From his childhood days of creating simple structures with Legos to his teen years crafting complex virtual urban environments on SimCity, Bryan Moll says he has always been fascinated with construction and development.
Today, Moll is the leader of the Gateway Jax project, overseeing plans for developing a portfolio of Downtown properties that span 30 acres and, if fully built-out, would involve more than $2 billion in investment.
With construction underway on Gateway Jax’s first project, and with Moll saying two more groundbreakings are set to follow in the spring and summer of 2025, he and his partners have drawn praise from city leaders as developers with the experience and acumen to succeed where others have failed in sparking a resurrection of Downtown Jacksonville.
Moll’s previous projects include the $3.5 billion Water Street redevelopment district in downtown Tampa and the multibillion-dollar Amazon HQ2 National Landing site near Washington, D.C.
During a Feb. 26 appearance in the Cuppa Jax speaker series, Moll said he and partners JWB Real Estate Capital and DLP Capital had made “a ton of progress” in the 2½ years they’ve been at work on the Jacksonville development.
“We, remarkably I think, are ahead of the game,” he said. “And that’s really because of myself and my team’s background in doing this before.”
In launching the first vertical construction of a nongovernment building in years Downtown, the $45 million Block N11 mixed-use building at 515 N. Pearl St., Moll has become a prominent figure to those who keep an eye on Jacksonville’s decades-long effort to revitalize Downtown.
His Cuppa Jax appearance drew more than 50 audience members, which series host John Finotti of Tucker/Hall communications reported was a record crowd in a series that has featured City Council members, state legislators and other government and business leaders.
Perhaps inevitably in a community where numerous Downtown buildings and storefronts sit vacant despite investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives, Moll and Gateway Jax also have drawn skepticism over their ability to be the catalyst for a turnaround.
Moll’s doubters point out that his previous projects were financed by investors the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, and they question whether he and his partners can pull off a multibillion-dollar project in Jacksonville without backers of that caliber.
He also has become the center of a debate over whether the city, in pursuit of a building that could be used for the University of Florida graduate center campus starting in the fall of 2025, should swap a prime city-owned property at Riverfront Plaza and an option on an adjacent piece of land for a LaVilla building owned by Gateway Jax.
Moll, so far, shows no signs of being bogged down or diverted by any questions or doubts.
Rather, he told the Cuppa Jax attendees that plans for Gateway Jax are growing, “as these typically do,” including the five-block Pearl Square district expanding to 10. The developers also have purchased property outside of the eight districts that make up Downtown, receiving approvals from City Council for land-use changes and rezonings to facilitate development of properties on the border of Downtown and Springfield.
“The project’s going well,” he said. “Just with the properties we own, we’ve probably got two or three more large-scale developments over the next 10 to 15 years on the scale of Pearl Square.”
Riverfront Plaza plans
In what Moll described as an unexpected turn of events, the city proposed exchanging a 1-acre development parcel in Riverfront Plaza and an option for an adjacent property to the east for the Interline Brands Inc. building at 801 W. Bay, which Gateway Jax bought in October 2024 for $4 million from HD Supply Facilities Maintenance Ltd. of Atlanta.
Mayor Donna Deegan supports the swap, and the Downtown Investment Authority voted 5-2 in favor of pursuing it Feb. 19.
The timing of Gateway Jax’s purchase of the Interline building and UF’s December 2024 announcement that it had selected LaVilla as the site of the campus prompted questions about whether Moll and his partners had been tipped off about the site selection.
Moll told the DIA board that Gateway Jax purchased the building because it was near another parcel it owned. Although the closing happened in October, he said, the partners made their initial offer on the building in January 2024.
“At that time, we had just as much information as anybody” about where the campus would be located, he said.
“It was a great buy regardless of where the university located,” he said.
City Council member Ron Salem has offered an alternative to the land swap, filing legislation to purchase the Interline building outright instead of exchanging the riverfront parcels for it. Salem says the purchase would be the quickest and most efficient way to acquire the building for the UF campus.
Moll said he was open to either proposal. If the swap occurs, Moll said the Riverfront Plaza development would become a main focus for Gateway Jax.
He said Gateway would largely follow Chicago-based design firm Perkins and Will’s master plan for the park, which the city selected through a competitive process.
The developers envision a 17-story tower with public terraces, food and beverage options, a hotel and 11 floors of condominium units. Moll says the residential space, which differs from Perkins and Will’s plan, is needed to make the project financially feasible.
“Of the acre, probably more than half of it we will dedicate for public use,” he said.
If the exchange reaches fruition, Gateway Jax would have 15 months to reach a redevelopment deal for the Riverfront Plaza property with the city. If a deal can’t be reached, the city can buy back the property for $6.75 million.
Should Gateway Jax exercise the option on the adjacent lot east of the Main Street Bridge, a companion term would allow the city to repurchase that property for $3.375 million if a redevelopment deal for it is not reached.
As for the adjacent site, Moll said it was “riddled with impediments” for development, such as a JEA stormwater sewer pipe that runs through the property and has easements on either side, and setback requirements from the waterfront.
In addition, an off-ramp from the Main Street Bridge would need to be removed to create an adequate building footprint.
“There’s a tiny little development parcel on it,” he said.
“What we wanted to do with the DIA was just put an option on that for several years. We will try to do the work to get rid of those easements. I don’t know about the JEA storm sewer – that seems like a pretty massive undertaking to move that. But we would like to work through all of that while we’re developing the Riverfront Plaza.”
Among the terms of the option, Gateway Jax would not be able to exercise it until it begins vertical construction on the Riverfront Plaza development parcel and had that project fully capitalized.
The concept of developing the 1-acre site has drawn pushback from some Jacksonville residents, who argue that the parcel should be used for public space and that placing a tower there will detract from the park.
Moll said he believes the tower is essential for the park to be lively and well-used, a point supported by Perkins and Will and other firms that entered designs into the city’s contest.
“My fear is that if there’s a park there without any activation … we’re going to have a park space that might be wonderful and beautiful but is going to feel dead,” he said.
“I’ve seen really beautifully constructed parks that have no programming and activation and they look like a beautifully constructed park that is lifeless.”
The starting point
At the Cuppa Jax event, Moll announced plans for a five-story office and retail building on one of the five original blocks of the Pearl District.
He described the project as 60,000 square feet of office space over 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail across Ashley Street from Block N11 mixed-use building.
The office building would take the place of a two-story warehouse at 331 W. Ashley St.
He said Gateway Jax wasn’t planning a significant amount of office construction, but was including it partly to capitalize on the national “flight to quality” movement among employers seeking higher-grade offices with better lighting, amenities, materials and layouts than traditional office buildings.
“People like space that fits their business needs for these days, and a lot of older buildings don’t necessarily do that due to deep floor plates and maybe dark spaces,” he said.
Moll added that the decision also was based on his experience on the Water Street project.
“Some of the best-performing office space in Tampa was in the building we built right next to all the rest of what we did on Water Street,” he said. “It’s almost fully leased up at lease rates that are about double what the rest of the market is getting.”
Moll said the developers also had signed a letter of intent with a grocery store chain he declined to identify as the anchor for a planned redevelopment Downtown’s NoCo Center into a 16-story mixed-use property. The project is identified as Block N7.
Moll said the project was under design, with plans to begin construction in 2026 and finish in 2028.
The NoCo Center is the former First Baptist Church main auditorium at 119 W. Beaver St. In recent years, it has been the venue for immersive experiences such as “Beyond Van Gogh” and “Beyond King Tut.”
The Downtown Investment Authority board has approved a $2.1 million incentive package for the store. According to a DIA resolution on the incentive package, Block N7 will include 250 multifamily units, a structured parking garage with about 400 spaces, and 38,000 square feet of retail space.
The road to Jacksonville
Tagging along with his father, a bricklayer, Moll said he grew up seeing a succession of homes under construction. He started building with his own bricks – Legos – early in life.
“I’ve had a passion for the built environment ever since I can remember,” he said.
In his yearbook at Sterling High School in Colorado, his parents submitted a message saying, “Yesterday, you were building with blocks … Tomorrow, you’ll be building cities.”
After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in environmental design, focusing on urban planning and real estate, Moll moved to Washington, D.C., where he planned to seek a career in politics.
“That lasted about three months,” he said. “Then I got connected into a development company and really fell in love with it.”
Moll said he worked his way from an analyst to a principal and part owner of JBG Smith, a private equity company focused on real estate development.
The Water Street opportunity followed, after which Moll returned to the D.C. area to work on the Amazon development. Four years later, while searching for another project, Moll became attracted to Jacksonville partly for its low unemployment rate, its vigorous job growth and population growth, and a Downtown that he describes as having “bite-sized” blocks that are smaller and more easily developable than those in some other cities.
In launching Gateway Jax, he called his partners from other projects, such as Boston architect David Manfredi.
“I’d worked with him in Tampa, D.C. and Arlington County, so this was sort of our fourth rodeo of doing master planning-style work,” he said.
“I said, ‘Hey, do you want to get the band back together?’ And he said, ‘Sure, where are we going next.’”
The team also includes several “rock stars” from Jacksonville, including Matthew Clark and his Colliers Urban Division team.
“They’ve been incredible in finding the right (retail) tenants, not just locally but regionally and nationally,” he said, adding that Clark had landed several “marquee” tenants for Downtown.
Moll said his goal for all of Gateway Jax’s buildings, a concept he took from a mentor in Washington, was to create an exceptional “20 by 20” design for each.
“What she meant by that is the first 20 feet of the building and the first 20 feet of the public space in between the building and the curb,” he said.
The 20 feet of the building focuses on what it’s like being inside the lower portions of the building, while the 20 feet of the public space includes such features as outdoor dining, tree canopies, public art and design features that make for a pleasant pedestrian experience.
“She said, ‘If you get that right, you’re golden,’” he said. “And time and time again that’s been proven to be right. So that’s what gets me really excited and where I like to spend a lot of my time.”
Crossing the ditch
After living in the Vista Brooklyn apartments Downtown, Moll and his husband recently moved to Atlantic Beach.
“Someone said, ‘You’ll never cross the ditch once you move over there,’” he said, laughing.
That wasn’t the case. Moll travels to and from Downtown daily, with the commute much shorter than the 45 minutes to an hour he spent in traffic each way to work in Washington.
It may seem ironic that Moll, who’s hailed as a savior of Downtown, is living at the Beaches. But he is among those who believe reviving Downtown will be good for all of Northeast Florida.
“We’re all one community, and we want Downtown to be a place where people from the Beaches and everywhere else in Jacksonville and the surrounding community feel welcome and want to come and visit,” he said.
