The rooftop terrace and pool at Vandeveer. | Gateway Jax
Published on March 3, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Gateway Jax on Tuesday unveiled its first residential building in the Pearl Square neighborhood it is developing in Jacksonville’s NorthCore.
The building, at 515 N. Pearl St., will be called Vandeveer. It will feature 205 apartments above ground-level retail, including a Japanese restaurant.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Gateway Jax, a Jacksonville-based investment and development firm, is redeveloping nine city blocks in the NorthCore into residences, stores, offices, parks and public spaces. The company plans more than 20 shops, 15 restaurants, a boutique hotel and 1,250 new residential units — “sparking a new era of urban living in Jacksonville,” according to the Gateway Jax website.
Vandeveer is expected to open this year. The company says the name honors Thomas Vandeveer Porter, whose historic Porter House Mansion was designed by Henry Klutho and built in 1902 after the Great Fire.
Vandeveer is positioned along Klutho’s Alley and adjacent to Porter House Lawn and Garden, the centerpiece of new parks and public spaces that anchor the neighborhood.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“Vandeveer is where the vision for Pearl Square becomes tangible,” Bryan Moll, CEO of Gateway Jax, said in a news release.
Vandeveer “sets the tone for the vibrant, walkable neighborhood we are building in the heart of Jacksonville,” Moll said.
Vandeveer will include studio, “junior” one-bedroom, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with amenities such as a club room with coworking spaces, an outdoor terrace with pool, grills and seating, a modern gym and a pet spa.
For more information and to join the Vandeveer waitlist, go to vandeveerjax.com.
The new Japanese restaurant is a concept of restaurateur Steve Palmer of The Indigo Road Hospitality Group, which operates O-Ku at Jacksonville Beach and soon will open Oak Steakhouse in Downtown Jacksonville.
The menu for the Japanese restaurant is expected to highlight local ingredients and fresh seafood with wood-fired offerings off the robata grill, as well as sushi, sashimi and other Japanese-inspired dishes.
Updates about Pearl Square’s growth are available at pearlsquare.com.
Randy comes to Jacksonville from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where as metro editor, he led investigative coverage of the Parkland school shooting that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for public service. He has spent more than 40 years in reporting and editing positions in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and Florida.
