Downturn at Dadeland Mall

Downturnat Dadeland Mall Only one of three major projectsare on track By CHERYLKANE HEIMLICH MIAMI - Dadeland Station, the ver tical mall that broke ground last year amid the prospect of stiff competition, has emerged this fall as the only Dade land-area project with a finish line in sight. Dadeland Mall, at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Kendall Drive, has postponed indefinitely its plans for a $100 million expansion. Dadeland Pavilion, the retail/hotel complex that was supposed to have been built across the street from the mall, is still in limbo a year after its projectedgroundbreaking. ! Meanwhile, Dadeland Station - � which will be anchored by Best Buy, Bed :S Bath & Beyond, Target and Sports ! Authority - is nearing completion at a g former Metrorail parking lot just east of z:....-__.� Dadeland Mall. Dadeland Mall (above) has halted a $100 million A fifth anchor, Michael's Arts & expansion while Dadeland Station moves forward. .. please see page 20A �ge20A SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS JOURNAL New DadelandStation opening nextmon th continued from page 1A (inside Dadeland Pavilion) would be to include a second floor with spe --------------- called 'Staples The Office Depot.' " cialty retailers, a 24- to 30-screen Crafts, will not be fi nished until The Dadeland Pavilion site was movie theater and another anchor spring. But the first four stores will once home to Burger King's corpo department store. Dadeland, be ready for shoppers "on or about rate headquarters, which were already one of the most successful Oct. 29," said developer Jeffrey demolished earlier this year. Office malls in the country, was supposed Berkowitz, who is building the Depot bought the land in 1993 for to have started the project by mid- 320,000-square-foot center in a $9 million, announcing plans to 1994 and completed it this past partnership with the Green Cos. open a 50:000-square-foot store summer. and Metro-Dade County. there. But Dadeland Mall, along with six In addition to his success at lur- Two years later, with the store other malls owned by Atlanta-based ing national retailers whose stores still. unbuilt, those plans had Equitable Life Assurance, is now on are too big for Dadeland Mall, expanded to include 335,000 square the block. And analysts say it's Berkowitz has signed several local feet of national retailers with unlikely a new owner would rush to tenants, including Optical Ele- restaurants, a 20-screen movie the carry out any expansion plans. ments, Koffie Koffie and La Tossa, a ater and a 98-room hotel. The center "The buyer would want to make Mexican bakery. wa.s to have been built by Homart sure they're making a good return Development Co., a division of on their investment before they Still in limbo Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck & make an additional investment If things had worked out as Co., with groundbreaking scheduled that would cost almost as much as planned, Dadeland Station might for the fall of 1995. the mall itself," said Herbert have been competing for tenants But Homart subsequently was Leeds, president of Leeds Business with Dadeland Pavilion, a five-story broken up and sold, and the firm Consulting in Miami. retail/hotel complex that was sched that bought its shopping center divi Leeds said he also is watching uled to open this summer on the sion opted out of Dadeland Pavilion. developments at The Greenery south side of Kendall Drive. Berkowitz, who has built several shopping center, just west of Dade Office Depot, which owns the 6.5- retail projects in the Kendall area, land Mall on the opposite side of acre site across the street from said it was ''unfortunate" that Office Kendall Drive. The Greenery, which Dadeland Mall, said Dadeland Depot never approached him about includes a Barnes & Noble book Pavilion is still on track despite the the site. store and a Circuit City electronics company's pending merger with "We both started our projects at store, recently lured one of the first Massachusetts-based rival Staples about the same time," Berkowitz South Florida locations for Califor Inc. However, no timetable has been said. ''But Office Depot paid quite· a nia-based Guitar Center. And The set. bit for that land, and they haven't Greenery is expected to sign anoth 'We have not chosen a developer done anything with it for a number er major national retailer that wm yet, but we are still going to do a of years." front Kendall Drive, Leeds said. multi-use facility there," said Gary "The Dadeland area is a very Schweikhart, spokesman for the Dadeland Mall on the block upper-middle class, family-oriented Delray Beach-based office supply It's also been years since Dade area," Leeds said. ''There are going retailer. "If there are any changes, it land Mall announced plans for its to be a lot of good things happening will just be that our own store $100 million expansion; which was there."o - -,--.

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