City Councilman Nick Howland during a Finance Committee budget hearing. | Casmira Harrison, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 9, 2026 at 3:37 pm
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The incoming president of the Jacksonville City Council has raised doubt about a proposed $28.5 million cash grant to bring a Publix Downtown.
During an appearance Monday on WJCT News 89.9’s First Coast Connect, President-elect Nick Howland said city leaders will need to make tough decisions during this summer’s city budget hearings to prepare for less revenue, in the event that Florida voters pass a referendum in November to reduce property taxes.
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According to Howland, one casualty could be the proposed cash grant meant to help developer Gateway Jax Inc. build a 14-story, $138 million mixed-use tower that will include a Publix grocery store.
The project is part of the developer’s broader $1 billion Pearl Square neighborhood, which is under construction in Downtown Jacksonville’s NorthCore.
Howland called the eventual decision “a tough one.”
“Everyone agrees that that would be a fantastic project. The question is do we have the money,” Howland said Monday. “Remember when I mentioned we’ll take a look at this budget this summer with a fine-tooth comb and we’ll ask three questions: Is it core? Is it duplicative? And do we have the money? We may just have a simple case here of not having the money for that.”
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The city’s Downtown Investment Authority is still negotiating details of the incentives deal for the Publix-anchored building. And the tentative deal still has several steps before it would reach City Council for approval.
“We are excited to work with incoming Council President Howland to continue building on the success of the previous public-private partnerships between Gateway Jax and the City Council to advance shared goals for the infrastructure of Downtown Jacksonville,” a Gateway Jax spokesperson told Jacksonville Today in an email Tuesday.
Mayor on Downtown Publix
Mayor Donna Deegan, who will present her proposed city budget to council in July, has been a booster of the Pearl Square development. During an appearance on First Coast Connect on Tuesday, Deegan called the Publix “essential to the success of that urban core Downtown.”
“That’s been a food desert for a long time, and that Publix needs to go in,” Deegan said.
In November 2025, Gateway said it planned to seek $48 million in public incentives to bring the 35,000-square-foot grocery store and pharmacy to Downtown, which will also include 285 apartments and another 7,000 square feet of retail.
Gateway Jax CEO Bryan Moll said in May that demolition was expected to begin this month on the former First Baptist Church auditorium that currently sits on the site at 119 W. Beaver St.
Even before the state’s proposed property tax cut — which could cost the city $300 million starting in the 2027-28 fiscal year — council members had already shown fatigue for cash incentives for developers and private companies.
City lawmakers have been favoring tax rebates and low interest development loans, but have not completely stopped cash grants for Downtown development projects.
Some have questioned the “cash completion grants,” which the city awards for projects that can be economic drivers for the city or specific neighborhoods. The cash payment typically is paid after the project is completed.
Howland said Monday there could be more creative ways to provide cash investments for private development projects. He suggested finding a third party financier to provide a completion grant in exchange for a promise by the city of a future tax break for them.
Moll said in May that Gateway has been working with council members on elements of the incentives deal for the Publix project.
It could become a combination of a cash completion grant and tax rebates. Moll says city officials have also discussed with Gateway a loan for the project, he said.
“For what we’re creating Downtown, (a grocery store is) absolutely critical to what we’re producing, Moll said at the time. “Without a full service grocery store which includes a pharmacy, it’s much more difficult next to impossible to be able to do what we’re doing at this scale.”
