Updates: Can Miami-Dade help in reviving America’s Largest Mall?
American Dream Miami project developers are asking Miami-Dade to lift ban on government subsidies.
Developers haven’t yet broken ground on American Dream Miami project,America’s largest mall at a 175-acre site off Interstate 75. But why?. Developers for the mega project are asking Miami-Dade County to lift an existing ban on government subsidies for the venture that launched almost a decade ago.
The stalled America’s Largest Mall project in Miami-Dade was once planned to be open and employing about 5,000 people by 2025. But developer Triple Five, the owner of Minnesota’s Mall of America, hasn’t moved forward with final construction permits, despite winning county approval for its plans back in 2018.
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Stalled for years. Can Miami-Dade help in reviving America’s Largest Mall?
Triple Five says a restriction from the original approval by the County Commission is causing problems for the project and hindering them to start the construction. Triple Five wants Miami-Dade to lift a 2018 restriction pushed by existing malls in the area preventing the use of county funds to subsidize the project.
From 2018, the years that followed became even more challenging for American Dream Miami project as the COVID-19 pandemic shifted more shopping online. The Triple Five’s original American Dream project in New Jersey, a 3.5-million-square-foot complex in the New York suburb of East Rutherford, reported losses of $229 million in 2022 before depreciation, according to regulatory filings posted last year.
Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez said, “Everybody needs to be treated the same.” Speaking from his district, which encompasses the American Dream development site situated on vacant land at the convergence of I-75 and the Florida Turnpike, he added, “It’s not about their mall so much as we need to move forward with getting roads built.”
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Bermudez, a former Doral mayor who wasn’t on the commission during the 2018 American Dream vote, did not share details on what the developers want from Miami-Dade. The original agreement in 2018 requires Triple Five to pay for road systems connecting the mall to main highways and thoroughfares.
The stalled project was announced in 2015, the plan was to have the America’s Largest Mall open by 2020, and an agreement with Miami-Dade to purchase 82 acres of government-owned land that was also approved, which required the developer to have the site generating 5,000 jobs by 2025.
Bermudez is now sponsoring a new legislation to cancel the 2018 restrictions that a coalition of the region’s large malls successfully lobbied to attach to the American Dream project approval package. The package prevents Miami-Dade from offering Triple Five most tax rebates, loans or grants to defer development costs.
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In 2018, The American Dream development package passed easily, with only one commissioner voting no: Daniella Levine Cava, who is now the county’s mayor.
Triple Five is now relying on the current Miami-Dade’s administration for the new regulatory approvals needed to revive the American Dream Miami project. In 2018, construction costs of the mall was estimated at $4 billion. The updates on the current estimated cost of the American Dream Miami project is yet to be made.
After meeting with Triple Five representatives, Bermudez hinted at a change in the developer’s outlook. He foresees a stronger focus on engaging customers through activities at America’s Largest Mall rather than solely depending on retail spaces. “I expect the previous emphasis on retail to decrease in favor of giving priority to entertainment,” he commented. “Malls have undergone changes since COVID, so it’s only natural for adaptations to occur.”
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