American Dream Miami is a proposed megamall and entertainment complex planned to be built in Miami-Dade County,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. If completed, it would become the largest shopping mall in North America. The project shares its branding with

American Dream Meadowlands American Dream is a retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The first and second of four opening stages occurred on October 25, 2019, and on December 5, 2019. The remainin ...

in New Jersey; the second largest mall in the USA. The mall is being developed by the

Triple Five Group Triple Five Group is a conglomerate based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, which specializes in shopping centres, entertainment complexes, hotels, and banks, along with 3 indoor amusement parks. The company owns and operates two of North America's ...

, who own the 3 largest malls in North America: The Mall of America, the

West Edmonton Mall West Edmonton Mall (WEM) is a shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta, that is owned, managed, and operated by Triple Five Group. It is the second most visited mall in Canada, after the Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, followed by Metrotown Mall in ...

, and the American Dream Meadowlands. The mall is slated to contain a large indoor water park and ice rink.

History

In March 2015 the Triple Five Group announced plans for a megamall called "American World". However, the name was later changed to American Dream Miami to match its sister project American Dream Meadowlands.Hanks, Douglas
"Largest mall in the nation proposed for Miami-Dade"
'' Miami Herald'', March 5, 2015. The project was planned to be completed by 2020 and attract 30,000 visitors a day. Graham Companies proposed a related project in 2017, which would create 2,000 apartment units, additional retail space, and of office space that would be finished by 2040 and would cost $1.1 Billion to build. Also in 2017, the opening date of the project was pushed back to 2022 due to financing issues. Controversy also arose in 2017–18 around the project, as it could hurt the nearby Everglades National Park and create significant traffic problems along with adding to an oversaturated retail market in the region. On May 17, 2018, the county board gave final approval to the commercial zoning for the site, allowing Triple Five to begin obtaining the permits needed for construction. It was also announced the project would not receive any taxpayer funding. Within the month, the board of county commissioners approved Triple Five's plan to purchase state land for construction.Hanks, Douglas
"Massive mall project wins approval for Miami-Dade land deal"
'' Miami Herald'', March 17, 2015. In May, 2018, nearby

Broward County Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 m ...

threatened a lawsuit against the project, arguing that Miami-Dade County underestimated the potential impact on Broward Country traffic. The debate over construction of the mall became an issue in the Democratic primary of the

2018 Florida gubernatorial election The 2018 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Florida, alongside an election to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and other state and local ...

, as candidate

Gwen Graham Gwendolyn Graham (born January 31, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2015 to 2017. She is the daughter of Bob Graham, the former United States senator and governor of Florida. A Democrat, ...

was criticized by environmentalists, progressives, and

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

for her ties to the project. Due to the

Covid-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the mall was delayed once more and underwent design changes. However, Triple Five stuck with the original design. With the 2022 opening date scrapped, and its current opening date being late 2026, construction of the complex partially depends on the Florida Turnpike extension.

Plan

The mall is planned to be in northwestern Miami-Dade County, within the Miami-Dade County's Urban Development Boundary. The site was first dredged in the 1920s and used as a dairy farm by Ernest "Cap" Graham, who later became a member of the

Florida Senate The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted in ...

. Ernest is also the founder of Graham Companies. The Graham family stopped running the dairy farm in the 1950s and the site became

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

and remains another one of the large undeveloped areas with Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary. The mall is expected to cost over $5 Billion and currently has not started construction. At 6.2 million square feet, the mall will be the largest in North America, and the 6th largest mall in the world.

Shopping

* 5 Anchor tenants * 3.5 million square feet of retail space

Attractions

Water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

with indoor beach * Amusement park *

Ferris Wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

Legoland Discovery Center Legoland Discovery Centre is an indoor family attraction chain operated by British leisure group Merlin Entertainments. Featuring models and attractions inspired by the Lego building toys, the Discovery Centres are smaller versions of the Legol ...

* Aquarium *

Ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

Indoor ski slope Indoor skiing is done in a climate-controlled environment with artificially produced snow. This enables skiing and snowboarding to take place regardless of outdoor temperatures. Facilities for both alpine skiing and nordic skiing are availabl ...

* Indoor artificial Lake (offering submarine rides similar to what the Triple Five's other mall;

used to have, alongside boat rides & water skiing) * Art Deco Village * Tivoli Garden Sources:

Hotels

* 300 room hotel * 400 room hotel * 900 room hotel Source:

References

{{Greater Miami Shopping malls in Miami-Dade County, Florida Indoor ski resorts Buildings and structures under construction in the United States Buildings and structures in Miami-Dade County, Florida Tourist attractions in Miami-Dade County, Florida