Downtown Development Update: What's rising, what's delayed

[Zac T]

FYI, here is the latest conceptual placing/rendering of the Pearl District (latest); enjoy. https://dtjax.com/poi/pearl-square/

I think this gives you a better picture of what to expect on the ground level - specifically pg 5.

https://www.655pearl.com/uploads/1/5/4/9/154961106/pearl_square_brochure_2026_web.pdf

The one thing that excites me the most about Pearl Square and subsequent Gateway Jax developments is the long needed addition of shopping destinations Downtown. Publix is huge (especially the pharmacy) but basic things like clothing stores, electronic stores like AT&T, dry cleaners, etc are all pivotal pieces that would help make Downtown a much more livable neighborhood for residents

IMO it has to be that way, all of the amenities needed to make the Neighborhood liveable, or else no one will want to live there, or, if they live there and don't have those amenities, people/residents will start to leave and/or relocate elsewhere in droves. And don't forget gas stations. IMO, very very soon Downtown will be more than ripe and ready for a Wawa, and IMO, 2 Wawa's, at some point, once all of this residential placement stuff finally smooths and irons itself out.

Would love to see DT get to a point that it can support something similar to the Wawa on University Ave in Gainesville

[Zac T]

FYI, here is the latest conceptual placing/rendering of the Pearl District (latest); enjoy. https://dtjax.com/poi/pearl-square/

In that image there is a building shown next to the Rosa Parks station (just North of N7). Is there information out on this building from Gateway, or is it basically there to make the rendering look better?

From the recent Daily Record article

Gateway Jax is performing due diligence on a ground lease with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority for property east of the Rosa Parks Transit Station where the developers plan a multifamily building with workforce housing.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/apr/09/gateway-jax-on-the-rise/

[acme54321]

Ambassador Garage is going vertical, not sure if I missed it in here or if they just starting putting it up in the last couple of days.

[jaxlongtimer]

Get an urban Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Costco, BJ's, or Sams and you know you have it made  .

[heights unknown]

Get an urban Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Costco, BJ's, or Sams and you know you have it made  .

I wholeheartedly agree. That vacant spot of land in Springfield, on 8th and Hubbard I believe (where there used to be a grocery store), or, someplace in LaVilla in the Beaver and Davis area going west near I-95, these would be great. I don't think they would have to be overly big/giant either. There are other areas east of Main Street going towards the stadium (north of Stadium) that could be good as well. I don't think it's time yet for these, but if downtown gets a population, say in the 12,000 plus range, you really need to be thinking about luring some of these to the Urban Core area or periphery.

[vicupstate]

It is truly amazing to me the level of investment being made in the North core by Gateway JAX. To say they have been a savior of DT JAX would be an understatement. They are building a massive number of apartments in a virtually brand new market. 100,000 SF of new office space when the vacancy rate is so high and lease rates so low is also pioneering. Albeit 100k isn't a vast amount.

So many projects have died on the vine in this very same area, yet they are not even completing one project before launching several others.

I suppose the incentives and cheap structured parking make it all work. First Baptist scaling back their campus might be the best catalyst for DT ever.   

[heights unknown]

It is truly amazing to me the level of investment being made in the North core by Gateway JAX. To say they have been a savior of DT JAX would be an understatement. They are building a massive number of apartments in a virtually brand new market. 100,000 SF of new office space when the vacancy rate is so high and lease rates so low is also pioneering. Albeit 100k isn't a vast amount.

So many projects have died on the vine in this very same area, yet they are not even completing one project before launching several others.

I suppose the incentives and cheap structured parking make it all work. First Baptist scaling back their campus might be the best catalyst for DT ever. 

IRT First Baptist, the "scaling back" was inevitable (I think). They had inner tubes around their neck gasping for air and had to sell some of those properties; just as you said, a good thing I think. I believe that Developers nationwide are watching what Moll/Gateway have done (Tampa, Washington D.C.), and are doing now in Jax. The Moll/Gateway model, I believe, might soon catch cold and be dispersed nationwide. A super model to follow for cities such as say: New Orleans, Norfolk, Cleveland, Detroit, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Birmingham, St. Louis, Tulsa, etc. (and more); cities whose downtowns are in the tank and needs Moll's/Gateway's model to bring them back to life. I too am mesmerized, especially of late of what Moll/Gateway has done, and last year when they were bringing all of these to life out of the renderings, I couldn't help but wonder why those other Developers, over the decades and years, couldn't do the same thing; however, Jax had a lot to do with the past failures as well. There just wasn't the right people in City Government, and/or the right Developers that were truly willing to take that chance on Jax, and if they did, they used us, made promises, and then left us disappointed. My hat(s) off to Moll and Company!!!

[thelakelander]

^You're witnessing how a team that's done real development at a much larger scale nationally, does their work, compared to a traditional list of entities that have not (e.g. we have a local tradition of a lot of pie-in-the-sky stuff being proposed by novices, which leads to disappointment when they fail to come to fruition). Throw in getting those FBC garages, securing contiguous urban properties at a reduced price (e.g. compared to similar settings in other cities) plus COJ incentives and the proformas start working. You're now watching the 3C's we've long advocated for here, play out in real life. Sit back and enjoy the show.

[heights unknown]

^You're witnessing how a team that's done real development at a much larger scale nationally, does their work, compared to a traditional list of entities that have not (e.g. we have a local tradition of a lot of pie-in-the-sky stuff being proposed by novices, which leads to disappointment when they fail to come to fruition). Throw in getting those FBC garages, securing contiguous urban properties at a reduced price (e.g. compared to similar settings in other cities) plus COJ incentives and the proformas start working. You're now watching the 3C's we've long advocated for here, play out in real life. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Amen. Believe me I am (where's the popcorn?). It can only get better and Gateway has barely started from what I can decipher. Now if we can hold the Russkies and the Chinese at bay, maybe we'll finally get somewhere. Lastly, what Gateway is doing is more than 1 or 2 building developments, what they're doing is "en masse" so to speak, conglomerated developments at a time with retail, restaurants/dining, residential, etc. and more. Aside from me being a height freak, I LOVE THIS!

[jaxlongtimer]

Ditto all the accolades.  My concern is that without the rest of Downtown following along and connecting, Gateway won't reach its full potential. 

Wasting hundreds of millions on the stupid U2C while not building a robust inner core bus network is just one example of the City continuing to go off in crazy directions that lead to nothing but failure.  Add the crazy amount of waterfront development incentives instead of plowing those dollars in to upgrading streetscapes, green spaces and interactive street facings and other amenities that urban dwellers crave, and you have another misdirection of investment.

By now, there are so many successful examples of City planning in this country and around the world, big cities and small towns, I just don't get why we are still dragging our feet through mud.  Are things better than under Curry? Absolutely.  But, we have much further to go to be assured of a successful downtown and I worry too many "details" are still being overlooked.  Just compare Gateway's detailing within its scope to that of the City's elsewhere.  Day and night.

[Tacachale]

^You're witnessing how a team that's done real development at a much larger scale nationally, does their work, compared to a traditional list of entities that have not (e.g. we have a local tradition of a lot of pie-in-the-sky stuff being proposed by novices, which leads to disappointment when they fail to come to fruition). Throw in getting those FBC garages, securing contiguous urban properties at a reduced price (e.g. compared to similar settings in other cities) plus COJ incentives and the proformas start working. You're now watching the 3C's we've long advocated for here, play out in real life. Sit back and enjoy the show.

As we've always said, none of this is rocket science. There's nothing intrinsic to Jacksonville holding us back, except inertia and bad leadership. Get some better leadership and break through the inertia a bit, and Jacksonville is able to pull off things any city of this size -- and many much larger -- would kill for.

[Tacachale]

Ditto all the accolades.  My concern is that without the rest of Downtown following along and connecting, Gateway won't reach its full potential. 

Wasting hundreds of millions on the stupid U2C while not building a robust inner core bus network is just one example of the City continuing to go off in crazy directions that lead to nothing but failure.  Add the crazy amount of waterfront development incentives instead of plowing those dollars in to upgrading streetscapes, green spaces and interactive street facings and other amenities that urban dwellers crave, and you have another misdirection of investment.

By now, there are so many successful examples of City planning in this country and around the world, big cities and small towns, I just don't get why we are still dragging our feet through mud.  Are things better than under Curry? Absolutely.  But, we have much further to go to be assured of a successful downtown and I worry too many "details" are still being overlooked.  Just compare Gateway's detailing within its scope to that of the City's elsewhere.  Day and night.

What Gateway's able to do comes down to assembling contiguous properties and working with the city on things like planning and urban design. It's not happening in isolation. Elsewhere in Downtown (and other areas) we're also plowing through improvements that were held back for years with things like the two-way street conversions, context sensitive streets and actually funding and building the parks. We still have a long way to go, especially as we were starting off in a worse place than we'd been 10 years before. But in just a few years we've got more going than there's been since the Better Jacksonville Plan. That's nothing to dismiss.

[thelakelander]

Ditto all the accolades.  My concern is that without the rest of Downtown following along and connecting, Gateway won't reach its full potential. 

Wasting hundreds of millions on the stupid U2C while not building a robust inner core bus network is just one example of the City continuing to go off in crazy directions that lead to nothing but failure.  Add the crazy amount of waterfront development incentives instead of plowing those dollars in to upgrading streetscapes, green spaces and interactive street facings and other amenities that urban dwellers crave, and you have another misdirection of investment.

JTA's inability to fight against implementing common sense solutions for the greater good is a concern, but Gateway's work isn't the only thing happening in the Northbank. There's a lot more in the works with other development parties and initiatives that will complement their investment. However, I do see the need to make sure we continue taking steps forward and not doing something dump, that blows a lot of public resources, making us take a few steps back again.

[heights unknown]

Ditto all the accolades.  My concern is that without the rest of Downtown following along and connecting, Gateway won't reach its full potential. 

Wasting hundreds of millions on the stupid U2C while not building a robust inner core bus network is just one example of the City continuing to go off in crazy directions that lead to nothing but failure.  Add the crazy amount of waterfront development incentives instead of plowing those dollars in to upgrading streetscapes, green spaces and interactive street facings and other amenities that urban dwellers crave, and you have another misdirection of investment.

JTA's inability to fight against implementing common sense solutions for the greater good is a concern, but Gateway's work isn't the only thing happening in the Northbank. There's a lot more in the works with other development parties and initiatives that will complement their investment. However, I do see the need to make sure we continue taking steps forward and not doing something dump, that blows a lot of public resources, making us take a few steps back again.

I was watching a "video interview"  with Bryan Moll that was done a few weeks ago, and the interviewer was showering him with accolades, and he was quick to not take all of the "pats on the back," he wasn't exact or detailed but he alluded to the fact (hinted) that there was more that was happening and that would happen in the future to complement what he and Gateway are doing. So there are things happening, behind the scenes I think, that we at present are unaware of. Lake knows more than we do, but I would guess there might be some surprises in the offing; things that have not been shown or announced but when the cake is done, it will be out of the oven in the form of a big surprise or even surprises (just hoping and hunching my shoulders LOL).

[fsu813]

The fact that city council may not be on board with giving a few million dollars of incentives to redevelop and activate a prominent corner of Downtown across from JWJ and Library, but give away much larger amounts for projects on the outskirts of Downtown, is frustrating.