Galleria mall makeover a big box of uncertainty

When the Galleria opened in Fort Lauderdale in 1980, the mall became a wildly popular shopping destination for teens, yuppies and seniors. An entire generation bought Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Brooks Brothers suits there.

Today it’s a retail dinosaur. Once-glitzy big box stores like Neiman Marcus sit empty. The big mall on Sunrise Boulevard, built by longtime resident Leonard Farber, is owned by an absentee landlord with legal and financial problems. Despite its troubled past, however, the site has astounding redevelopment potential.

The pension fund for Pennsylvania teachers, PSERS, for Public School Employees Retirement System, bought the Galleria in 1993 for $126 million as part of its risky “alternative investment” strategy, The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported. As malls lost their appeal to online shopping and door-to-door deliveries, the pension fund spent tens of millions on upgrades and even tried to unload it.

The owners proposed a massive overhaul in 2015, anchored by a 45-story condo tower. Neighborhood opposition killed the project, so retired teachers from Scranton to Pittsburgh are still stuck with a dying mall that’s long overdue for a makeover. Neighborhood residents agree on the need for improvement, but how? And when?

The owners’ new pitch to the city is an ambitious mixed-use proposal.

Most of the mall would be demolished, replaced by housing, restaurants, new shops, offices, biking and walking paths, a boutique hotel, better lighting and landscaping and a welcoming village green. The pretty pictures look great, and that’s the problem — at this point, it’s mostly

promises with few specifics.

Too many ‘flex units’

The plan by Keystone-Florida Property Holding Corp. includes a request to reserve 1,730 “flex” housing units, nearly all of the city’s current reserve of housing allowed in areas zoned for commercial uses. That’s a lot of density along Sunrise Boulevard, one of the region’s most traffic-choked east-west roads, and it could get more horrendous. Less than two miles away is the planned massive five-tower Searstown project, a ticket to “traffic hell,” as Mayor Dean Trantalis has warned.

How many more mega-developments can this city stand?

At a time of extraordinary upheaval at City Hall, the project team wants commissioners to approve a development agreement, binding on both the city and developer, to set things in motion. That’s despite unanswered questions about noise, crime, water-sewer capacity and, most of all, traffic. It’s highly irregular for a project to be given flex units before a detailed site plan passes muster with the city Development Review Committee, a key step in a project’s evolution.

“The cart’s before the horse,” says John Herbst, the former city auditor fired by commissioners in February, with no justification at a questionable late-night meeting. He’s now a commission candidate in the area that includes the Galleria.

The development agreement has value for the developer, as it can be used to attract retail investors, which in turn lures housing developers. But another source of friction is the owners’ contention that the 42-acre site is one contiguous property, even though it is clearly split by Northeast 26th Avenue on the east.

Land-use lawyer-lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker, in separate meetings with residents and the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, gave assurances that a thorough review will resolve all issues. But she could not say how many housing units will be lower-priced, smaller rental apartments or higher-priced condos for affluent owners. That’s what neighbors want to know, but as Toothaker told us: “It’s too early to tell.”

She says a development agreement should be approved quickly because leases with key Galleria retailers are expiring and the mall must be rebuilt in stages because of its size. That means it would take years.

That’s why it should not move forward until a new commission is seated in December.

Toothaker’s influence

Three of five commissioners are lame ducks who will be gone at year’s end, midway through four-year terms. They are Robert McKinzie, Ben Sorensen and Heather Moraitis, whose District 1 includes the site. To her credit, she opposes the project in its current form, in part over the flex units which she contends will hinder development elsewhere, such as in the Uptown area west of I-95 near Executive Airport.

Adding to the upheaval is the departure in July of City Manager Chris Lagerbloom. With Herbst gone, the city has an interim auditor who can’t match Herbst’s 16 years of experience on development projects.

The stakes are too high to leave this to commissioners who will be gone and unaccountable after November. The same five who approve a Galleria makeover should be held accountable and forced to see it to completion. That safeguard is needed because Toothaker has far too much sway over this pro-growth commission — which is why her lobbying services are in such demand.

Neighborhood input is critical. It’s good that the project is evolving under the watchful eye of engaged residents with decades of business experience who belong to the Coral Ridge Civic Association or Sunrise Intracoastal Homeowners Association. They must keep asking questions.

Residents packed a recent forum, held in the old Neiman Marcus store, asked many questions and made suggestions, from emergency call boxes to 24-hour security to climate change sustainability measures. None of that is in the bare-bones draft agreement, but this is: a 2 a.m. closing time throughout the Galleria parcel for alcohol consumption.

We urge commissioners to discuss the draft agreement, line by line, at public workshops, mindful of the possibility that PSERS will sell off the development rights after the city gives its OK. A project of this size needs all the scrutiny it can get. A dead mall is a big problem, but the Galleria’s future is one very big box of uncertainty.