Will Cutler Bay be Miami-Dade’s next boomtown? Its hopes are set on a $1 billion project
The town of Cutler Bay has set its sights on becoming the next boomtown of South Miami-Dade County.
Those hopes are pinned on a semi-vacant shopping mall that has struggled to rebound since Hurricane Andrew and is now the site of a $1 billion redevelopment project.
“We will be the geographic heart of South Dade, and we’re going to be the economic engine of South Dade in a very short period. All the opportunity is right there,” Mayor Tim Meerbott said last month during a meeting of the Miami Association of Realtors. “It’s already great now, but we’re going to be by far the best city you will ever see.”
Once one of the largest employers in South Miami-Dade, Southland Mall has struggled to attract customers and restore its image after Andrew destroyed most of the structure in 1992. Despite its location at the convergence of the Florida Turnpike and U.S. 1, the mall remains partly vacant.
Cutler Bay leaders say this project will be a much-needed boon for the town of 45,000 where 96% of residents work elsewhere, according to the town’s 2021 Transportation Master Plan. If successful, it may become a blueprint for future large-scale developments in the often-overlooked South Dade region, as available land across South Florida continues to shrink.
But analysts say it’s also a gamble.
“I know as land becomes more scarce, especially in Miami-Dade County, that we’re going to see developers venture into some areas that were thought of as not Class A locations,” said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst who owns Jack McCabe Expert Services based in Deerfield Beach. “It’s just a very grand scheme for Cutler Bay, I think.”
Miami-Dade County is projecting it will run out of empty lots on which to build single-family homes, including duplexes and townhouses, within the Urban Development Boundary by 2026, which makes the 83-acre site in Cutler Bay that is already zoned for commercial and residential use “like a godsend,” said Ned Murray, associate director of Florida International University’s Metropolitan Center.
“You can go on and on about what can be done when you repurpose a mall,” Murray said. “They have almost this carte blanche opportunity to create something that’s really, really special.”
‘City within a city’
Developers BH Group and Electra America in April purchased the Southland Mall property for $100.35 million. Then in October they acquired the adjoining Sears for an additional $34 million.
“It’s still early on in the process, but we envision a ‘city within a city’ for living, working, shopping, and playing,” Ron Gaither, Electra America’s chief development officer, said in an email to the Miami Herald. “We have a track record of 30 years developing and acquiring mixed-use residential properties, but this will be one of the largest, most ambitious projects in our portfolio.”
Preliminary plans for what will become the Southplace City Center include a 150-key hotel, 60,000 square feet of medical office space, a terraced community amphitheater, golf cart trails, a trolley system, restaurants, retail and approximately 4,400 housing units to be built over a seven-year period.
Residents who spoke to the Herald were generally supportive or neutral toward the Southland Mall redevelopment, but said the town will need to plan carefully so as not to jeopardize the small-town feel that makes Cutler Bay home.
“That place has been a deadbeat, an eyesore,” Dahlia Canes, 70, said of Southland Mall. “It’s unbelievable that they hadn’t done anything with it until recently.”
She moved to Cutler Bay from Miami about 10 years ago and said new developments and traffic jams contributed to a stressful quality of life that pushed her south. She’s heard from other residents who are concerned that the Southland Mall project could increase traffic and costs, but said those concerns can be addressed with proper planning.
“I’m all for progress because you can’t stop it, but you can finagle it in a way where it’s properly curtailed,” Canes said. “This is the town of Cutler Bay. So the town flavor must never get lost. We’ve got to keep the town flavor. It’s a town, not a city. It’s different. That’s why I live here.”
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Cutler Bay, formerly called Cutler Ridge, incorporated in 2005. The town, perhaps best known for its golf cart parades, is the youngest municipality in Miami-Dade County. Town leaders often tout its “small-town feel.”
But being a bedroom community has its trade-offs. It means traffic jams in commutes north to jobs and entertainment.
“All the jobs are there,” Meerbott said at the Association of Realtors meeting. “Quite honestly, most of the nice restaurants are there. All the doctors are north of us. Nothing’s down here, and that’s why traffic is so bad.”
Approval not required
Developers plan to break ground in mid-2023.
The Southland Mall project will not require Town Council approval, unless the developers ask for exemptions. That’s because the mall is located within the town center district, which allows for mixed-use, commercial use and multi-family development, as well as hotels, nightclubs and even medical marijuana dispensaries, according to the municipal code.
That also means the developers, who submitted their site plans in September, can circumvent a public hearing process.
“It’s strictly administrative,” Town Manager Rafael Casals told the Herald. “So that’s a huge, huge, huge incentive.”
Southland Mall is also appealing to developers because it is located within one of about 8,700 federally designated opportunity zones in the United States. Developers who build in these “economically distressed” areas are eligible for hefty tax breaks.
The mall redevelopment could turn Cutler Bay into “the downtown of that whole South Dade area,” said retail expert Beth Azor of the Weston-based Azor Advisory Services.
“If we continue to build housing down there, then retail and restaurants will follow that,” she said. “We need housing for our workers in South Florida, and I think it’s way better to have two or three apartment complexes versus an old, dead mall.”
McCabe questioned whether enough demand existed in the region to support a project of this scale.
“Is it overly optimistic? Is it realistic? Is it a little unbelievable? Well, it falls somewhere in the last two,” he said. “It could well be a catalyst for the future. Or it could be a big bust.”
Create jobs and cut commute
Meerbott, riding the high from his 70% reelection, described ambitious plans for his town during last month’s meeting of the Miami Association of Realtors.
“So I want you to think about this,” he told the crowd. “Back in the 1800s, somebody that lived in Manhattan said, ‘Hey, let’s keep the middle of this area green.’ And that’s now Central Park.”
In March, residents approved a $37 million general obligation bond to turn 16 acres of former farmland into a sprawling “Legacy Park,” community center and Town Hall.
“This is going to be our Central Park, so to speak,” the mayor said.
Ninety-six percent of all workers who live in Cutler Bay are employed elsewhere in the county, mainly in South Miami, Coral Gables, Miami and Doral, according to the town’s 2021 Transportation Master Plan. “Cutler Bay exports the highest percentage of its workers in South Dade,” the report says. “Similarly, it has the lowest percentage of people who live and work in its boundaries than any South Dade municipality.”
Town residents spend approximately 27% of their income on transportation costs. They have an average commute time of 40 minutes, which is more than the national average of 25 minutes, and 7% of the town’s workforce are considered “super commuters” with a travel time that exceeds 90 minutes, according to the report.
Creating local jobs is key to alleviating those issues, Meerbott said. The Southland Mall project is forecast to create 2,700 jobs, according to the developers.
“We have the diverse population around us to provide for the jobs that you need. Everything from doctors, lawyers, nurses, plumbers, janitors, teachers, firefighters — everything is right here,” he said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
Meerbott, a self-described “Ridge Rat,” often repeats the mantra of “you can’t stop change but you can guide it.” He said he can empathize with the anxiety residents feel about upcoming projects, but that, ultimately, redevelopment is inevitable.
“We have to allow for growth someplace,” he told the Herald.
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The Southland Mall project includes about 4,400 housing units to be built over a seven-year period, with the first 400 units expected to be built within two years after breaking ground.
“This is the best use of the land at a time when new housing is desperately needed, without overburdening the city’s infrastructure,” Gaither said.
The developers have not announced plans to include affordable housing in the project. In a press release, they said the apartments will be “market rate.”
“We anticipate the housing options will cover the full spectrum of residential needs, from reasonably priced to premium priced,” Gaither said, without specifying further.
McCabe, the real estate analyst, was skeptical of that approach.
“Affordable housing is drastically needed,” McCabe said. “Market rate housing? I’m not so sure.”
More housing planned
The mall redevelopment is one of three projects that would bring more housing to Cutler Bay.
In October, the Town Council approved the site application to build a $100 million housing community called “The Contemporary” for people age 55 and older, which will include 196 housing units, 42,000 square feet of medical space and 19,000 square feet of retail space.
The applicant for that project, Cutler Bay Real Estate Partners LLC, is co-owned by Juan Carlos Mas, according to the site application. He is the brother of Jorge and Jose Mas, who are co-owners of the Inter Miami soccer team and leading the $1 billion Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium project.
In another proposed development, A&E Partners Holding in August applied for permits to build four apartment buildings with a combined 760 units on a 10.6-acre site. The project would include 274 units for senior housing, 338 units for market rate housing and 148 units for workforce housing. The town held its first zoning workshop for the project earlier this month, and the council appeared supportive.
Meerbott projected the town’s population will increase by about 5,000 in the next five years. If all three projects are completed as planned, the town’s housing supply would increase by more than 5,300.
“Those numbers scare our citizens,” Meerbott told the Herald. “That’s where you’ll see social media ‘oh my gosh, they’re approving this, this and this.’ And that’s why I said it’s hard for us to make sure we convey that message of, we can’t stop them from building. They have the rights to do that. All we can do is make sure they build in a way which is better for our community.”
Chris Robinson, 29, is a Homestead native who would go to Southland Mall on school trips and for movies when he was growing up. In 2019, he and his wife purchased their first home in Cutler Bay.
“We found out about the golf carts and the parades and everything, and it’s a great neighborhood to raise a family, so we pulled the trigger, and we love every minute of being there,” he said.
Robinson supports redevelopment of the mall, which he described as “completely deserted,” but was concerned about the separate proposal for 760 new apartments.
“I’m all gung-ho about Southland Mall for sure,” he said. “However, at some point, too many apartments is too much.”
“That would definitely make it lose its Cutler Bay appeal,” he added.
Angel Garcia, 56, said the residents of his Cantamar neighborhood have, in years prior, voiced their concerns about building apartments near single-family homes.
“Don’t get me wrong, we know that there’s going to be housing at Southland Mall, but that’s more than enough housing,” he said.
Garcia was supportive of the Southland Mall redevelopment.
“It’s sad that they never really did anything with this mall, so the fact that they’re doing it now is exciting,” he said. “I’m hoping that this project is gonna liven up Cutler Ridge a little more.”
Garcia said “upscale” businesses were much needed such as high-end restaurants and department stores.
“In order for us to get some good food we gotta go up to Coral Gables or Brickell, and that’s not fair,” he said. “Why should we have to take our money to Coral Gables, when Coral Gables doesn’t do anything for us?”
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