Revival 250 comes to town in May<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe type of project that we\u2019re doing in downtown is, believe it or not, not that dissimilar from all the other projects that I\u2019ve worked on, whether it be in Arlington, Virginia, or downtown D.C. or Tampa,\u201d Moll said. \u201cThere are lessons learned from each one of those projects that we\u2019ve been able to bring to Jacksonville.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gateway Jax\u2019s first phase, called Pearl Square, covers nine city blocks just north of City Hall and includes plans for over 1,200 residential units, 200,000 square feet of retail space, a 35,000-square-foot Publix grocery store, a 110-room hotel, and public parks.<\/p>\n
Moll emphasized the importance of scale for amenities like grocery stores. \u201cGrocery stores, they\u2019re a relatively low margin business and therefore they don\u2019t pay a lot of rent. And so therefore, in order for a landlord to be able to build a grocery store, you need scale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The project has already broken ground on multiple buildings, including apartment complexes and parking garages, with innovative plans to incorporate retail space into parking structures to create a vibrant shopping district.<\/p>\n
Addressing community concerns about density and growth, Moll said Gateway Jax has prioritized listening to residents and tailoring the development to fit Jacksonville\u2019s unique character. \u201cWe\u2019ve done some focus groups… It\u2019s really important that you take elements of what you know works, but then you actually tailor it to what\u2019s gonna work in downtown Jacksonville,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moll also highlighted the strong partnerships behind the project. \u201cWe have partners, sponsors, and capital partners that believe in this vision… That trust in the vision and now the execution of what we\u2019re able to do has been paramount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With public and private investments totaling billions already underway downtown, Moll is confident that Gateway Jax\u2019s efforts will help sustain momentum for Jacksonville\u2019s revitalization. \u201cIf some of the most preeminent soft goods, apparel, furniture store, retailers want to be downtown because of the data that they have on their customers, I think that says a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As Gateway Jax continues to develop Pearl Square, Moll stressed the importance of authenticity in design. \u201cHistoric building infrastructure… creating great parks and open spaces… and having local retailers, mom and pops that are only unique to Jacksonville,\u201d are key ingredients to success, he said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Gateway Jax is leading a major redevelopment effort in downtown Jacksonville, aiming to reshape nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7364,116,118,117,7363],"class_list":{"0":"post-144762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-business-edition","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news","12":"tag-this-week-in-jacksonville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}