Looser ban on subsidies for vast American Dream Mall advances

The county should loosen a 2018 ban on subsidies to develop multi-billion-dollar American Dream Mall in Northwest Miami-Dade to allow two forms of aid, a committee voted last week.

The mayor’s office opposed loosening restrictions until developers meet requirements as the county asks exactly what is planned for the 82 acres that they got from the state at a discounted $19 million.

Commissioners who pushed to relax or remove the ban professed not to know why it exists or what developers aim to create.

When the site won zoning approval, the only no vote came from now-Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who said the county should have gotten more concessions from developers.

Developer Triple Five Group has created two of the nation’s largest malls. American Dream here was conceived as far larger than our largest mall, Aventura Mall.

Two years ago attorney Miguel Diaz de la Portilla told Miami Today that the developer had been meeting with staff from two county departments and the Florida Department of Transportation to work on the site plan.

He said the developer had returned to original plans, which would include 65% for entertainment uses, three hotels, retailers and restaurants.

Included were an indoor ski park, skating rink, indoor water park, aquarium, submarine rides, gardens, a multiscreen luxury theater complex, and an arts center for live performances.

Current aims, however, are murky at best. Commissioners did not ask Mr. Diaz de la Portilla, who spoke to seek lifting all restrictions on aid for the developer, what elements the plans now include.

“We don’t know. This may become a mall, it may not. Maybe it becomes housing. Maybe it becomes housing and a mall,” said Commissioner Keon Hardemon, who advocated to lift all restrictions. “People can submit to you whatever they would like and that does not mean that will be the project that will be developed,” he said later. They may sell the site to someone else with another idea.

All commissioners said they don’t favor “subsidies” to the developer, but most sought to permit forms of aid that the present ban denies or completely remove the ban.

“It’s hard for someone to advocate for the billionaire, right?” Mr. Hardemon said. “How do you say the billionaire, he should get public dollars because you know he has the money to invest. He also has the money to walk away. He has the money to do other things.”

Chairman Oliver Gilbert III said he believes in using public funds to create infrastructure that will lead to economic development in the county. “I think it’s our job to actually do infrastructure.”

“But,” he added, “I would like to know what I’m creating the framework for before I do that. I think that’s the challenge, that we haven’t even got a rough picture and it’s apparently moving. And so, the administration’s perspective on wanting to know is a reasonable perspective.”

Juan Carlos Bermudez lobbied for his legislation that would have killed the ban outright, saying he probably wouldn’t support subsidies. He accepted an amendment from Raquel Regalado that ultimately passed that would modify the ban to permit tax increment financing and impact fees that would help the developers get roads built to aid the project.

By adding roads, Mr. Gilbert said, “we’re creating value in the property for property that is essentially being land-banked right now because we don’t even have a plan…. What do you need the roads for?… They have to have a plan.”