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American Dream Miami Construction May Not Begin For Another 8 Years

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Speaking to a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce crowd, an American Dream Miami consultant said construction on the massive theme-park-oriented mall may not begin until 2025, three years after all roads and expressway interchanges into the development have been completed.

In the meantime, fostering more development around public transit hubs is the key ingredient in creating the kind of critical mass that will transform Miami into a true urban center, according to a panel of downtown and Brickell developers.

“Bringing in the Brightline commuter train into downtown is going to be transformative for the city,” said Greg West, president and chief development officer at ZOM. “It not only elevates Miami, but all of South Florida on the global stage. It should bring more population.”

West joined Swire President Kieran Bowers and Henry Pino, managing member Strategic Properties Group and Alta Developers, in a discussion about builders capitalizing on Miami’s continuing evolution. It was the second of two panels during the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce 2017 Real Estate Summit held at Jungle Island on Friday.

Pino said his companies have plans to develop two mixed-use sites near Miami-Dade Metrorail stations south of Miami.

“We are trying to expand our projects to be closer to the train stations,” he said. “We just closed on a property that will be 900 feet from the Dadeland South Station,” Pino said. “We have another one in South Miami that is across from city hall and within walking distance to another Metrorail station.”

Earlier this week, Alta paid $11 million for a 1.45-acre industrial site at 9600 South Dixie Highway to complete an assemblage that also includes a 6,250-square-foot site with a retail building at 9514 South Dixie Highway and a 3,125-square-foot site with an office building at 9516 South Dixie Highway. Alta plans to seek county approval to redevelop the sites into a mixed-use project that includes 420 apartments, roughly 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a pool, a fountain and a fitness center.

Bowers said Brickell is a good example of how residential development close to a Metrorail station creates critical mass and encourages people to use public transit

“My experience with Metrorail is that it is fine once you get on it,” Bowers said. “But getting to the stations is the real problem.”

During the earlier panel, three developers building massive projects in the northwest area of Miami-Dade discussed the challenges they face breaking ground, noting it can take years to cut through the regulatory red tape. The panelists were Jose Gonzalez, vice president of corporate development for Florida East Coast Industries, Stuart Wyllie, CEO of the Graham Companies, and Edgar Jones, president of Edgar Jones & Co., which is part of the development team building American Dream Miami.

Gonzalez talked about the hoops Florida East Coast jumped through simply to prepare a former landfill for development into an industrial park.

“We bought the land in 2004,” Gonzalez said. “We literally just broke ground last year. And it will take 10 years to build out that park.”

Jones said that construction of American Dream cannot begin until the state and county finish building all the roads and expressway interchanges that provide access to the gargantuan entertainment and shopping destination.

“That will be completed in 2022,” Jones said. “Construction of the mall won’t start until three years after that.”

Jones also groused about amount of time the developers have been required to spend on traffic studies to convince county officials that American Dream will create more gridlock in an area already plagued by traffic congestion.

“The development team has widened the scope of the areas that may be impacted by more traffic so much that we now know the traffic impact in Santa Monica, California,” Jones said in jest.

He also claimed that if American Dream opponents succeed in killing the project, the massive assemblage of land would be developed into industrial parks.

“You will have trucks on the road at significant levels,” Jones said. “Those trucks will be out during rush hour.”

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Biggest Mall In North America Delayed By Miami-Dade Over Traffic Impact Studies

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American Dream Miami was supposed to break ground by the end of 2016, but it has been pushed back until 2017 due to a delay in the approval process.

Miami-Dade delayed the process by asking for more details on the traffic impact of the project, after a study showed that the mall would generate more trips than was first forecast.

A commission vote on the project will now take place 9 months later than originally expected. Developers had hoped to have a comprehensive development master plan amendment voted on in May or June, but that has been pushed back to February or March 2017.

Last year, the owners of Aventura Mall and Sawgrass hired ‘top tier’ lobbyists in an attempt to kill the project.

 

Source: The Next Miami

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Get Ready, Shoppers: Miami’s New Mall Will Be Nation’s Biggest

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At a time when mall shopping is dwindling, there’s a plan afoot to build what would become the country’s largest shopping center, complete with a ski slope, sea lions and Legoland.

Though centered around a mall, the proposed American Dream Miami would also have a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, and 500-foot-tall observation tower. Most of it would be enclosed by a dome shown here in the artist’s rendering of the theme park. Proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade County, the project comes from the developer behind Minnesota’s Mall of America

Though centered around a mall, the proposed American Dream Miami would also have a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, and 500-foot-tall observation tower. Most of it would be enclosed by a dome shown here in the artist’s rendering of the theme park. Proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade County, the project comes from the developer behind Minnesota’s Mall of America

The $4 billion plan, as detailed by the Miami Herald, would employ 25,000 people in its 200-acre complex, which is slated to be located in Miami’s suburbs. That would make it Miami-Dade’s largest private-sector payroll, the publication noted.

The bold plan comes at a tricky time for malls, as shoppers are snubbing them in favor of Internet shopping, or simply heading to Main Street. Construction on new enclosed malls has ground to a standstill, with only one, Florida’s University Park, opening in the past decade. Given the shift in consumer trends, it may seem risky to plan such a huge undertaking, but the developer is betting that the sheer size and variety of attractions will get people hooked.

The complex is slated to offer stores and a range of attractions, such as a skating rink, a waterpark and a theme park including a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. The developer, Triple Five, is also the company behind Mall of America, which has about 4.2 million square feet and offers 520 stores and 50 restaurants. While the developer didn’t disclose the square footage of the planned Miami mall, it told the publication that the new mall will be larger than Mall of America.

“It is our intent that this project — American Dream Miami — will exceed our other world famous projects in all respects,” Triple Five said in a statement. Triple Five didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Plans for a water park at the American Dream Miami entertainment complex include 20 different “slides and water treatments,” and the world’s tallest indoor bungee tower. Proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade, the complex would be the largest mall in the United States. Proposal by developer Triple Five

Plans for a water park at the American Dream Miami entertainment complex include 20 different “slides and water treatments,” and the world’s tallest indoor bungee tower. Proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade, the complex would be the largest mall in the United States. Proposal by developer Triple Five

The outsized mall comes at time when enclosed malls are shutting down, becoming ghostly relics of a bygone retail era. There’s even a site called DeadMalls.com that records the locations of razed or shuttered malls, such as downtown Rochester, New York’s Midtown Mall, which opened in 1963 as the first urban indoor mall in America. After struggling to keep tenants, the mall was closed in 2008 and demolished in 2010.

The decline of the mall has been precipitous enough that an executive with one of the largest privately held real-estate companies last year projected that the traditional mall could be dead in a decade.

But American Dream Miami isn’t aiming to be an ordinary enclosed mall. The glass-covered structure would also include luxury hotels, miniature golf, and a ski slope with 800 feet of artificial snow.

While the mall will bring more jobs to Florida, many of those will be in the types of low-paying occupations that are common in the state, such as store clerks and waitstaff. Median household income in Florida stands at about $47,000, below the U.S. median of $53,000, according to the Census.

Still, Mall of America may be breaking the mold when it comes to the twilight of the American mall. Triple Five is currently working on a $325 million expansion of Mall of America, adding a food hall and underground valet parking. The investment is aimed at pulling in 60 million annual visitors, up from 42 million currently.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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