Will American Dream Miami mega-mall ever become reality?
Doing just a fraction of the business that its developer had projected, a recently opened New Jersey megamall is hemorrhaging red ink, raising questions about the viability of an even larger shopping complex and amusement center planned by the same company in South Florida.
Nearly two years after opening, the so-far disappointing financial performance of the American Dream mega-mall and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands, just outside of New York City, has forced its developer, Triple Five Group, to seek a debt restructuring plan that would allow it to retain ownership of the project.
Meanwhile, financing for the planned $4 billion American Dream Miami, south of the Broward County line where Florida’s Turnpike intersects with Interstate 75, has not yet been secured. Progress on what has been billed as the largest mall in America is barely noticeable at the project site, as the projected opening date has been pushed back from 2021 to late 2026.
“It’s too early for financing,” said Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, attorney with the firm Gunster who is representing the project planned on 175 acres in northwest Miami-Dade.
But whether lenders would still see the South Florida project as viable if the New Jersey mall fails to become profitable remains to be seen.
Asked if the financial difficulties created by the New Jersey project could affect the developer’s ability to secure financing for the South Florida project, Diaz de la Portilla responded with just one word: “No.”
Aside from Diaz de la Portilla, officials of Triple Five Group did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Nor did Stuart Wyllie, president and CEO
of Graham Cos., a large landholder that plans its own mixed-use development directly to the south of American Dream Miami, with 2,000 apartment units targeted to mall employees.
A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who as a county commissioner was critical of the project, said Friday that “the mayor is aware of the concerns about the developer and we’re doing our due diligence and exploring what all of our options are.”
Reviews from visitors to the New Jersey mall, situated 10 miles from Manhattan, to online review sites such as Yelp have been mixed. Consumers say they are impressed with such attractions as the large indoor ski slope, an immersive aquarium filled with sea creatures and an indoor water park. But many complain that prices are high.
Water park tickets start at $83 for seniors and $99 for ages 10 and up. Tickets for two hours on the ski slope start at $69.99, including equipment rental. A walk through the aquarium is $23.99 for children and $28.99 for adults. And access to the Universal Nickelodeon theme park, featuring a roller coaster and other thrill rides, begins at $59 for children 3 to 9 on “peak days.”
Retail and food options are similar to other malls, visitors
pointed out while also noting a conspicuous number of still-vacant storefronts and an absence of shoppers. A luxury wing, featuring stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Hermès and Tiffany & Co., was just opened Friday.
The mall opened in late 2019 with some portions unfinished, then was forced to close for six months in March 2020 as the state maintained strict COVID-19 restrictions.
It reopened in October to a permanently changed retail environment, in which quarantining shoppers’ embrace of online buying and home deliveries had accelerated, killing off once-formidable retail brands like Pier 1, Lord & Taylor and Stein Mart.
Projected to generate $2 billion in sales in its first year, the New Jersey mall generated just $139 million in the first half of this year, forcing the developers to hire legal and financial specialists to help them restructure $3 billion in debt, according to an August report by Bloomberg.
Back in Miami-Dade, project attorney Diaz de la Portilla said the developers have been working with state and federal highway agencies to improve interchange access to the site. A new Florida’s Turnpike interchange and lane extension from 102nd Street to Interstate 75 is currently under construction and slated for completion in January 2025, he said.
When the project was
announced in 2015, developers provided renderings of a sprawling $4 billion, 175-acre, 6.2 million-squarefoot spectacle projected to draw more visitors than Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
It would include a list of attractions similar to the New Jersey mall’s: indoor ski slopes, skating rink, aquarium, submarine rides, a live performance center, gardens, water park, movie complex and hotels, along with 3.5 million square feet of retail.
Today, no ground has been broken, no site plan has been submitted for county approval, and published comments by Diaz de la Portilla suggest that plans remain in flux.
Talking to the business journal Miami Today in October 2020, Diaz de la Portilla said the developers were considering changes, including reducing the percentage of retail space within the floor plan and rethinking whether all of the attractions needed to be indoors.
Almost a year later, in early September, Diaz de la Portilla told the same paper that the developer was working on a new design that would allocate just 30% of space to retail stores.
Asked about that new design the following week, Diaz de la Portilla told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a text message that, “We have elected to go with the original plan for now.”