JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville\u2019s newest downtown attraction is now open along the St. Johns River.<\/p>\n
City leaders celebrated the opening of Met Park Marina after years of planning and renovations to the waterfront space near EverBank Stadium.<\/p>\n
The new 78-slip marina can accommodate vessels up to 400 feet long and is located near several major downtown projects, including the planned Stadium of the Future and Four Seasons hotel.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Mayor Donna Deegan said the project is part of the city\u2019s broader effort to bring more people downtown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe word is out that Jacksonville is a wonderful place to live, work and play,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n For Vance and Dana Stallings, the marina is also bringing new opportunity for their business, Cruise Jacksonville.<\/p>\n The couple owns Vada, a 50-foot yacht that offers river cruises along the St. Johns River.<\/p>\n The marina includes amenities such as an on-site ship store and gives boaters a new place to dock near the stadium and downtown entertainment.<\/p>\n City leaders hope the new marina will bring more visitors downtown by both land and water.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n With the official start of the NFL season just weeks away, many reservations have already been booked, showing early signs of interest in the new waterfront destination.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to get people on the river in Jacksonville,\u201d Vance Stallings said. \u201cWe go under all the bridges. It will be a fun time.\u201d<\/p>\n With the marina officially open and more attractions planned downtown, city leaders and local business owners are hoping more people take advantage of the new waterfront space.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville\u2019s newest downtown attraction is now open along the St. Johns River. City leaders celebrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,149835,6454,149833,149832,12909,18583,30717,969,149829,116,118,117,16009,634,149827,149831,98050,119,149828,43657,7296,149830,24366,122742,149834],"class_list":["post-370194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-asado_life","tag-chandler_morgan","tag-cruise_jacksonville","tag-dana_stallings","tag-deja","tag-deja_mayfield","tag-four_seasons_hotel","tag-jack","tag-jackson_deja_mayfield","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jags","tag-local","tag-met","tag-met_park_marina","tag-michelin","tag-nfl","tag-park_marina","tag-phil_amatto","tag-saint_johns_river","tag-taylor_fieldli","tag-va","tag-vance","tag-veda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}