A conceptual illustration of the renovated Ambassador Hotel — renamed as Hotel Merrydelle — in Downtown Jacksonville. | Gateway Jax Inc.
Published on April 9, 2026 at 5:04 pm
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The historic Ambassador Hotel in Downtown Jacksonville has a new name and could soon reopen under Marriott International Inc.’s Tribute Portfolio brand.
Developer and hotel owner Gateway Jax Inc. announced Thursday that the long-vacant building at 420 N. Julia St. is now the Hotel Merrydelle — named as an homage to the early 20th century modern art pioneer Merrydelle Hoyt.
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Gateway Jax CEO Brian Moll tells Jacksonville Today that it secured an agreement with Marriott International to use the Tribute Portfolio Hotel brand. The developer says plans will include amenities and finishes that are “on the higher end” of the Marriott, three-star hotel Tribute flag.
“We are elevating the elements where we’ve got a little bit more discretion in the grand standard of Tribute from Marriott,” Moll said.
He says Gateway and hotel partner Indigo Road Hospitality Group will incorporate woods paneling on the interior columns and fixtures along with other flourishes to pay tribute to the history of the Ambassador, which opened in 1924 as upscale apartments.
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Marriott lists 199 Tribute flag hotels globally on its website. The brand highlights independent, architecturally unique hotels. The closest one to Jacksonville is the Hotel Amalga in St. Augustine.
Gateway made the announcement just hours before the Downtown Development Review Board voted unanimously to award the hotel project final design approval.
The board is an appointed city agency responsible for maintaining architectural and planning guidelines in Downtown Jacksonville.
Plans for the project show a 109-room hotel, a coffee and pastry shop and the modern Italian Colletta restaurant and bar operated by Indigo, based in Charleston, South Carolina.
According to Moll, Indigo Road founder Steve Palmer toured the hotel site in Downtown Jacksonville’s North Core, and he pitched a Colletta restaurant that has another location north of Atlanta.
The 120-seat restaurant will serve fired pizzas, house-made pasta and antipasti, Italian wines and cocktails, according to a news release.
“Hotel Merrydelle will be a place where people naturally come together as Downtown Jacksonville transforms into a vibrant, community-focused neighborhood,” Palmer said in the release. “We are excited to be a part of this project — not only offering a welcoming destination for visitors, but a place where locals can connect over shared meals.”
Gateway hopes to open Hotel Merrydelle by summer 2027, adding hospitality to the mix of developer’s $750 million Pearl Square mixed use development.
When Pearl Square is complete, Gateway says it will have 1,250 new residential units; approximately 200,000 square feet of retail space anchored by Publix; a new office building; and public parks and pedestrian walkways.
From Ambassador to Merrydelle
Gateway acquired the full city block that includes the century-old Ambassador and the neighboring Central National Bank building in February 2025 for $17 million.
The developer bought it from subsidiaries of the project’s former developer Augustine Development Group, which was facing foreclosures on the property.
At the time, the group cited construction cost increases and supply chain issues related to COVID-19 for the consistent delays to its effort to revive the hotel, which began in 2018.
With design approval behind it, Gateway now turns its attention to the city’s Downtown Investment Authority. Moll says the development company plans to ask for about $10 million in city incentives as early as May for the $50 million hotel renovation.
Moll said that would come from the DIA’s Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program, which offers forgivable and low-interest loans for historic restoration projects.
City staff and DIA have not finished the final numbers of that potential deal, but Moll says he expects the city to recoup $2 for every $1 of public investment through bed, sales and property taxes.
If the DIA board approves, that agreement would need approval from the Jacksonville City Council. Many of Jacksonville’s elected leaders have become wary of large cash incentive packages for businesses and private developments as the city faces projected budget deficits in the coming years.
Gateway is also seeking $48 million in city incentives for its Publix-anchored project in Pearl Square.
“We understand there’s a lot of conversation about incentives, and we’re really trying to keep that number as low as possible,” Moll said.
Work to shore up the hotel building’s roof and structure won’t wait for the city incentives, Moll says. Site work is scheduled to begin within the next month. Gateway hopes to have the hotel and restaurant open by summer 2027.
The hotel sat without windows for years, exposing the interior of the building to the elements. Moll says that made most of the work completed by the previous developer unusable.
“We’re actually going to be taking out a lot of the walls and the studs. … We essentially designed the building from scratch,” Moll said. “There wasn’t really much of anything we could reuse from the former renovation. It’s unfortunate, but it also gave us an opportunity to kind of rethink what the project could be.”
An attorney for Gateway Jax told design review board members Thursday that the adaptive reuse project will also include expanded sidewalks around the building, “enhanced streetscapes,” and more tree canopy outside of the building.
The hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a locally designated landmark. Gateway says it has been working with the National Park Service to ensure that the renovations comply with the hotel’s historic status.
“The decision to name the hotel ‘Merrydelle’ is a direct tribute to a true Jacksonville visionary,” Moll said in the news release. “Merrydelle Hoyt, an artist who brought her expansive vision from New York to the South, saw the opportunity to expand minds through art. Hotel Merrydelle aims to capture that same spirit — a destination that will provide respite and inspiration in the heart of Pearl Square.”
