Gateway Jax seeks first-round design approval for Riverfront Plaza tower

[acme54321]

I want to know what's going on with block N8...

[edjax]

Just saw an article in the Daily Record that their incentive request for the Plaza tower will be in excess of $59 million.  Recapture grant of $39.4 and Completion of $20 million

[Ken_FSU]

Just saw an article in the Daily Record that their incentive request for the Plaza tower will be in excess of $59 million.  Recapture grant of $39.4 and Completion of $20 million

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/sep/14/gateway-jax-seeks-more-than-59-million-in-incentives-for-rivefront-plaza-high-rise/

All of these articles continue to frame the $20 million completion grant as coming from the general fund and as being potentially contentious with City Council. This simply isn't true. The land swap with Gateway Jax clearly stated that a completion grant would be capped at $20 million and would come from the DIA's Northbank TIF. This was all clearly laid out before the Council already when they approved the land swap 17-1. The time to complain about this specific grant would have been when the land swap was being litigated. 

[Aristocles]

Just watched it. Moll's an excellent speaker! So articulate. Now I see how he can get the lenders behind him. The most important thing he said was "when you see buildings and development, there's data behind it. It has to be feasible based on the data." Also he said that, if it wasn't for his experience sizing up development potential, maybe he wouldn't have seen the opportunity in what looks like a down at the heels part of downtown. Given what I heard I'm really confident his development will be successful and transformative.

Nothing against Moll, his team or Gateway.  I wish them the very best.  So far, so good.  But, it's not surprising developers are the ultimate optimists and great at selling that optimism to others.  They have to be as they are natural risk takers and need to bring along lenders, outside investors, etc. that are more cautious. Only the passage of time will tell if the optimism is warranted.

Many major developments in NE Florida have failed before finding success:  Queens Harbor, Sawgrass, Julington Creek, Amelia Island Plantation, Adams Mark (now Hyatt), Berkman, etc.  Add any number of shopping centers, office buildings, apartments, condos, etc.  All of them had financing or investors convinced by the "data" that big successes were just around the corner.  Nocatee stands out for not failing but the Davis's deep pockets likely floated it through slow times.

I hear you and believe me, if you're a real estate developer you must be hearing the Wallflowers song Sixth Avenue Heartache where Jakob Dylan sings "I've got my fingers crossed/on a shooting star". If you aren't, then you're probably not cut out for that line of work. A tremendously risky job resting on lots of luck. But I think there's a difference between good developers who know how to do due diligence and figure out things as best they can, and ones who might still sound optimistic but don't know what they're doing all that well, do shoddy work, and get governments to bail them out. Nobody can predict the future and developments can fail for completely unforeseen reasons. I think because the location is so good that Gateway Jax is less likely to fail than many developments in locations further away from the center of the city. But more than any of that, I hear in Moll a guy who understands things in context and, because of that, knows extremely well what he's doing. That clearly puts him into the good category. He's one of the best-spoken developers I've ever heard and I've worked with developers for 30 years. If anyone can get this right, I'm convinced he can. But don't take my word for it - look at the track record. The DC area and downtown Tampa.