{"id":978066,"date":"2026-08-03T15:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/978066\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:16:15","slug":"city-reviews-permit-for-15-8m-renovation-of-historic-ambassador-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/978066\/","title":{"rendered":"City reviews permit for $15.8M renovation of historic Ambassador Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The city is reviewing a permit application for Gateway Jax to renovate the historic Ambassador Hotel at an estimated $15.8 million, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jaxdailyrecord.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/03\/pearl-square-marriott-in-permitting-at-closed-ambassador-hotel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.jaxdailyrecord.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/03\/pearl-square-marriott-in-permitting-at-closed-ambassador-hotel\/\">according to our news partners at the Jacksonville Daily Record<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Avant Construction Group Inc. of Jacksonville is the contractor for the hotel and restaurant project at 420 N. Julia St. Downtown. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Gateway Jax intends to renovate the long-closed hotel into a 109-unit property that will operate as Hotel Merrydelle to be part of the Marriott Tribute Portfolio. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The city issued a permit June 8 for Gateway Jax to start selective interior demolition in preparation to renovate it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Avant Construction Group also is the contractor for that $221,000 project to remove unusable interior construction materials in the building in Downtown\u2019s North Core.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Campo Architecture &amp; Interior Design of New Orleans is the architect and interior designer of record for the project. Universal Engineering Sciences in Jacksonville is providing private plan review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The project description says the hotel was constructed in 1924.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">It says the six-story building is composed of ribbed cast-in-place concrete slabs with interior and perimeter cast-in-place columns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The scope of work says existing interior elements will be removed. Exterior facade materials will be repaired and cleaned, windows will be installed and roofing will be replaced to \u201ccore and shell\u201d condition. The stairs and vacant elevator shaft will be undisturbed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">There will be additional demolition required in later phases for structural slab work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The contractor will coordinate the demolition of heating, ventilation and air conditioning units to maintain the interior temperature and humidity conditions suitable for existing and new building materials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jaxdailyrecord.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/03\/pearl-square-marriott-in-permitting-at-closed-ambassador-hotel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.jaxdailyrecord.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/03\/pearl-square-marriott-in-permitting-at-closed-ambassador-hotel\/\">Click here to read the full story on the Jacksonville Daily Record<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The city is reviewing a permit application for Gateway Jax to renovate the historic Ambassador&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":978067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,18604,7310,109478,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-978066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-duval-county","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-gateway-jax","tag-jacksonville","tag-pearl-square","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117032241645012976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/978067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}