Jacksonville’s Brooklyn riverfront has a new center of gravity. One Riverside has reshaped the 18-acre former Florida Times-Union campus into a $250 million, mixed-use waterfront hub that stitches together 271 luxury apartments, roughly 39,000 square feet of riverfront retail anchored by Whole Foods, a 600-car garage and new parkland connected to a restored McCoys Creek.
What Was Built On The Times-Union Site
The first phase stacks together 271 apartments, 39,256 square feet of retail with Whole Foods as the main anchor, an upscale riverfront restaurant and a 600-space parking structure. “The impact of this project is all about location location location,” Rick Hall said. Those project details are documented in coverage of the redevelopment, according to CoStar.
Developers leaned into the site’s vantage point on the river and the emerging Brooklyn neighborhood, pitching the project as both a place to live and a waterfront hangout that does not go dark after office hours.
City Buy-In And McCoys Creek Restoration
The public side of the deal is not small. The city is restoring McCoys Creek and adding roughly 4.95 acres of public parkland that will connect to the Emerald Trail, according to the Downtown Investment Authority. That connection is meant to keep One Riverside from feeling like a standalone island and instead tie it into the broader riverfront and trail network.
The DIA has highlighted how coordinated land sales and agency incentives helped make the phased plan pencil out, framing the project as a model for pairing private investment with creek restoration and public access.
Retail Tenants And Neighborhood Impact
On the ground floor, leasing brought in a roster of new-to-market names: Norikawa Japanese Restaurant, Solidcore, Demma Aesthetics medical spa, Face Bar and The Salty Donut. Brokers say that lineup is a sign downtown is finally pulling fresh retail interest, according to CoStar.
The idea is straightforward: let the riverwalk patios and restaurant fronts do double duty, serving residents upstairs while also luring office workers and visitors to stick around Brooklyn after the typical weekday commute ends.
Who Built It And Why It Mattered
On the development side, TriBridge Residential led the multifamily piece with Live Oak Contracting as builder, while Fuqua Development spearheaded the retail phase. Fuqua bought the riverfront property in a series of transactions that set up the phased approach to the site, the Jax Daily Record reported.
City officials have repeatedly pointed to One Riverside as a catalyst project, arguing that stacking housing, jobs and public riverfront access on a former newspaper campus helps build the kind of density that keeps downtown active beyond office hours.
Phasing, Timeline And What’s Next
Phase one, which includes the residences and initial restaurant space, opened to residents in late 2025, while the retail build-out and the creekside park work tied to McCoys Creek are scheduled to continue through 2026, per Live Oak Contracting.
Leasing and resident information is available on the One Riverside website. Live Oak Contracting lists the project among its recent deliveries as the site moves toward full activation, with the apartments, retail spaces and parkland expected to function as one continuous waterfront neighborhood rather than a collection of standalone pieces.
