Sunset Place mall will be demolished and replaced. Take a look at what’s coming next
Shops at Sunset Place, a landmark mall in South Miami, will be demolished and replaced by towers filled with condos, a hotel, offices, a theater and restaurants.
City leaders in October gave the green light for the owner to redevelop the failed mall at Sunset Drive, Red Red Road and U.S. 1, near the University of Miami.
This is the third time a landmark has been knocked down at the site for something new.
First, it was Holsum Bakery, the hometown bread factory that made drivers roll down their windows to breathe in the heavenly smell of baked goods.
Then it was Bakery Centre, an art-filled retail and office complex that could have doubled as an empty mausoleum.
Now, the bulldozer is coming for the fortress-like Shops at Sunset Place, 5701 Sunset Dr., which in its heyday had a giant Virgin music store that drew celebrity visits, hordes of IMAX moviegoers, and customers swarming the stores day and night.
Today, there are just a handful of businesses left at the 25-year-old center, and not many customers.
MORE: What is happening to Shops at Sunset Place? Future of South Miami mall takes new path
What’s replacing Shops at Sunset Place?
Replacing the moribund mall will be seven towers, ranging from 12 to 33 stories, including 1,513 residences, 287-room hotel and a 1,300-seat movie theater.
Midtown Opportunities, the real estate firm behind the plan, hired award-winning London-based Heatherwick Studios to design the new project.
The name of the new development is familiar: Sunset Place.
The developer got the final go-ahead for Sunset Place from the South Miami City Commission after the city’s planning board unanimously voted in favor and recommended approval of the master plan in September.
“This project is not solely about Sunset Place, it is about downtown South Miami,” said Alex Vadia in an email. Vadia is a principal at Midtown Development, an arm of the mall’s owner, Midtown Opportunities.
“As an area resident,” Vadia said, “I believe that downtown South Miami has the potential to become a unique, walkable and livable neighborhood, the type of space that becomes an extension of the great residential neighborhoods around South Miami.”
The project brings promise to the “City of Pleasant Living,” but the coming Sunset Place development has had false starts in recent years.
Other development firms have jumped in with a grand vision to revive the site. Most recently, the national development firm Federal Realty Investment Trust got approval in 2019 to redevelop the mall alongside local partners. That failed to move forward, with the owners eventually selling the mall for $45 million to Midtown Opportunities in 2021.
This time will be different, said South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández, who is up for re-election in November.
Under the site plan approval and development agreement, Fernández said Midtown Opportunities has to build all of the sidewalks and infrastructure for the project before receiving a temporary certificate of occupancy, the license allowing public access to residents and commercial spaces. Midtown Opportunities also has to achieve a $300 million property value for its new venture before 2034.
“It guarantees as a city we’ll see positive revenue,” Fernández said.
If the development team fails to move forward within the next decade and meet the stated milestones, it loses its bonus heights up to 33 stories and would only be able to build up to 17 stories. The mammoth project is expected to be built in phases with the first one, Fernández said, expected by 2029.
MORE: Will South Florida’s sleepy ‘City of Pleasant Living’ become our latest boomtown?
Timeline for the new Sunset Place
The first phase of the new Sunset Place will be construction of streets, and a condo and hotel.
Fernández said Midtown Opportunities will likely launch condo sales within the next few months and focus on selling about 50% of the units before moving on a construction loan. Permits would come next. And then, if all goes as planned, demolition of the mall would begin in the first quarter of 2026.
That will mean possible detours on heavily traveled U.S. 1 and Sunset Drive, with street closings and new traffic patterns. The details of the demolition and the construction to follow are not yet finalized.
Even with the optimism of new construction for the high-profile spot, Sunset Place’s condo component might face a challenging economy.
Condo sales fell by 19% year-over-year in September in Miami-Dade County, according to the latest monthly housing report by the Miami Association of Realtors. The dip in sales comes at a time when condo owners face a rise in condo assessment fees, special assessments and reserves.
But Mayor Fernández said a lot rides on the success of the new project as a whole.
“The challenge is now on the developer to deliver a project that works for all of us,” he said. “A lot of people’s futures and success rides on how they execute the project.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
