Dive Brief:
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Triple Five Group, the company that owns and runs the Mall of America outside Minneapolis, is planning the development of an even larger, 200-acre mall outside Miami. Triple Five also operates the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, where the company is based.
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“American Dream Miami” is slated to cost some $4 billion and employ 25,000 people once it’s complete. Triple Five has not yet released exact dimensions of the proposed project, but said it is expected to be larger than the Mall of America.
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Triple Five is also in the midst of expanding Bloomington, MN-based Mall of America, currently the nation’s largest mall at 4.2 million square feet and 520 stores, to the tune of $1.5 billion that is expected to double its retail space.
Dive Insight:
American Dream Miami fits with Florida’s theme park tradition, but it’s also a testament of faith to retail. The mall, like the Mall of America, could cover some 200 acres and plans include a Legoland, sea lions, and an artificial ski slope.
In addition to the expansion of Mall of America and the Miami-Dade project, Triple Five is revamping a struggling mall in New Jersey into a 3 million square-foot mall that includes an amusement park and a water park in addition to its retail stores.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez hailed the opportunity for new jobs. “It takes a lot of logistics to keep a thing like that going. All the food, and the mechanical equipment, air-conditioning — there’s going to be a huge spin-off,” he told the Miami Herald.