Miami-Dade County is about to acquire 82 acres of state land that could one day be the site of the largest mall in America.
The vacant land is just west of Miami Lakes in an area surrounded by the Florida Turnpike, Interstate 75 and Northwest 170 Street. That’s where development company Triple Five wants to build a combination shopping mall and entertainment complex that would supplant its other big property, the Mall of America in Minneapolis, as the largest mall in the nation.
Miami-Dade County will buy the land for $12.3 million and then sell it for the same price to Triple Five. Mayor Carlos Gimenez made the pitch to the Cabinet.
"They promise to invest $4 billion into that project and create - although we have 7,500 jobs as a minimum- actually closer to 25,000 jobs," Gimenez said.
Competing mall operators tried to talk the Cabinet out of it, arguing that it was ignoring a law requiring the sale of surplus land to be at the highest possible price. Shobi Khan of General Growth properties, owner of Miami's Bayside Marketplace, said taxpayers are getting cheated.
"And I can unequivocally say that we would purchase the property at a number greater than what the appraisal is," Khan said.
But the Cabinet approved the sale unanimously. If Triple Five makes its way through several more regulatory hurdles, it plans to call its newest mall American Dream Miami and attract tourists and shoppers not just with retail but with theme-park style attractions including animals, a ski slope and a submarine ride.