By Holly Dutton
Looking not unlike its pioneering American Dream project in the New Jersey Meadowlands, mall developers Triple Five have unveiled plans for a second project in Miami.
Rendering of the American Dream in Miami
“We’re in the very, very early stages of everything in Miami,” Debbie Patire, senior vice president of marketing at American Dream, told Real Estate Weekly. “It’s a brand-new project for us, we are just getting started on development.”
The development firm headed by the Ghermezian family that built the famous Mall of America in Minnesota, said the Miami American Dream will “exceed” their other projects around the world.
It has been reported that project could cost as much as $4 billion to build and once completed, could employ 25,000 people.
Plans for Miami’s megamall are largely modeled after American Dream in New Jersey, including an indoor amusement park with a roller coaster, a water park, and a Ferris Wheel.
Also included in the Miami proposal are a live sea lion show, an indoor ski slope, a skating rink, miniature golf, and hotels and condos.
Although details of the scope of the project were not specific, the company said the Miami mall will be bigger than the Mall of America in Minnesota, which is 4.2 million square feet. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, the once-beleaguered Rutherford project that has undergone ownership changes, delays, and lawsuits since its inception ten years ago, is still on course to be completed by Fall 2016.
Late last year, a spokesperson for American Dream in New Jersey said that interest was so high for retail space at the mall that the developer was expanding to accommodate the demand. Work was still ongoing on the project’s infamous façade and they were anticipating a Fall 2016 opening.
Now, motorists passing by the site on Rt. 3 will see outdoor construction at the site in East Rutherford is focused on the indoor theme park and water park. With the complex being built over marshland, workers are driving piles and going into bedrock to prepare the site, said Patire.
Inside the complex, workers are taking down old materials from previous construction and prepping for its planned design.
Patire said the company is preparing to roll out a strategy soon that will have more information on the retailers that have taken space. So far, the company has been tight-lipped about tenants at the Jersey mall.
