Cocoa Riverfront Park and Lee Wenner Park

Cocoa Riverfront Park, 401 Riveredge Blvd, is a green waterfront lawn with an amphitheater, a playground, covered pavilions, volleyball and fishing spots facing the Indian River Boardwalk (Cocoa Riverfront Park page).

The city lists the park as ADA accessible with internet, parking, restrooms, a walking track and water, and describes areas for fishing, water sports and boat launching (Cocoa Riverfront Park page). Its landscaped grounds run to the back of the Cocoa Civic Center and the Porcher House and meet Taylor Park along Delannoy Avenue; together with Lee Wenner and Taylor parks, the city counts nearly 10 acres of public riverfront in the middle of downtown Cocoa (Cocoa Riverfront Park page). The amphitheater and the water fountain are run by Cocoa Leisure Services, a division set up in 2005 that also manages Taylor Park (Cocoa Leisure Services).

Sources for the table: Riverfront Park page, Lee Wenner Park page and Leisure Services page.

Riverfront Park is open dawn to dusk except during reserved special events, and the fountain runs 10:00am to 6:00pm daily (Cocoa Riverfront Park page; City of Cocoa FAQ).

The city FAQ adds that the fountain can be off for maintenance or turned off for a scheduled event, and that Leisure Services at (321) 639-3500 can say whether it is running on a given day (City of Cocoa FAQ). The park hours carry an exception for reserved special events, so checking the city Special Events Calendar before a visit is the practical step; the FAQ names that calendar as the place to follow upcoming events (City of Cocoa FAQ).

Lee Wenner Park keeps the same dawn to dusk hours (Lee Wenner Park page). The Porcher House next to the lawn is open Monday to Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm, with evenings and weekends kept for special events (Porcher House page).

Lee Wenner Park, 300 Riveredge Blvd, is the boat launch of the riverfront, with four boat ramps, day slips, a covered picnic pavilion, restrooms and access to the Indian River Boardwalk (Lee Wenner Park page).

The Cocoa CRA reports the closure ran from Labor Day 2024 to Labor Day 2025, and the city park page lists dawn to dusk hours. The Cocoa Community Redevelopment Agency approved $1.2 million in April 2024 to rebuild the Lee Wenner Park parking lot, improving traffic flow and adding 74 parking spaces, and the park was closed from Labor Day 2024 to Labor Day 2025 for the work, which was finished by the end of FY25 (Cocoa CRA 2025 Annual Report). The CRA describes the goal as more vehicle and boat trailer parking for visitors and residents heading to Cocoa Village and the waterfront (Cocoa CRA page).

One city page lags. The Cocoa CRA web page still lists Lee Wenner Park Parking Improvements as construction in progress (Cocoa CRA page), while the 2025 Annual Report says the project was completed (Cocoa CRA 2025 Annual Report).

Riverfront Park is reserved through Cocoa Leisure Services at 321-639-3500 x4, from the reservations office in the Porcher House, Suite 202, open Monday to Friday 8a to 5p (Cocoa Riverfront Park page).

The steps in the city FAQ: call extension 4 to check the date, ask staff to place a pending hold for 2 weeks, then turn in the forms and a 25% deposit within those 2 weeks; the remaining balance is due 30 days before the event (City of Cocoa FAQ). The park is listed at 1,500 standing, events end at 11:00pm, and renters must be cleaned up and out by 12:00am; running past the contracted time is billed at the hourly rate for every 15 minutes (City of Cocoa FAQ).

Alcohol at an event in a City of Cocoa facility must be served through a licensed and insured caterer, with the license and insurance on file no later than 30 days before the event date (City of Cocoa FAQ). The Porcher House itself, 434 Delannoy Ave, seats up to 85 with standing room for 125 for a smaller indoor event (Porcher House page).

The City of Cocoa owns the riverfront, mostly under deeds that limit it to public park use, and the City Charter has protected it as a landmark since 2014 (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update).

The land arrived in pieces between 1920 and 2018.

The 2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update traces four main pieces. Taylor Park was conveyed by a deed dated December 2, 1920 that requires it to be used only as a public park, never for commercial purposes, and forever known as Taylor Park. The band shell and grass area is filled river bottom conveyed by the state Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund in 1956 for public purposes only. The Porcher House and Civic Center land was acquired from the Porcher estate on May 7, 1956 and dedicated by Ordinance No. 1404 as Porcher Park, and it cannot be sold unless a majority of city voters approve. The submerged riverbed under the boardwalk came from the Trustees in 1965 and 1975 for municipal park and recreational purposes only (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update).

On August 12, 2014 the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 18-2014 to put a charter amendment on the ballot, and voters approved it in the November 2014 General Election, requiring the council to safeguard the park's scenic vistas and recreational amenities (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update). Lee Wenner Park became fully city owned when the city and Brevard County approved an interlocal agreement on November 14, 2017 conveying the county's portion, with the deed recorded January 4, 2018 (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update).

Irma destroyed much of the boardwalk in 2017, Ian and Nicole later devastated the waterfront, and the Cocoa CRA is designing a new Lee Wenner Park docking system and breakwater in phases (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update; Cocoa CRA 2025 Annual Report).

The 2018 plan puts Irma damage at over $3.5 million to businesses along Harrison Street, Lee Wenner Park, docks and the boardwalk area of Riverfront Park (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update). After Ian and Nicole, the CRA applied in March 2023 for a Florida Inland Navigation District grant of $84,000, matched by $84,000 from the CRA, for $168,000 of Phase I engineering design and permitting of a new docking system and breakwater; Phase I was completed in FY25 and as of FY26 the project is in Phase II (Cocoa CRA 2025 Annual Report). The CRA web page adds that design of the day slips and revetment (breakwater) project was completed, with the project to be funded in 2025 to 2026, that a design to repair or replace the damaged T-Dock is being prepared, and that the agency is applying for another FIND grant in 2026 (Cocoa CRA page).

Flood risk is part of the setting: the same 2018 plan notes that the Flood Zone X boundary for the 500-year storm level nearly matches the shoreline from Riverside Drive to Harrison Street and north to Indian River Drive, including Oleander Pointe and Lee Wenner Park (2018 Cocoa CRA Plan Update). Other Cocoa parks away from the river are covered in the Cocoa parks guide, and the shops and streets next to the park in the Historic Cocoa Village guide.

Last verified: October 21, 2026, by re-reading the Riverfront Park, Lee Wenner Park and Porcher House listings, the city FAQ, the Cocoa CRA page, its 2025 Annual Report and the 2018 CRA Plan Update.