Almost five months after the Oct. 29 groundbreaking for Block N11, the first phase of the Gateway Jax development in Downtown Jacksonville, the city is reviewing a permit to start horizontal development for Block N4.
Block N4 is at 441 W. Beaver St., bounded by Union, Pearl, Beaver and Clay streets, two blocks north and one block west of N11.
It comprises a seven-story building to include at least 281 residential units and about 19,000 square feet of leasable retail and commercial space. It also has a parking garage.
The Gateway Jax development is a partnership between lead developer CEO Bryan Moll, DLP Capital LLC and JWB Real Estate Capital.
The partners said previously the full project could grow to 22 acres and more than 20 blocks with a more than $2 billion investment over the next decade, and the Gateway Jax district has since extended further.
Moll said in February that plans for the initial Pearl Square project had grown from five blocks to 10.
He said the partners plan to start construction of the next building in April, followed by another start in the summer of 2025.
The city issued a construction permit Oct. 15 for Block N11, which includes a seven-story building comprising 205 apartment units and 24,086 square feet of retail, commercial and storage space.
Completion of the $45 million Block N11 building at 515 N. Pearl St. is expected in mid-2026.
The city is reviewing an application for the horizontal development of the 1.92-acre Block N4 site at a project cost of $1,500. England-Thims & Miller Inc. is the civil engineer.
In August 2024, the Jacksonville City Council approved a $98.58 million incentive package for the Pearl Square district, which at the time comprised:
Block N4: A $14.1 million Recapture Enhanced Value Grant and $6.84 million completion grant.
Block N5: A $2.57 million REV grant and $1.9 million completion grant for redesign and redevelopment of the 800-space former First Baptist Church lighthouse garage at 721 N. Pearl St., bounded by Union, Julia, Beaver and Pearl streets. The repurposed garage would include 15,000 square feet of leasable space. The developers submitted civil engineering plans for the project to the city in January 2025 after receiving design approval from the Downtown Development Review Board in November 2024.
Block N8: A $33.88 million REV grant and $25.55 million completion grant for a minimum 21-story building with at least 508 residential units and about 30,000 square feet of ground floor leasable retail space. The block is bounded by Beaver, Pearl, Ashley and Clay streets.
Block N11: A $9.06 million REV grant and $4.63 million completion grant. The block is bounded by Ashley, Pearl and Church streets and the Porter Mansion property.
Moll announced Feb. 26 that Gateway Jax also is designing a five-story “boutique” office and retail building on the site of a warehouse immediately north of the development group’s first construction project.
Appearing at the Cuppa Jax speaker series at Riverplace Tower on the Downtown Southbank, Moll said Gateway Jax was planning 60,000 square feet of office space over 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail at 331 W. Ashley St. across Ashley Street from the Block N11 mixed-use building.
The warehouse property is identified as Block N9 on site plans for the first five blocks of Gateway Jax’s $419 million Pearl Square project. It was not among the projects on four blocks of the district for which the city of Jacksonville approved incentives in August 2024.
Moll, whose previous development projects included the Water Street redevelopment district in downtown Tampa and the Amazon HQ2 National Landing site near Washington, D.C., said Gateway wasn’t looking to include a significant amount of office space in the 30 acres it is developing Downtown.
“We’re not building a lot of it, first and foremost,” he said. “But interestingly enough, 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. It’s almost fully leased up at lease rates that are about double what the rest of the market is getting.”
Moll said the Gateway Jax team was planning for the building to include a corner restaurant at Ashley and Pearl streets that would include rooftop dining.
Associate Editor Ric Anderson contributed to this report.