Publix at 119 Beaver St. Courtesy of Gateway Jax.
Jaxsons will quickly have the ability to get their Pub Subs and Previous-Original Lemonade in Downtown Jacksonville. Developer Gateway Jax has introduced that the grocery retailer in its shortly growing Pearl Sq. district can be a Publix. The announcement has drawn appreciable pleasure from City Core advocates and Downtown residents trying ahead to getting their Boar’s Head meats a bit nearer to house.
“A grocery retailer is the heartbeat of any neighborhood,” mentioned Gateway Jax CEO Bryan Moll in a press launch. “The addition of Publix, already well-known and cherished, is a game-changer for Downtown and an unimaginable step ahead for Pearl Sq.. It brings on a regular basis comfort and reinforces our dedication to constructing an entire, related group that displays the vitality of Jacksonville.”
The Downtown Improvement Overview Board permitted the designs for Gateway’s N7 block in August 2025. Courtesy of Gateway Jax.
In response to Gateway Jax’s press launch, the Publix “will function the retail anchor for a mixed-use constructing that may even embrace residential items and parking.” Will probably be a part of Pearl Sq.’s N-7 block between Hogan, Laura, Beaver and Union Streets, with its frontage at 119 W. Beaver St. Designs permitted by the Downtown Improvement Overview Board in August 2025 present the block that includes a 15-story, 250-unit condominium constructing, six flooring of storage parking, and floor ground retail along with the 32,000-square-foot grocery. The positioning was beforehand house to the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville’s important auditorium, waggishly dubbed the “Homerdome” after its builder, pastor Homer Lindsay, and presently serves as Gateway’s NoCo Middle, an occasion venue that has hosted Past Van Gogh, Past King Tut and different displays. Gateway will develop the block in partnership with Nook Lot, and building may start in summer season 2026.
The Publix can be effectively positioned on this location, simply accessible for Downtown and Springfield residents and staff and instantly throughout the road from JTA’s Rosa Parks bus and Skyway station. The Downtown Northbank presently has no grocery shops following the closure of the Harveys on Market Road in July pending its renovation as an Aldi. There’s a Recent Market in Downtown’s Brooklyn neighborhood and a Entire Meals presently being constructed there as effectively. The Beaver Road Publix would be the chain’s fourth within the metropolis’s conventional City Core, following the Roosevelt Boulevard, 5 Factors and San Marco places.
2023 rendering of Pearl Sq.. Courtesy of Gateway Jax.
The sprawling Pearl Sq. growth has emerged as probably the most formidable tasks in Downtown Jacksonville in years — no quick order in a time when a College of Florida graduate campus, the Jaguars’ Stadium of the Future and large funding in Downtown parks and public areas are additionally barreling down the pipeline. Its developer, Gateway Jax, was based in 2022 by CEO Bryan Moll and companions JWB Actual Property Capital and DLP Capital and shortly assembled properties within the northern blocks of Downtown.
From its preliminary plans to develop 5 blocks round Pearl Road in 2023, the venture has grown to embody further blocks and adaptive reuse alternatives such because the long-deferred Ambassador Lodge redevelopment. The primary part broke floor at 515 Pearl St. lower than a 12 months in the past in 2024, making a seven-story mixed-use constructing. The second part started on Might 29 at 425 W. Beaver Road, one other mixed-use constructing with 286 residential items, 20,000 sq. ft of retail and parking.
Article by The Jaxson. Contact us at editors@moderncities.com.