Top Newsmakers of 2024: Bryan Moll, Gateway Jax CEO breaks ground Downtown

Business

Standing in front of a row of gold-painted shovels that would soon be used for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Gateway Jax development, Mayor Donna Deegan posed a question.

“Can we officially put an end to the ‘city of renderings’ comment?” she said during the Oct. 29 event.

If the answer is yes, Gateway Jax lead developer Bryan Moll will have played a pivotal role in helping Jacksonville transcend the disappointments of its long-standing Downtown revitalization effort.

After unveiling the development plan for Gateway Jax in September 2023, Moll and partners JWB Real Estate Capital and DLP Capital brought the four-block first phase of the project from concept to construction in 13 months.

Gateway Jax lead developer Bryan Moll directs the Pearl Square ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 29 in Downtown Jacksonville. A fully built-out Pearl Square would include 1,250 residential units, about 200,000 square feet of retail space, a curbless festival street with outdoor dining, and new public spaces.

Doing so involved steering through the Downtown Investment Authority, the Downtown Development Review Board, City Council and city permitting.

The groundbreaking came two months after Council granted final approval for $98.58 million in incentives for the first phase.

The year ended with news that Gateway Jax was planning to redevelop the former First Baptist Church main auditorium at 119 W. Beaver St. into a 16-story apartment building with a full-service grocery store. The auditorium, now called NoCo Center, has been the venue for “Beyond Van Gogh” and similar exhibits.

The Gateway Jax Block N7 project is near the Pearl Square area it is developing in Downtown Jacksonville.

Council member Jimmy Peluso, whose District 7 includes the Northbank district of Downtown, praised Moll and his partners for “doing something no one else has been able to figure out.”

“If you’re a developer who’s listening right now and wants to know how to make sure development gets done correctly in our Downtown, they’re showing you the blueprint for it,” he said during the groundbreaking event.

A rendering of the Peal Square development in Downtown Jacksonville. The Block N11 or 515 Pearl St. building, the first to be built, is behind the Porter House Mansion.

Moll, who launched Gateway Jax after leading successful large-scale developments of similar areas in Washington, D.C., and Tampa, said he was familiar with the “city of renderings” skepticism referenced by Deegan.

“A lot of people thought this was just another rendering in the city that would never come to fruition,” he said during the groundbreaking. “But here we are today, already under construction.”