Metropolitan Park in Jacksonville, Florida

Metropolitan Park is an 18.25-acre City of Jacksonville park at 4110 Gator Bowl Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32202, built on a former urban landfill on the waterfront.

JaxParks describes it as an 18.25 acre, urban waterfront, multi-purpose, family orientated park that is located on what used to be an urban landfill, supported by a concrete bulkhead. The City lists benches, bike racks, a boat dock, a drinking fountain, grills, a nonmotorized launch, picnic shelters, picnic tables, a playground, restrooms, security lighting and trash barrels among its amenities. The park also appears at the same Gator Bowl Drive address in the City's Water Life directory of waterfront sites, alongside Memorial Park on Riverside Avenue.

The City's page does not post hours for Metropolitan Park; questions go through the MyJax line, (904) 630-CITY (2489), printed on every JaxParks page. The adjoining Met Park Marina describes its own location as along the St. Johns River, adjacent to EverBank Stadium and Metropolitan Park, which places the park in the riverfront stadium district east of downtown Jacksonville.

The City of Jacksonville says the land was bought by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for $1,005,000 in May 1972, and the park's first groundbreaking came on December 8, 1982.

According to JaxParks, the groundbreaking was delivered by then Mayor Jake M. Godbold and then Governor Bob Graham, and the $3.1 million project was underwritten by the City of Jacksonville, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the State of Florida Department of Natural Resources and the television station WJCT-TV, the local public broadcasting system. The park was planned to be completed in phases. The first phase included an exhibition mall for arts and crafts shows, a family picnic area and playground areas, with a Performance Pavilion as the focal point, for performances, concerts, plays, talent shows and other group gatherings.

On May 10, 1990, Mayor Tommy Hazouri presided over another groundbreaking, for a new entrance, during a $1,079,000 construction project that added paved walkways, lighting, landscaping, parking and playground areas. The City also records that Metropolitan Park won the 1986 Governor's Design Award, and that the Florida National Pavilion in the park was the home of the Jacksonville Music Festival and the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.

Two City of Jacksonville sources give different starting points: the festival timeline puts an event at the newly opened Metropolitan Park in October 1981, while JaxParks dates the park's first groundbreaking to December 8, 1982.

The Jacksonville Jazz Festival history, published by the City's Office of Sports and Entertainment, says that on October 23, 1981, after overwhelming attendance in its first year, festival organizers moved the festival to the newly opened Metropolitan Park. The JaxParks page says the beginning of the park started in 1982, with the first groundbreaking. Neither page explains the gap, so both dates are given here as published.

The Jacksonville Jazz Festival was held at Metropolitan Park for most of its first three decades, from its 1981 move there until it moved to the downtown core in 2009.

The City's festival timeline says the event began on October 24, 1980, as the Mayport and All That Jazz Festival, founded by Mayor Jake Godbold, and moved to Metropolitan Park the next year. At the park, local churches and organizations raised money selling food and drinks, which kept the festival free.

The Metropolitan Park years had a gap. The timeline says WJCT, the public broadcaster that had also helped underwrite the park, withdrew its title sponsorship on October 27, 2000, citing significant losses, and there was no festival in 2001 or 2002. The City revived it on October 25, 2003, and 60,000 people came to Metropolitan Park. On May 21, 2009, it was re-imagined as a street festival and moved from Metropolitan Park to the downtown core, and the JaxParks page still records the park's Florida National Pavilion as the festival's former home.

Metropolitan Park has free wood docks for boaters on non-event days, and the new Met Park Marina next door handles slip reservations, according to the City of Jacksonville.

The JaxParks Marina Information page says rafting reservations for boaters at Metropolitan Park during special events and games are made through the City's online recreation system, and that on non-event days the wood docks at Metropolitan Park are available for free on a first-come, first-served basis for up to 72 hours. Docking reservations for the new Met Park Marina go through the marina's own site.

The Met Park Marina site lists the marina as owned by the City of Jacksonville and professionally managed by F3 Marina, with an office at 5 Tower Court, Suite 200, open Monday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a phone line at (904) 990-8466. The operator says the marina is open to seasonal and transient boaters and offers overnight dockage, Dock and Dine, a fuel dock, a water hookup and a pump out.

The City is redesigning Metropolitan Park around a performance lawn, preserved live oaks and a resilient river edge, and its I Dig Jax page says construction funding will be available in fall 2026.

The City's Revitalizing Metropolitan Park project site, labeled a City of Jacksonville Project, says many of the park's original amenities and features are nearing the end of their usable life and describes the redesign of the 15-acre Metropolitan Park as part of the larger Jacksonville Riverfront Vision. That 15-acre figure differs from the 18.25 acres on the JaxParks page; the two City pages do not explain the difference. The design team page names Civitas as the lead landscape architect and urban design firm working with City of Jacksonville Parks and Recreation, with Populous and Event Risk Management Solutions for event planning and local firms Halff and Hanson Engineering on the core team.

The project site says the design is inspired by the Gullah Geechee tradition of basket weaving, in homage to descendants in the Out East neighborhood. It keeps the bulkhead and adds a 100-foot naturalized buffer, a Living Edge along the St. Johns River that provides 3 feet of added storm surge protection, with boardwalks, elevated walks and a community dock. Other named pieces are Tailgate Plaza, The Ramble around preserved mature live oaks, an elliptical Performance Lawn with more visibility from Bay Street, and a Canopy Walk inspired by the park's two-story community pavilion.

The I Dig Jax page lists the design concepts as The Tailgate Plaza, The Ramble, The Performance Lawn and The Resilient River Edge, and calls the plan a nature-based park experience that supports events of all sizes. Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the JaxParks Metropolitan Park, Water Life and Marina Information pages, the City's I Dig Jax and Revitalizing Metropolitan Park pages, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival history, and the Met Park Marina operator's site.