American Dream mega-mall sued by Miami-Dade over years of construction delays
Stalled and years behind schedule, the planned American Dream Miami mega-mall faces a new problem: a demand for $5 million from Miami-Dade County over missed development deadlines.
Once billed by county leaders as a historic economic opportunity, the 175-acre project by the owner of Minnesota's Mall of America is now the subject of litigation by Miami-Dade over a broken agreement in which the mall's developer promised to have development permits in hand by 2020 and a grand opening this year.
Neither happened, with the development site still vacant where Interstate 75 meets Florida's Turnpike north of Hialeah. There's also no hint of progress toward the slew of county permits and approvals needed to even start planning construction for the 6-million-square-foot retail theme park complex, according to Miami-Dade's lawsuit.
In 2015, Miami-Dade arranged the sale of 82 acres of government land to American Dream Miami developer Triple Five in a no-bid transaction that included a $5 million penalty if the project wasn't on track for a 2025 opening. Instead, Triple Five subsidiary International Atlantic LLC hasn't even filed a site plan with the county, according to the suit, a situation Miami-Dade describes as a 'flagrant disregard of its contractual obligations.'
In a statement, a Triple Five lawyer said the developer is making progress on other county requirements in the development process related to the construction of new state roads around the project site. Triple Five says it is using its influence and engineering studies to speed along state construction of a new network of off ramps and wider roads to allow higher traffic volume around the site. Eventually, developer fees from the project will go toward road construction, too.
'While we disagree with the county administration's interpretation of the matter, we are nonetheless working with the administration to resolve this disagreement amicably,' said Miguel Díaz de la Portilla, a Triple Five lawyer and lobbyist and a former county commissioner.
Triple Five is already in court with another former ally over the delayed project. Last year, Triple Five sued the Graham Companies, the Miami Lakes developer that provided Triple Five with the bulk of the project site. The suit asked a judge to block the Graham Companies from canceling the original 2014 land deal, which the Graham Companies said was void after Triple Five failed to meet development deadlines.
That litigation continues, with Graham refusing to let Triple Five close the original sale on the land, which was under contract but never finalized. 'As the County's lawsuit shows, International [Atlantic LLC] has made no significant progress,' a Graham lawyer, Scott Hiaasen, said in a statement Friday.
American Dream Miami won near-unanimous support from Miami-Dade commissioners in 2018, along with a sister residential and commercial project by the Graham Companies next door. That project is also stalled, but Graham owns its development site without the development requirement that Triple Five had agreed to in acquiring real estate from Miami-Dade in 2015.
Triple Five had a supporter in Miami-Dade's mayor at the time of the 2018 vote, Carlos Gimenez, whose administration negotiated the disputed land deal.
The current mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, was a county commissioner in 2018. She cast the lone vote against approving the mega-mall project, citing traffic, the low-wage jobs another mall would bring, and concerns about water use at an attraction that planned both an indoor ski slope and an artificial lagoon deep enough for submarine rides. Triple Five executives funded a failed effort to oust her in the 2018 commission election, and she became mayor in 2020.
Her administration sent Triple Five a March 6 letter demanding the $5 million payment, communication that was the prelude to the lawsuit. The letter states the deadline for applying for the county approvals needed for an opening this year was the spring of 2020.
'The County has found no evidence of [International Atlantic LLC] diligently applying for and pursuing all of the Necessary Approvals,' wrote Francesca de Quesada Covey, chief innovation and economic development officer under Levine Cava, in a letter to Díaz de la Portilla.
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