Biscayne Boulevard / US 1 and William Lehman Causeway
Dade County (Aventura), Florida
Donald Soffer, of Pittsburgh's Oxford Development Company, moved to Dade County, Florida in 1967. 2 years later, he purchased a 785-acre section of swampland in the unincorporated northeast corner of the county. By the late 1970s, the land was being dredged and developed as the exclusive Turnberry Isle Resort.
Soffer and his Oxford Development partners Edward J. Lewis and Ray Parello, along with the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation, initiated plans for a major shopping mall that would occupy 115.7 acres adjacent to the Turnberry Isle property. The site was located 11.7 miles northeast of center city Miami.
At the time of the shopping center's inception, one of the development team remarked that the project was going to be "an adventure." It was decided to name to complex "Aventura" (the Spanish word for adventure).
Construction on a fully-enclosed, dual-level shopping center was underway by late 1981. The first store to open for business, a 2-level (140,700 square foot) Lord & Taylor, made its debut on January 31, 1983. A mall-wide dedication was held April 27, 1983, with a 2-level (196,900 square foot) J.C. Penney joining the retail roster of 100 stores and services.
The center's third anchor, a 2-level (191,800 square foot) Sears "Store of the Future", began business July 6, 1983. The fourth, a 3-level (252,000 square foot) Macy's, opened on October 1st. This was Macy's first Sunshine State store.
AVENTURA MALL now covered approximately 1.2 million leasable square feet and housed nearly 200 stores and services. Among these were Hickory Farms of Ohio, King Arthur Clock Company, The Limited, Ken Collins Men's Clothier, The Gap, Battaglia Exquisite Footwear and an 18-bay Food Court.
Shopping hubs in the AVENTURA MALL trade area included MALL AT 163rd STREET (1956) {2.8 miles southwest, in Dade County}, OMNI INTERNATIONAL MALL (1977) {11.7 miles southwest, in Miami}, MALL OF THE AMERICAS (1970) {16.9 miles southwest, in Dade County}, WESTLAND MALL (1971) {12.4 miles southwest, in Hialeah} and -eventually- PEMBROKE LAKES MALL (1992) {10.5 miles northwest, in Pembroke Pines}.
Donald Soffer left Oxford Development in the mid-1980s. The resulting division of assets gave a share of the mall to a newly-formed entity; Dade County-based Turnberry Associates. On November 7, 1995, the area surrounding -and including- the mall was officially incorporated as the City of Aventura.
March 1996 brought the merger of the Youngstown-based DeBartolo Realty Group and Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group. The new company went under the heading of the Simon-DeBartolo Group until 1998, when the official name reverted back to Simon Property Group.
In the summer of 1996, the owners of AVENTURA MALL, Turnberry Associates and Simon-DeBartolo, embarked on a 90 million dollar expansion. The project, designed by Baltimore-based RTKL Associates and Atlanta's Cooper Carry Associates, would nearly double the size of the complex.
A 3-level (253,000 square foot) Bloomingdale's became the first operational store on November 8, 1997. The core of the addition, a 100-store Southeast Wing, opened for business on December 4th. The American Multi-Cinema Aventura 24 occupied most of the Third Level of the new concourse. This megaplex made its debut on August 7, 1998.
Burdines had waffled for 2 years before officially committing to building an AVENTURA store. Their 3-level (225,000 square foot) location welcomed first shoppers on August 1, 1999. Inline stores opened as part of the expansion included Aveda, Donald J. Pliner, Restoration Hardware and FAO Schwarz. Among several newly-opened restaurants were The Cheesecake Factory, Rainforest Cafe and Wolfie's.
Three existing anchors were also enlarged as part of the renovation. Lord & Taylor added a single-level (50,000 square foot) area to its west facade. The 150,000 square foot "Florida Flagship" was dedicated on August 18, 1999. J.C. Penney grew northward with a 2-level (63,700 square foot) addition. This enlarged their store to 194,600 square feet. Sears built a smaller addition on its northwest corner.
By the year 2000, with all components complete, AVENTURA MALL enveloped 2.3 million leasable square feet and contained over 250 stores and services. It surpassed DADELAND MALL as largest shopping center in Miami / Dade.
Lord & Taylor did a retail retreat from Florida in the early 2000s. Their AVENTURA store went dark in the fall of 2003. Stores in the Burdines chain were rebranded, as Burdines-Macy's, on January 30, 2004 and were fully "Macy-ated" on March 6, 2005. The original AVENTURA Macy's became a Macy's Women's & Kids; Burdines' space was refashioned into a Macy's Men's & Home Furniture.
AVENTURA MALL was given a 24 million dollar face lift between March and September 2006. This preceded a second expansion of the shopping hub. During this project, the vacant Lord & Taylor was demolished. In its place, a 3-level (160,000 square foot) section was built, which housed thirty retailers.
Anchoring the new addition was a 2-level (167,000 square foot) Nordstrom, which opened for business on February 12, 2008. Inline stores in this expansion included Mitchell's Ocean Club Restaurant, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Ferrari. AVENTURA MALL now housed around 2.6 million leasable square feet and contained 280 tenant spaces.
Plans for a 315,000 square foot Northeast Wing addition were announced in February 2014. The 3-level expansion would be built between the existing Penney's and Macy's Women's & Kids structures and include a multi-level parking garage (the mall's fifth).
Several new stores opened for business on November 20, 2017. The complete tenant list would include Joe & the Juice, Rosetta Bakery, Genuine Pizza, Tap 42 Kitchen & Bar, Tesla Motors, Topshop Topman and a 2-level (34,000 square foot) Zara, which was the second Zara store to operate at the mall.
The 15-bay Treats Food Hall, on the Third Level of the expansion wing, included Shake Shack, Gogo Fresh, Figs & Mozzarella and Chipotle Mexican Grill. Adjacent to the Food Hall was a large, penthouse-type VIP Lounge.
Sears shuttered their 34-year-old AVENTURA store in July 2017. The building was knocked down. It was replaced by Esplanade At Aventura, a 215,000 square foot lifestyle component housing around forty-seven tenant spaces. Construction got underway on a first phase in January 2019, but was temporarily halted, due to repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, in March 2020.
The first Esplanade at Aventura tenants opened for business in early 2023. These included upscale restaurants such as Carolo, Blanco Bistro and Jarana. Some of the non-culinary tenants were Industrious, CCRM Fertility and Pinstripes Aventura Bistro, Bowling & Bocce. With completion of the project, AVENTURA MALL covered approximately 2,924,500 leasable square feet and contained around 369 stores, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Sources:
The Miami News
The Miami Herald
Dade County, Florida property tax assessor website
http://www.aventuramall.com
http://www.turnberry.com
http://www.bizjournals.com
http://cityofaventura.blogspot.com
http://www.aventuramall.com
http://www.turnberry.com
http://www.bizjournals.com
http://cityofaventura.blogspot.com
http://specialtyretail.com
http://www.aventuramarketingcouncil.com
https://www.miami.com
https://esplanadeataventura.com
http://www.aventuramarketingcouncil.com
https://www.miami.com
https://esplanadeataventura.com
https://communitynewspapers.com
https://www.gobrightline.com
https://www.floridatoday.com
"Aventura Mall" and "Brightline" articles on Wikipedia
