jax project page still shows them as in progress.
Third Thursday moved downriver
The clearest sign that the Southbank's center has shifted is Downtown Vision's Third Thursday Sip & Stroll, presented by PNC Bank. Starting in September, the event runs from 1701 Prudential Drive to RiversEdge at the east end of the Southbank Riverwalk. That means it covers most of the stretch San Marco residents can walk to, and it ends at the new parks.
Here are the basics from Downtown Vision's event page:
- When: every third Thursday of the month, 5 to 8 p.m.
- Next date: Thursday, November 19, at the Southbank Riverwalk at RiversEdge
- What's there: live music, food trucks and carts, riverside bars, and a picnic area, timed for sunset over the river
- Drinks: alcohol is allowed in branded Sip & Stroll cups, which you buy at either of the Riverwalk bars
The November 19 date lands five days before RiversEdge's first anniversary. If you're heading over from the Prudential Drive end, you'll pass Friendship Fountain on the way, so the walk itself is part of the evening.
The stage that finishes the park
The large structure going up in Central Park at RiversEdge has a purpose. The City of Jacksonville told News4JAX it will be "a fully equipped outdoor entertainment amphitheater for public use," with a restroom facility, as reported in News4JAX's August 3 story.
The city expects to finish it by the end of the year. It will host performances and other programming, and the city will handle event management and group reservations. There will be no fixed seating, so the city encourages attendees to bring their own chairs.
Preston Hollow told News4JAX the amphitheater is the last public piece of RiversEdge. The remaining vacant parcels are expected to go to future vertical development, such as apartments or hotels, with public parking available to park visitors. The developer's website lists retail and restaurants as future uses too, so for now dinner by the marsh means a Sip & Stroll food truck.
Crossing north, the Main Street Bridge walkway is closed until late January
The same downtown riverfront push that helped bring RiversEdge online is now cutting into one of San Marco's walking routes across the river. On August 24, the City of Jacksonville Department of Public Works and contractor The Haskell Company started the Riverfront Plaza Main Street Bridge Nub Removal Project. It's the first step toward a permanent pedestrian connection between the Main Street Bridge and Riverfront Plaza on the Northbank, according to The Resident News.
Until the work wraps up, the bridge's southbound pedestrian walkway is closed completely, and pedestrians are rerouted along a posted detour. Southbound car traffic toward Riverplace Boulevard is down to one lane. Northbound traffic isn't affected. Completion is estimated for January 30, 2027. The City's closure notice gives the same dates. If you're walking to the Northbank, follow the posted signs on site.
Heading west, 1,200 feet of Riverwalk are still missing
The Fuller Warren Bridge Shared-Use Path is still the cleanest route from San Marco to Riverside. It's a 4,654-foot, 12-foot-wide walking and cycling path that opened in April 2023 as part of a $126 million FDOT highway project. On the San Marco side you get on from the river-side sidewalk by Nemours. On the Riverside side it connects at Riverside Avenue and Palm Avenue. The Artist Walk and skate park underneath the bridge on the Riverside end, between Riverside Avenue and Park Street, opened in August 2024.
The problem is getting to the bridge path from the Southbank Riverwalk. City presentation materials call a 1,200-foot stretch between Baptist Medical Center and the shared-use path the "missing link" in a Riverwalk that runs about 3 miles along the north and south banks, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. That gap is about a quarter the length of the bridge path itself.
Here's how the pieces of the loop compare this fall:
| Segment | Length or scale | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|
| Friendship Fountain to RiversEdge | Continuous riverside walk with marsh boardwalk | Open since November 2025 |
| Fuller Warren Bridge Shared-Use Path | 4,654 feet, 12 feet wide | Open since 2023 |
| Baptist Medical Center to the shared-use path | 1,200 feet, 17 feet wide | Funded at $7.1 million; in permitting review as of January 2026 |
| Main Street Bridge southbound walkway | Bridge crossing to the Northbank | Closed until about January 30, 2027 |
| Emerald Trail Riverside Link | 2.3 miles through Riverside and McCoys Creek | Planned; construction expected to begin in 2026 |
The planned extension is more than a sidewalk. Jill Enz, chief of natural and marine resources in the city's Parks, Recreation and Community Services department, told the Downtown Development Review Board on January 8 that it will be 17 feet wide, with two bump-outs that have custom shade structures, benches and landscaping. The shade will sit on the east side, which leaves the walkway open to afternoon and evening sun but keeps the views of the river and the downtown skyline clear. The Daily Record reported that Enz said the extension was designed to "carry momentum" from the shared-use path to the Southbank.
The schedule presented in January allowed 60 days for permitting, 30 days for bidding and 18 months for construction. Haskell is the contractor, and the $7.1 million came from the fiscal year 2025 Capital Improvement Plan. By that math, even if crews had started in spring 2026, the link wouldn't open before roughly fall 2027. Until then, a walk west from Friendship Fountain still has to leave the river before it reaches the bridge.
Farther out, Groundwork Jacksonville, the City and JTA are planning the Emerald Trail Riverside Link. That 2.3-mile connection is meant to tie the Southbank Riverwalk and San Marco to Riverside by way of the Fuller Warren path.
On the water, fewer launch points for now
If you get out on the river by boat or kayak, this fall is a little thinner. The City's waterways page says St. Johns Marina at 901 Museum Circle was scheduled to close August 1, 2026, and stay closed through summer 2028 while South Bank Residences is built next door. The city plans boat-ramp improvements during the closure. That same page still lists a kayak launch at the Southbank Riverwalk dock behind the School Board building.
The Jax River Taxi still lists Friendship Park as a stop on its service page. Its Friendship Fountain dock page, which gives the address as 1015 Museum Circle, also shows a "renovations underway" notice, so check before you plan a ride around it. RiversEdge's 125-slip marina is still listed on the developer's site as a project highlight, not an open dock.
The Southbank calendar between now and February
- Thursday, November 19, 5 to 8 p.m.: Sip & Stroll on the Southbank Riverwalk at RiversEdge
- Tuesday, November 24: one year since the RiversEdge parks opened
- By the end of 2026: the city's target for finishing the Central Park amphitheater
- Around January 30, 2027: estimated reopening of the Main Street Bridge southbound walkway
- Through summer 2028: the city's scheduled closure period for St. Johns Marina at 901 Museum Circle
If you live near the RiversEdge end of the Southbank and you've wondered how being close to the river shows up in what buyers will pay, Michael Wright and Suzi Ford are glad to talk it through with no pressure. Just ask us, or tell us about your own Riverwalk route and we'll share what we're seeing nearby.
