American Dream Miami mega-mall will pay Miami-Dade $5M. But wants subsidy help, too

Miami Herald

02-07-2025

The stalled American Dream Miami mega-mall project may ask for property taxes to revive its fortunes.
At a meeting Tuesday, some county commissioners balked at a proposal to lift a subsidy cap that was imposed on the retail theme park when a different commission approved the project in 2018. A vote to lift the subsidy ban was pushed to the board's next meeting on July 15.
While lifting the ban wouldn't authorize the spending of any tax dollars on the $4 billion private project that's at least five years behind schedule, it would allow developer Triple Five to ask for county help funding about $60 million in nearby road construction and infrastructure costs.
That could be a big boost for Triple Five, which hoped to reproduce its success with Minnesota's Mall of America in South Florida but is now mired in legal fights and delays. The American Dream project is so far behind schedule that it's facing a $5 million lawsuit from Miami-Dade over development delays.
In 2018, Triple Five agreed to either cover the $60 million roadway costs or persuade state or local governments to fund the roadway improvements that are needed to connect the property with the nearby Florida's Turnpike, Interstate 75 and neighborhood roads on the vacant development site near Hialeah.
Existing malls had pushed subsidy ban in Miami-Dade
Some of South Florida's largest malls successfully lobbied county commissioners at the time to impose a subsidy ban on the project when the county originally approved the development. Triple Five called the ban unprecedented and unfair and says the restriction is making it harder to get Florida to build needed roads in the area.
'To me, we have an opportunity to right a wrong,' Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, the sponsor of the measure to lift the subsidy cap, said at Tuesday's meeting. 'It was a decision based on politics, not on what was best for Miami-Dade County.'
Miami-Dade mostly relies on state dollars and permitting fees for road construction, while property taxes fund police, jails, transit and parks. On Tuesday, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she supported the Bermudez item as a way to accelerate construction of roadway improvements if the state won't pay for them — even if the mall never gets built. Bermudez said he had worked with the mayor's administration to refine the language of his legislation.
'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.'
Miguel Díaz de la Portilla, a Triple Five lobbyist and former county commissioner, said Triple Five could lure about $350 million in state highway construction dollars to the Northwest Miami-Dade area if it could first tap county funds for some road construction. He called the subsidy ban an unprecedented restriction that came out of 'interference from some mall owners who don't want competition.'
Property taxes could help cover development costs for the American Dream Miami project
At Tuesday's meeting, Triple Five was hoping there would be a vote overturning the subsidy ban at the same time the commission endorsed Miami-Dade accepting $5 million from the developer to settle the county's lawsuit over the project's delays. The county sued Triple Five in April for missing its 2025 opening deadline and for failing to secure the required county approvals and permits by 2020, as was required under the 2018 development agreement reached with Miami-Dade.
Levine Cava recommended that the commission approve a $5 million settlement of the suit, to be paid over four years with interest. The first $1 million would be due within 30 days, and all settlement money would go to offset the $53 million current shortfall in the county's transit budget.
But the items lifting the subsidy cap and settling the lawsuit were added late to Tuesday's agenda, without the required public notice of four business days before the scheduled votes. The lateness allowed any commissioner to demand that the votes be delayed until the next meeting, and Commissioner René Garcia did so for the legislation lifting the subsidy cap.
That prompted Bermudez, who sponsored both items, to say he didn't think the settlement would hold up without the subsidy-cap legislation passing as well. The suggestion of a link rankled Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez.
'I think it's a bad look,' he said. 'That you guys are saying you'll only come to this agreement if we get this.'
Commissioner Kionne McGhee ended the debate by invoking the 'four-day rule' to push the settlement vote to the July 15 meeting as well.
Triple Five had agreed to the $5 million penalty in 2015 as part of an agreement with Miami-Dade to purchase 83 acres of government land for the development site without having to go through the normal bidding process for the property.
While settling the Miami-Dade suit would cost Triple Five $5 million, the potential to gain access to property-tax dollars to fund development costs could be worth far more for the developer. The Bermudez item would allow Triple Five to request a special taxing district around the project to divert an unknown portion of property taxes from the American Dream property to pay for transportation costs. Creating that district would require another vote of the commission.
A 2015 economic study Triple Five filed with Miami-Dade in the early stages of the approval process predicted American Dream would pay more than $13 million a year in property taxes.
Commissioner Oliver Gilbert said he would oppose letting Triple Five use property taxes to subsidize its own development costs. 'I don't see how that's a good deal for the people,' he said.