Seven months into the first residential construction project at the $750 million Pearl Square master-planned community in Jacksonville, Florida, developer Gateway Jax will break ground on its second multifamily building on May 29, making a total of 500 units in progress on the 9-acre site.
425 Beaver Street will include 286 multifamily units, resident parking and nearly 20,000 square feet of retail space, set to open in 2027, according to a press release shared with Multifamily Dive.
Designed by Bethesda, Maryland-based SK+I Architecture with interiors by Toronto-based Cecconi Simone, the building plans call for a bright white and stone palette, including a white brick facade. Details about the units and residential amenities at the Pearl Square apartment sites are not yet available.
Over the course of the next decade, Pearl Square, a nine-block section of downtown Jacksonville, will deliver more than 1,250 residential units, approximately 200,000 square feet of retail space, a 100-key hotel, public park spaces, expanded sidewalks and a curbless festival street, according to the release.
The Jacksonville-based developer, a partnership between Jacksonville-based investor JWB Real Estate Capital and St. Augustine, Florida-based investor DLP Capital, is targeting a grocery store, a fitness club, grab-and-go markets and salons as retail tenants.
The city’s population is rapidly growing, with over 120,000 new residents recorded between 2010 and 2020, according to U.S. Census data. An estimated 50,000 additional residents arrived between 2020 and 2024. Overall, Jacksonville’s resident base has grown by an estimated 25% over the past 15 years, to over 1 million for the first time in its history.
“Jacksonville has been called the Bold New City of the South, and it is one of the most unique and special places in the country,” Bryan Moll, CEO of Gateway Jax, said in the release. “Downtown is the key to taking our city to the next level. It brings together history, culture, sports, entertainment, the waterfront –– everything that makes our home so special.”
Gateway Jax’s approximately $2 billion development pipeline includes over 5,000 new residential units in downtown Jacksonville across multiple projects, along with 500,000 square feet of retail space, according to the company website.
