Long-delayed American Dream Miami is in line for a scaled-back jumpstart via county legislation this week.
The latest version of Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez’s lifeline would lift rules that bar use of both impact fees and state and federal funds to help get the Northwest Miami-Dade retail theme park moving.
A package floated in July would have allowed tax increment financing and use of county funds for local roads to benefit the mega-project. Those elements were cut from this week’s proposal.
When the county allowed the project in 2018, it restricted aid at the behest of major mall owners. Mr. Bermudez, who represents the area where the mall would rise, says it alone was restricted in that way. His legislation says those “are restrictions on the county itself, and the county creating these types of formal restrictions on itself is detrimental to the county.”
The county has sued the developers for $5 million for failure to meet an agreement to start construction on time. The two sides have been meeting to settle the dispute, says the legislation, which says passage may grease the wheels to get going.
When the site won zoning approval in 2018, the only no vote came from now-Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who said the county should have gotten more concessions from developers.
While plans for the site’s use are unknown, attorney Miguel Diaz de la Portilla told Miami Today three years ago that the project 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 are murky. “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 last year as he advocated to lift all the 2018 restrictions.
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