The city issued a construction permit Oct. 15 for Gateway Jax’s Block N11 Downtown at a project cost of $45 million.
Avant Construction Group of Jacksonville is the contractor for the seven-story building at 515 N. Pearl St. that will comprise 205 apartment units and 24,086 square feet of retail, commercial and storage space.
The building will be five wood-frame stories on top of a two-story podium.
The permit follows an environmental resource permit issued Sept. 25 by the St. Johns River Water Management District for Block N11 of the development, where Gateway Jax principal Bryan Moll and partners JWB Real Estate Capital and DLP Capital propose the project.
The block is bounded by Ashley, Pearl and Church streets and the Porter Mansion property.
Plans show seven retail spaces facing Pearl and Ashley streets and running along a promenade-style walkway between the development and the Porter Mansion. A park is north of the mansion, and a kiosk with a seating area is south of it.
Today, the site is predominantly a parking lot.
Block N11 is part of the first phase of the redevelopment, known as the Pearl Street District. The initial phase comprises five blocks in Downtown’s NorthCore district.
In August 2024, the Jacksonville City Council approved a $9.06 million REV grant and a $4.63 million completion grant for Block N11, part of a $98.58 million incentive package for the $419 million Pearl Street District.
Fully built, Gateway Jax would cover more than 20 blocks with an investment of more than $2 billion.
Moll has said that Block N11 would be the first to break ground.
The Downtown Development Review Board had been scheduled to consider giving final approval to Block N5 of the development Oct. 10, but the meeting was canceled due to Hurricane Milton.
Block N5 would refurbish what is now known as the “lighthouse” parking garage and transform it with storefronts along Beaver Street and at Pearl and Julia streets. The five-story garage, which was previously owned by First Baptist Church, takes its name from the lighthouse feature on its northwest corner.
Gateway Jax was announced in a September 2023 event that drew Mayor Donna Deegan, Council members and other community leaders. Deegan called the development “exactly the type of project that we need to kick-start our next wave of Downtown development.”