The long-delayed promise of a second American Dream megamall near Miami

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The development group behind the Mall of America, West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the American Dream megamall in New Jersey has proposed to build the largest mall in the U.S. in Florida, but the ambitious project has now been stuck in limbo for a decade amid legal battles with county officials and project partners.
In 2015, the developer Triple Five proposed American Dream Miami, projected to cost up to $4 billion, according to the Miami Herald. The newspaper wrote that the proposal included a live sea-lion show, an indoor ski slope, a lake with submarine rides, miniature golf, a water park, a skating rink, indoor gardens, hotels and condominiums.
“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 at the time, per the Herald. Triple Five representatives did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The project would be the successor to one of the most-watched projects in retail, which similarly was not quick to substantiate — it faced almost 20 years of delays due to financing issues, with a development team change in 2011. New Jersey’s 3 million-square-foot American Dream finally opened in 2019 with a Nickelodeon-themed amusement park and ice rink. It has since added large entertainment attractions such as a ferris wheel and wave pool, as well as new stores including a flagship for Japanese streetwear brand BAPE and Tom Brady’s CardVault.
Last September, the development team finally began paying $287 million back to bondholders as leasing and foot traffic improved at the New Jersey American Dream. As of last July, the mall was 87% leased, per public filings. Placer.ai, which counts foot traffic to properties based on cell phone data, reported that foot traffic to American Dream last year was up by double digits from 2023 in the first and fourth quarters, both more than 14%. Foot traffic surged this year during the Jonas Brothers fan convention JonasCon, hosted at the mall — it was 146.5% higher than average, according to a Placer.ai report from April.
“The mall is finally finding its footing, where it appears to be starting to resonate with the broader trade area as a unique and interesting destination to visit,” Thomas Dobrowski, a vice chairman at real estate firm Newmark, told Commercial Observer last year. “It’s now on the radar throughout the New York and New Jersey area, and it’s becoming a true destination for the consumer, mainly driven by its unique features.”
In turn, the Florida project is still worth watching as a prominent future mall development, even as it remains unclear when it will break ground.
A decade of delays
In May, the county sued the developers for $5 million over missed development deadlines, according to the Miami Herald. In 2015, according to the newspaper, the county sold 82 acres to American Dream Miami, with a $5 million penalty if it wasn’t on track to be completed by 2025. The developer has yet to file the permits and approvals needed to begin construction, according to the newspaper.
A Triple Five lawyer told the Herald in May that the developer is making progress on county requirements related to road construction around the project site.
“While we disagree with the county administration’s interpretation of the matter, we are nonetheless working with the administration to resolve this disagreement amicably,” Miguel Díaz de la Portilla, a Triple Five lawyer and former county commissioner, told the Herald.
Last year, Triple Five had sued the Graham Cos., the developer that agreed to sell most of the project site but has refused to let Triple Five close the deal after Triple Five failed to meet development deadlines.
This year, Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez proposed to allow Miami-Dade County to divert property taxes to cover about $60 million in local road construction that otherwise would have been the developers’ responsibility, to “provide greater flexibility related to the development,” according to the Miami Herald. The county had been restricted by other mall owners earlier in the development process when the project was initially approved in 2018, the Herald reported. The commissioner’s proposal, which could allow Triple Five to ask the county for road funding, has yet to be approved.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was the lone vote against the project in 2018, citing concerns about traffic, low-wage jobs and water use, according to the Herald, which reported that Miami-Dade’s previous mayor Carlos Gimenez supported the project and his administration negotiated the land deal. Despite this, she supported road improvements around the projects, regardless of whether the mall is completed or not, per the newspaper.
“I was personally persuaded that this really didn’t have to do so much with the project as it has to do with the needs of the residents of the area,” Levine Cava told commissioners. “We do not know what the developer plans to do with this property at this time. It could come back as housing or something else.”
A rarity in mall development
Retail projects to the scale of Triple Five’s malls are a rarity on the national scale. Despite its many delays, some in the industry point to the project as a status symbol for South Florida.
“It’s yet another confirmation of the overall market’s strength and investor confidence in the retail sector,” said Rafael Romero, an svp in Miami for real estate firm JLL, in an email. “Nationally, most new construction related to super-regional malls is typically redevelopment of existing malls and/or other repurposing. American Dream is a notable exception to the norm, and it’s happening in our backyard.”
New malls and shopping centers have gotten smaller as department stores have closed, said Sean Slater, senior principal at architecture firm RDC and chair of the entertainment development council of the Urban Land Institute. He had worked on an early iteration of what would become the American Dream project in New Jersey with Atlanta architecture firm TVS, when the mall concept was called Xanadu, in around 2004 or 2005, and the developer was the Mills Corp. (later acquired by Simon).
Slater said that when he was working on the early iteration of what would become the American Dream project, it was more focused on retail than on entertainment. He said it was going to be about 30% entertainment and 70% retail at that time, but has since transformed to roughly 70% entertainment.
“That’s really indicative of where retail has gone over the last 20 years, with the internet and Amazon starting to eat into consumer habits and shopping being something that you do for experience, not to go buy underwear,” Slater said. He said even at regional malls or shopping centers, square footage has skewed away from retail and has become more experiential, with more space reserved for food, as well as luxury retailers like Gucci, Prada, Fendi and Louis Vuitton, where people will want to see the products in person.
He added that such a massive development like an American Dream with 20 entertainment concepts under one roof is best suited for tourist markets because they are heavily dependent on tourists and overnight stays. Even Los Angeles, he said, would be difficult for a project like this, as there is so much to do in the area; it would be hard to convince someone to spend two or three days inside a mall. “Miami, we’ll see how that goes. They’re competing with Central Florida and the collection of themed environments up there. Maybe there’s enough separation there.”
JLL’s Romero said the project will create a major competitor for several nearby malls, as well — specifically, Dolphin Mall, Sawgrass Mills and Aventura Mall.
“The project has been brought up in conversation [with retailers] over the years quite a bit,” Romero said. “Ultimately, the quality and anticipated traffic of the initial tenant mix will drive interest as the project comes together.”
The entertainment concepts at the megamalls present a huge upside to retailers, said David Greensfelder, founder and managing principal of retail real estate firm Greensfelder Real Estate Strategy.
“The Mall of America laid this ground first, trying to create something so big that it was a compelling attraction in its own right,” Greensfelder said. “I wouldn’t call it an amusement park, I wouldn’t call it a shopping mall; it is an ecosystem that’s developed to entertain and also to capture and hold people. … The longer you can hold people, the more they’re going to spend.”