Downtown Jacksonville: Boundaries, Skyway, Parking and What Is Changing in 2026

Officially, Downtown Jacksonville is the Northbank and Southside community redevelopment areas, the two districts run by the Downtown Investment Authority.

The Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) says Downtown Jacksonville comprises the Northbank CRA and the Southside CRA, and that it is the sole development and community redevelopment agency for both, as well as the sole public economic development agency for Downtown (Downtown Investment Authority). It works inside City government under Chapter 55 of the Ordinance Code and Chapter 163 of Florida Statutes (DIA presentation, October 2025). The two official sources differ on one name: the DIA website calls the second district the Southside CRA, while the October 2025 presentation calls it the Southbank CRA.

The DIA board has nine members, 5 appointed by the mayor and 4 by City Council, serving four-year terms, and it is responsible for approvals of CRA budgets, incentive programs and land dispositions (DIA presentation). The DIA office is at 117 West Duval Street, Suite 310, phone (904) 255-5302 (Downtown Investment Authority), the same 117 W. Duval St. address as City Hall at the St. James Building, where the office of Mayor Donna Deegan is in Suite 400, phone (904) 255-5000 (City of Jacksonville).

The practical meaning of the boundary: a project inside Downtown Jacksonville goes before the Downtown Development Review Board, which the DIA staffs as the Planning Commission for the Downtown Overlay Zone and which reviews all Downtown projects for design and zoning compliance (DIA presentation). The DIA also funds CRA parcels inside parks to accommodate restaurants, cafes and other active commercial uses (DIA presentation). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.

The JTA Skyway is a free automated monorail with eight stations, five grouped by JTA under Downtown and three under South Bank, but JTA says Skyway operations will pause on November 2, 2026.

The Skyway is a complimentary service with no charge, running Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on weekends only for special events; trains come every 4 minutes in the 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. peaks and every 8 minutes otherwise (JTA). Bikes ride free as space permits, and the Kings Avenue station on the Southbank has an inexpensive Park-n-Ride lot (JTA).

Separately, Phase 2 of the JTA U2C program plans to convert the existing Skyway superstructure and eight stations into an elevated roadway for autonomous vehicles, funded through the Local Option Gas Tax, on tracks that run about 2.5 miles in each direction (JTA U2C). Phase 1, the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, which JTA lists as active, will introduce autonomous vehicles, initially in approximately three miles of mixed traffic in curbside lanes along Bay Street from Pearl Street to EverBank Stadium (JTA U2C). Anyone planning a downtown visit after November 2 should check JTA for current service before counting on the Skyway.

The City lists four downtown garages, and the cheapest short stay is the Water Street or Yates garage at $1.01 for up to an hour, against $3 at the Duval Street Garage near the Main Library.

The Water Street Garage sits at 541 Water St., between Broad and Pearl streets, near the Duval County Courthouse, and the Yates Garage at 200 East Adams St. is the one for the Florida Theatre (City of Jacksonville). Both cap at $7.03 for six hours or more, while the Duval Street Garage tops out at $10 and the Ed Ball Garage climbs by the half hour to a maximum daily charge of $53.75 (City of Jacksonville).

Most City garages in Downtown Jacksonville open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays only; the Duval Street Garage, whose entrance is at 33 W. Duval Street, is the one open Monday through Saturday and the one that serves the Jacksonville Main Public Library (City of Jacksonville). Ed Ball Garage at 214 N. Hogan St., near Monroe and Julia streets, serves City Hall, the Duval County Courthouse and what the City page still calls the Hemming Plaza area (City of Jacksonville). The Bay Street and Ocean Street lot at 112 E. Bay Street offers monthly parking for $60 plus tax (City of Jacksonville).

Downtown Jacksonville holds theaters and performance venues with more than 28,000 seats, museums, the monthly Art Walk and the Sports Complex that is home to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The DIA lists the Florida Theatre, the Ritz Theatre and Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science and History (MOSH), the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts, Veterans Memorial Arena, Daily's Place Amphitheater and the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center among the downtown venues (Downtown Investment Authority). The Elbow, cultivated around the historic Florida Theatre, is the entertainment district of the Central Core, with culinary, nightlife, live music and performance venues (Downtown Investment Authority).

The Downtown Jacksonville Art Walk, produced by Downtown Vision, runs on the first Wednesday of every month from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., rain or shine, across more than 15 blocks with more than 40 galleries, museums and venues (Downtown Investment Authority). Annual dates on the DIA list include the Jacksonville Jazz Festival over Memorial Day weekend and the Florida Georgia football game, a downtown tradition since 1933 (Downtown Investment Authority).

The DIA events page has not kept pace with name changes. It still calls the Jaguars stadium TIAA Bank Field (Downtown Investment Authority), while JTA's current project pages name it EverBank Stadium (JTA), the name used on JTA's current pages.

In the City's October 2025 inventory, the Northbank Riverwalk, Metropolitan Park, the Southbank Riverwalk, Friendship Fountain and St. Johns River Park carry no coming soon label, while Riverfront Plaza, Shipyard West Park and four more Downtown Jacksonville riverfront parks are listed as coming soon.

The list comes from the City parks overview presented to City Council on October 27, 2025, which also names the programs that fill these spaces: movie nights, live music, yoga, skate lessons and First Fridays at the Fountain (City of Jacksonville). City Parks, Recreation and Community Services maintains them with Downtown Vision, the DIA and the Friends of James Weldon Johnson Park as partners (City of Jacksonville).

The biggest 2026 changes in Downtown Jacksonville are the Skyway pause on November 2, riverfront parks listed as coming soon, and City land deals that include a University of Florida campus in LaVilla.

In its October 2025 briefing to City Council, the DIA named its recent and ongoing land dispositions: the Shipyards with Iguana Investments, the River City Brewing site with the Related Group, Cathedral Hill affordable housing and the University of Florida LaVilla campus, with Ford on Bay and an adaptive reuse of the Snyder Memorial Church next (DIA presentation).

The same briefing lists the public projects the DIA is funding: Riverwalk enhancements, Riverfront Plaza, Shipyards West Park, Friendship Fountain and St. Johns River Park, RiversEdge Park with bulkhead restoration, and LaVilla streetscape work (DIA presentation). In the City parks overview of the same date, Riverfront Plaza and Shipyard West Park were still listed as coming soon (City of Jacksonville).