Revitalization of Downtown Jacksonville is accelerating thanks to “first movers” who are making major investments in the urban core, Build Up Downtown CEO Linzee Ott says.
Ott took part in a panel discussion Aug. 1 with business leaders at the JAX Chamber Downtown Council.
She said projects including the Gateway Jax Pearl Square mixed-use development and the University of Florida graduate campus in LaVilla are creating a “triangle of transformation” stretching from LaVilla to the NorthCore District to the Sports and Entertainment District to the east.
Ott, who chairs the Downtown Development Review Board, said the third leg of that triangle is a 2-mile stretch of city park projects along the St. Johns River.
“We’ve got some really, really visionary first movers and investors in Downtown that we haven’t had in decades,” Ott said. “Within the context of what’s happening regionally in Jacksonville, Downtown is at the literal epicenter.”
With South Florida densely developed, Ott said developers are looking northward up the Atlantic coast and Jacksonville has become an attractive destination for relatively inexpensive property for projects.
Panelist Nicholas Halloran, senior vice president at Gateway Jax, explained how the company is designing its multiple NorthCore blocks.
“Doing things like wide sidewalks so you can have mature tree canopies, cafe dining – that’s what turns an apartment building into a destination,” Halloran said.
“All of that plays a critical role.”
Gateway Jax is set to top out its building at 515 Pearl St. in the coming days, Halloran said. It is expected to be completed in mid-2026.
The $45 million, seven-story building will feature 205 apartment units and 24,086 square feet of retail, commercial and storage space. Plans show seven retail spaces in the property facing Ashley and Pearl streets.
“Drive over on Pearl Square. It looks a lot different today than it did,” Halloran said. “It’s happening. We’ll start to see it come to fruition here within the next several months.”
Across existing properties Downtown, Alan Cottrill of Avant Construction said his company was committed to bringing “new life” to older buildings Downtown through adaptive reuse that will modernize structures while retaining their historic appearance and character.
Cottrill said Avant’s work on those projects was aimed not only at adapting and protecting them but also at spurring growth around them.
He spotlighted the former Pratt Funeral Home, which Avant is converting into 13 apartments – and a former embalming room turned into a lounge space. Called LaVilla Place, the project at 525 W Beaver St. is owned by Eric Adler.
Avant is working to renovate the Juliette Balcony building at 225 N. Laura St., which it owns, to include a ground-floor restaurant with apartments on the second and third floors. The 6,492-square-foot building, constructed in 1904, is known as the Juliette Balcony because of the decorative railings on its upper floors.
The Laura and Hogan street corridor “is going to be more activated, and definitely more of a genesis for future opportunity,” Cottrill said.
To the west in LaVilla is the planned University of Florida graduate campus.
Kurt Dudas, the university’s vice president for strategic initiatives, said UF would focus on creating a traditional campus structure west of the Jacksonville Terminal train station. Eastward, he said, there would be more of an urban campus feel akin to New York University.
“The long-term vision is to have both something that’s integrated in the urban fabric and something that’s a little bit more of a traditional campus,” Dudas said.
Patrick Krechowski, chair of the Downtown Investment Authority board, said incoming DIA CEO Colin Tarbert was set to start Aug. 4 but had already started doing work related to his new role.
Tarbert, who was selected for the position unanimously by the DIA board June 9, comes to Jacksonville from the Baltimore Development Corp., a similar entity that advocates for business growth. Speaking to the DIA board, Tarbert said he saw the opportunity for growth in Jacksonville “with clarity.”
Tarbert has said he wants to focus on development between the Sports and Entertainment District and Brooklyn, especially around Downtown’s core. In his first weeks on the job, he hopes to meet with business and community leaders.
As panelists shared renderings and plans for what they had in store, they echoed that they wanted Jacksonville to move away from being a city of renderings and create the physical property they were envisioning.
“I think the lowest-hanging fruit for here in Jacksonville is apartments and getting people back living Downtown,” Halloran said.
“You have to do that with retail and the right commercial space.”