Florida mall could be replaced by 9 towers, hotel and affordable housing

The new homeowners of Fort Lauderdale’s Galleria Mall are contemplating a redevelopment plan that envisions 9 30-story towers, a 170-room hotel and tons of of affordable-housing items under state’s Live Local Act, the project’s three way partnership chief confirmed Monday.

The Eighties-era mall was bought last month to a consortium of real estate and development pursuits led by Russell Galbut, who is based in Miami Beach and is a founder of investment and development companies with a historical past of creating mixed-use communities in Florida and elsewhere in the U.S.

The dramatic makeover plans for the Galleria had been submitted to town of Fort Lauderdale in August by the mall’s vendor, Keystone-Florida Property Holding Group, which owned the property since 1993. The metropolis deemed sure parts of the applying “insufficient,” but Galbut said it’s being resubmitted.

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“I’m not sure it’s going to be exactly that, but we want to move on improving this mall immediately and giving it life,” Galbut told the South Florida Sun Sentinel about the unique plan. “We need to breathe life into this community.”

The proposal seems to be the most bold redevelopment plan yet to emerge for the 31.5-acre property at 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., a stretch positioned west of the Intracoastal Waterway and east of the Middle River.

Copies of the proposal obtained from town clerk’s workplace through a public information request show the property divided into two: A “Galleria East” phase containing most of the proposed residential portion, and a “Galleria West” that would comprise both residential items and a hotel. The two segments are divided by Bayview Drive, which runs beneath a connecting bridge at the mall.

A synopsis of the plans consists of the next:

Galleria East:

• Towers: Five each, 30 tales high.

• Multifamily items: 1,981 (1,181 market-rate, 800 workforce).

• Commercial space: 675,968 sq. ft of mall space retained.

• New makes use of overlaying an further 127,966 sq. ft would come with health and fitness, retail and eating places. There would be an further 856 sq. ft of out of doors eating.

Galleria West:

• Towers: Four each, 30 tales high.

• Multifamily items: 1,161 (690 market-rate; 473 workforce).

• Commercial space: 251,765 sq. ft of current industrial space within the Galleria mall building.

• Office: 9,140 sq. ft.

• Restaurant: More than 5,000 sq. ft.

The proposal has jarred elected metropolis officers and house owner affiliation leaders.

Mayor Dean Trantalis expressed astonishment at its scope.

“It looks like a mini-city,” Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel on Monday. “It makes the Searstown project look like child’s play. It dwarfs Fat Village.”

“I think it’s going to diminish property values because it’s going to have a significant impact on traffic,” he added. “We don’t want it to become another Aventura where there’s so much traffic that the retail experience becomes a nightmare because they’re maneuvering through all the gridlock. I think in the end, it may kill the Galleria. Sunrise Boulevard has already reached the peak of traffic.”

Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner John Herbst, whose District 1 is home to the mall, said he was stunned the project is being run through the Live Local Act course of, citing rising rents in the neighborhood. Moreover, he felt that East Sunrise Boulevard’s standing as a storm evacuation route could develop into problematic with the addition of more residential site visitors.

“Sunrise is always crowded,” he said, “especially when you are talking about an evacuation route from the beach. It’s going to be challenging.”

Galbut on Monday asserted site visitors wouldn’t be an issue as the project will be crammed by people who are unlikely to use their vehicles.

“For people who live and work and play in the same place — you don’t need a car,” Galbut said. He also cited the presence of the Broward Transit Authority, whose buses frequent the world.

“I actually believe you will have less traffic,” he said.

Chris Williams, president of the Coral Ridge Homeowners Association, a real estate agent and lifelong resident, realized of the nine-building plan from a South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter on Monday.

“The last two times they came to us with a proposal, I told everyone, ‘If we don’t work with these people now, they are going to triple the units,’” Williams said. “What a disaster. I knew this was going to happen. I knew it.”

Tim Hernandez, president of the Coral Ridge Country Club Estates Community Association, said he noticed no need for towers.

“You have a dying mall,” he said. “The thing is on life support. We all know the mall is like a ghost town. How do you make it better? A certain amount of residential will make it a lot better. But I see no need to put nine 30-story buildings on that site.”

Hernandez said he’s anxious the world will expertise gridlock in contrast to any seen before.

“There’s no thought of how people are going to get around,” he said. “I can understand wanting to urbanize in certain areas. But what’s wrong with being like Delray? They have four-story buildings. Look how beautiful and charming their downtown is.”

Last Tuesday, at an Urban Land Institute convention at Fort Lauderdale’s Pier Sixty-Six Resort, Galbut said his three way partnership group intends to proceed through the Live Local Act course of, which is designed to expedite the building of affordable housing and pace up project approvals.

The act, according to the group’s public submitting, (*9*)

“Affordability is something that is escaping South Florida,” Galbut told a gathering of executives, legal professionals and other professionals who serve the city development and real estate industries.

“Most of you know the Galleria was truly a magical place in the 1980s and 1990s,” he added.

“It’s a place that everybody went to as well. Unfortunately it didn’t do well in the last 30 years,” he said. “We really have incredible plans to bring it back to make it a 24-hour community with residences, with people — the mall itself will be re-tenanted and brought back together. It’s really one of the more exciting projects in my career.”

But Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Steven Glassman, who represents the close by District 2, said Monday he expects the encompassing neighborhoods won’t be blissful about the new proposal.

“I do remember the surrounding areas had issues with the last iteration,” he said. “I can only imagine they will have issues with this iteration. This is much more development than the last one.”

In 2015, the homeowners proposed a 45-story rental tower that drew widespread neighborhood opposition that killed the project. And in 2023, neighbors turned thumbs down on a mixed-use proposal that envisioned the demolition of most of the mall to make method for housing, eating places, new outlets, places of work, biking and strolling paths, a boutique hotel, better lighting and landscaping, and a village inexperienced.

But under the Live Local Act, builders received’t need to get public enter, Glassman said.

“This is a whole different ballgame,” he said. “The entire development process is turned on its head when it comes to Live Local.”

There will be no public participation and no commission vote. “That’s all out the window,” he said.

Still, more than a week in the past, some mall tenants and a consultant of a close by industrial middle interviewed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel said they welcomed the new homeowners, citing the probability that new money would lead to a more secure future.

Small business operators in specific said there was a common sense of optimism that change would carry more business through their doorways.

Galbut said there’ll be more alternatives for restaurateurs and retailers, suggesting their clients will come from the ranks of close by residences, including lecturers, police officers, and medical professionals.

“We’re very proud of what we’re doing,” he said, alluding to past tasks that are occupied and patronized by broad spectrums of local populations. “We are community-minded developers.”