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The largest mall in America is getting closer to approval in Northwest Miami-Dade

The largest mall in America is getting closer to approval in Northwest Miami-Dade

May 07, 2018

BY DOUGLAS HANKS

Read More: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...210642844.html

Quote:

The largest mall in America moved closer to winning a key approval in Miami-Dade on Monday, as a county planning board gave a thumbs up to a $4 billion retail theme park that expects 30 million visitors a year. American Dream Miami promotes itself as a local alternative to Disney World, and a shopping and entertainment destination spanning more than 6 million square feet and large enough to employ 14,000 people once it opens.

- The project by Triple Five, the Canada-based developer of Minnesota's Mall of America, also expects to generate roughly 100,000 vehicle trips per day to a 175-acre triangle of wetlands and pastures where I-75 meets Florida's Turnpike. Environmental advocates warn of runaway development in a sensitive area, and residents say they're already plagued by traffic and don't want to endure the gridlock that would come from Miami-Dade's largest tourist attraction. --- The advisory board granted near unanimous approval of the American Dream development agreement negotiated by the administration of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. That clears the way for the County Commission to take its final vote on the project next week, on Thursday, May 17.

- Owners of some of Miami-Dade's largest malls are trying to block the venture. While the group — backed by the owners of Dolphin Mall, Bayside Marketplace and other large retailers — privately assumes easy passage of the needed changes to the county's master development plan and zoning designations next week, its members are hoping to impose restrictions that might make it harder for Triple Five to actually build the project. The main effort centers on Miami-Dade imposing a requirement in the agreement that Triple Five not accept government subsidies for the project. That tactic may require persuading county commissioners to ignore their lawyers. On Monday, assistant county attorney Dennis Kerbel said he didn't think it was legal to insert a funding component into a land-use matter.

- The vast majority of American Dream visitors would arrive by car, and Miami-Dade's Metrorail system does not have a stop within five miles of the project. Triple Five has agreed to build a bus depot on the project and buy new buses to extend several county routes into the mega-mall. Transit service was a sticking point, with the county writing in April that Triple Five's transit plans "primarily serve the needs of visitors and tourists" but not workers and residents. --- "Because this mall will be the largest self-contained shopping/entertainment experience in the United States, it is imperative that careful consideration is given when planning the future transit service," Albert Hernandez, an assistant director for planning at the county's Transportation department, wrote in the April 14 memo.

.....

https://i.imgur.com/JjBCRJX.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/JKW6xFg.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/Hsagc58.jpg?1

Hopefully it can be stopped. And frankly a giant mall doesn't sound like a great bet anyway.

Looks like the stuff of nightmares.

Might end up underwater eventually for such a big long term project.

These are the same people trying to revive the disaster that was Xanadu in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

http://www.americandream.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdawg (Post 8185160)

These are the same people trying to revive the disaster that was Xanadu in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

http://www.americandream.com

The NJ project is actually finishing up and opening in a few months.

I'll be contrarian here and bet this project will be pretty successful. It's more like a gigantic amusement park than a typical mall. I assume the FL proposal is similar to the NJ project.

Retailers seem to love the project, BTW. They've lured Saks and all the other high end department stores, as well as a number of intl retailers building their first stores in the U.S. It will have a direct train to Manhattan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford (Post 8185196)

South Americans will flock in droves to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford (Post 8185196)

The NJ project is actually finishing up and opening in a few months.

A couple months? It's supposed to open in spring 2019 and that's optimistic:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/ne...019/577026002/

Saks isn't some super impressive retailor LOL, they have outlet stores everywhere. The whole thing has been a money pit for NJ, imagine if they invested all this in downtown Newark instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdawg (Post 8185160)

These are the same people trying to revive the disaster that was Xanadu in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

http://www.americandream.com

A place, where nobody dared to go?

Yeah, they should use the money to invest in the downtown and transit friendly areas. Although, there's already a lot going on in downtown Miami with the World Center and stuff in Brickell. The development action should be focused there and not some exurban plot of land out near the Everglades.

looks wretched. And extremely boring. Minneapolis's Mall of America was perhaps the most soul-sucking place I have ever had the displeasure of visiting.

Maybe they should just be done with it and just create an Amusement park and the other malls wouldn’t see it as a threat.

Some thoughts:

1. Why should rival mall owners be allowed to sue this project? What ever happened to fair competition?

2. Transit access would be for employees, mostly. Im not sure why that is such a hang up.

3. I can see a lot of foreign tourists shopping there, its Miami after all.

4. If it fails, that's the developers problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdawg (Post 8185160)

These are the same people trying to revive the disaster that was Xanadu in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Its moving along. I drove by it on the 9th of May. A lot of activity.

Pics by me.

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/busin...207a00ebd3.jpg

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/busin...d14358da1a.jpg

The thing people have to understand is that not every project out there is a straight linear progression from point A to B, where A is inception, and B is completion. Sometimes there are hurdles. What may influence it? Economy, politics, world events, issues with developers, financing, litigation, and so on.

Sometimes its good to just wait and be patient. Large scale projects on a grandiose level are not the easiest things to pull off. Is it a risk? Sometimes yes, a big one, but lets be confident!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford (Post 8185196)

I completely agree with you. This looks like an amusement park where you can also be shopping (a concept popular with families, no doubt), and an attractive one at that. Note that in the article, they're referring to it as a "theme park" and "an alternative to Disney World".

We on SSP may not like the idea from an urbanistic point of view, but that's got nothing to do with the fact it's almost certainly going to be successful.

Places like these might become more common around the U.S. due to online retailers like Amazon.

You can buy anything on Amazon that is found in a boring mall, but Amazon cannot recreate a rollercoaster, ski slopes, wave pool experience surrounded by retailers. It's shoppertainment.

Hopefully an alligator or two doesn’t sneak in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by llamaorama (Post 8185607)

It already sounds like an epic failure to me... 100,000 additional car trips a day, damn!

Quote:

Originally Posted by lio45 (Post 8185842)

Yeah, the NJ project is 80% entertainment uses (two theme parks, aquarium, indoor ski slopes, etc.).

It's definitely not my cup of tea, but it's competing more with family amusements than regional malls.