How much do you wanna bet that 100 people go and speak against the American Dream Miami mega mall nightmare complex
that is being pushed for the Northwest corner of Miami-Dade?
How much do you wanna bet that commissioners will ignore them and approve the development agreement that basically has the developer, Triple Five, give us a few shiny new buses in exchange for allowing them to build a $4 billion retail center and theme park with a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, an indoor lake with submarines and a beach, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater and a 2,000-room hotel?
Not only that, but the developer clearly intends to use public taxpayer dollars to make his American Dream come true.  How much you wanna bet?
Read related: American Dream mega mall developer would give us buses for our troubles
Opposing malls who don’t want the competition might be the ones demanding that the American Dream developers vow not to take any public subsidies, but they’re not alone in thinking that. And they are right in demanding that it be a deal breaker. Sure, they hope it’s a poison pill that prevents the Triple Five people from building the mega mall. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t.
It shouldn’t. Not if it’s going to be the huge economic engine success that proponents say it is. It should just make the developers more responsible with how they build it. But that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that there shouldn’t be any more corporate welfare gifts worked into our strapped county budget. We don’t have enough for transit solutions or to keep all our libraries open every day and these developers come and get subsidies — whether in the form of incentives or bonuses or even just discounts on their impact fees — when they should be paying more not less to get the variances they get on everything from density to required number of parking spaces.
And that’s not what the developer said or intended two years ago. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who negotiated this deal and even convinced the state to sell the land surplus at discounted rates to the developer, has said that Triple Five planned on requesting county subsidies for the project.
But even if they don’t request county funds, they could request state subsidies — which are still our public dollars. In 2016, there was a late amendment to a state bill that would have allowed counties to form special tax districts for funding infrastructure work around economic-development projects. It was sponsored by none other than Miguel DLP and would have benefited the mega mall tremendously.
Read related: Miami-Dade mega mall: A new, and shinier, insider deal
It is also interesting to note that in New Jersey, the American Dream Meadowlands mega mall developer got $1.2 billion of tax-exempt municipal bonds for that project plus another $390 million in state grant over several years if they reach sales-tax targets. You think they’re going to skip trying to get that here? Sometimes, Ladra thinks the whole point of these projects is to get the public funding.
Either Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo is ignorant to all that or he was being somewhat disingenuous Wednesday when he tweeted “A misinformation campaign is in full swing regarding #megamall I received this text message that gives the impression that the @MiamiDadeBCC is contemplating giving tax dollars to the developer. I said on more than one occasion that NO tax subside is or will be considered.”
He posted a photo of the text message, which urged him to call Commissioner Bovo and “tell him to prohibit our tax dollars from going to billionaire developers” and linked to the South Florida Taxpayers Alliance page, which seems like an opposition page funded by the other malls.
But misinformation comes in all forms, Commissioner.
The developer has time and time again refused to make a promise that they will not take public funding. It should be easy enough to agree to — but only if you don’t already intend on taking state subsidies. If you do, then it’s hard to say good bye to millions of dollars that aren’t yours and that you can get for free for your project.
Also, if the developers really believe that this American Dream Miami mega mall will be so successful, then it should be easy for them to not only agree to forfeit any public tax dollars but also to pay real impact fees and contribute heavily to the transit solutions that will help offset the damage such a project will have on the area and help get people to the mega mall.
Of course, that would be acting in the best interest of the community, not in the best interest of their pockets. That’s not the developer’s job. It is, however, the commission’s job to act in the best interest of the community.
They have this one opportunity Thursday to make such criteria — no public funds used in the project and real impact dollars towards transit solutions — a requirement of the development agreement.
Let’s pray they listen to the people.

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Buses? Buses?!?!
The developer of the American Dream mega mall nightmare in Northwest Dade wants to give the county a few buses for all the trouble that the construction of the largest mall in the United States — a retail center-slash-theme park with a 16-story indoor ski slope, a 20-slide water park, an indoor lake with submarines, a 14-screen 3-D movie theater and a 2,000-room hotel — is going to cause us.
Buses!!!
They want to build a $4 billion, six million-square-foot project on 174 acres of land, for an estimated 14,000 employees and up to 30 million annual visitors via between 70,000 and 100,000 additional vehicle trips a day — and they want to give us a half a dozen new buses?
Buses?!?
Miami-Dade Commissioners have to tell developer Triple Five — the builder’s of Minnesota’s Mall of Americas — and their favorite local lobbyist Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, thanks but no thanks. Tell them to take their bus out of here — far, far away — and come back when they want to get serious. This first offer, which our county commissioners will review next week, is simply not good enough. Not by a long shot.
Buses?!?! That would be laughable if it weren’t so damn tragic.
Read related: Miami-Dade mega mall — a new, and shinier, insider deal
This community has had it up to here with talk about buses and more buses. That’s just more empty behemoths that we have to sit behind in gridlock. It’s almost a slap in the face. Why on Earth are Transit Director Alice Bravo and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who negotiated the agreement after helping the company get the land at state surplus prices — trying to ram buses down our throat? So they can later privatize th… wait a minute. Could that seriously be it?
Diaz de la Portilla told the planning advisory board that it was the transit department, not the developers, that came up with the idea to gift the buses in lieu of paying impact fees. That means instead of. He said the value is somewhere around $5.5 million.
Here we are a county that has no money for the SMART plan, with Chairman Esteban Bovo saying they can’t find the funds for any real rapid transit solutions, and someone in the department suggests that the developer of the largest mall in the U.S., a $4 billion project that will impact our community for decades, pay $5.5 million for some buses?!? Wouldn’t the same amount — and Ladra suggests that the impact fees should be higher — be better paid to the county so it can go toward real mass transit solutions, like a Northwest light rail connector?
Triple Five already got preliminary approval for the mall last year when the commission voted to change the comprehensive development plan to accommodate the entertainment district land use designation for the mega theme park mall. The development agreement that comes before county commissioners on May 17 irons out more of the details — or conditions and requirements — under which the massive complex can be built.
It calls for the developer to build a bus depot — which arguably would have been included in the plans anyway — and buy some new buses to extend existing routes within Miami-Dade’s ever changing transit map. Triple Five also agrees to mitigate storm water runoff, so nearby areas won’t be flooded (wouldn’t that be, again, something they would have to do anyway?) and pay for some roadway infrastructure to mitigate impacts up to 2040, Diaz de la Portilla said.
“You’re adding more lanes to roads and more right turn signals and left turn signals, etc.,” said Roberto Ruano, the sole dissenting vote on the 12-1 recommendation for approval. “I don’t see how we can justify this,” he said. Someone quickly elect him to office.
Read related: Mega mall gets its public land on rushed timeline
Diaz de la Portilla, who could sell you a lighter in hell, said that Triple Five (aka International Atlantic) should not have to pay for the poor planning that preceded the mega mall, or the traffic issues caused by nearby malls that have opposed the American Dream Nightmare. Those competing malls  have suggested the developer be required to forgo any and all public subsidies — which, obviously, they don’t want to do.
“They didn’t even pay impact fees,” Diaz de la Portilla said, looking around like he was ready to fight someone. “You know, in a way, we’re subsidizing them.”
Um, no, not really.
The mega mall seems also tied to the Graham Company development that keeps going through the pipeline, each step at the same time, and getting the same approval. The Graham development — a mixed use complex of 3 million square foot office park, one million square feet of retail space and and 2,000 residential units — is just south of the mega mall site, making for one future busy area.
In lieu of their impact fees, the Graham Company developers propose giving us 8.5 miles of additional paved roads and/or lanes, 6-10 new or improved intersections, an 8.6-acre park and half an acre — a whole half acre! — for a fire station.
What? No buses?!?

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Miami-Dade Commissoner Esteban Bovo wants the Florida Department of Transportation to open up the Northwest 170th Street bridge over I-75 so that people who live on the west side in Hialeah — where more development is coming, including the American Dream Miami mega mall — can cross over more easily to the Palmetto Expressway and 87th Avenue.

And, of course, vice versa.

But many residents in Miami Lakes and the unincorporated Palm Springs North — who believe the cut-through traffic would destroy their residential neighborhoods — don’t necessarily want easy access to the west side and are none too happy about having the bridge opened to vehicular traffic.

“The traffic we have now is bad enough. This is going to bring more gridlock,” said Robert Scavuzzo, president of the Palm Springs North Civic Association. He is upset that this is coming onto the agenda without any public input on the impact it would have to their neighborhood.

Bovo will ask the commission on Wednesday to urge the FDOT to open up the bridge, a two-lane road built at least as far back as the 1980s for absolutely no reason (read: someone made money off that), because “extending NW 170th Street over I-75 may minimize traffic congestion and increase the flow of traffic, benefitting those who reside and work in the area,” according to the resolution. Key word: May.

It may minimize traffic congestion? Now we’re urging the FDOT to open a bridge to traffic on conjecture?

“About four or five years ago, these bridges — really bridges to nowhere — had no reason to be opened and activated,” Bovo said, talking about both the 179th and the 154th street bridges, which he says will eventually be opened also. “That has changed. You have substantial development there now.

“I firmly believe that this is going to alleviate an area of congestion that is basically gridlock. It’s going to bring connectivity,” Bovo told Ladra, using one of his favorite buzzwords. “This is an area of Northwest Dade that has been very sleepy for a long time and, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whose lens you are looking through, it is waking up with a lot of development.

“Both bridges are going to be required to alleviate the traffic that is coming.”

Read related story: American Dream moves along without any ifs, ands or buts

But Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid says he can’t support Bovo’s resolution without a traffic study that says it’s definitely going to help congestion and flow. Not that it may help.

“We do things a little differently in Miami Lakes. We base our actions on fact,” Cid told Ladra.

“They keep saying it’s going to help connectivity in the area, but we’re skeptical,” he said, adding that he would send an email to Bovo on Tuesday and would be at the meeting Wednesday to oppose the resolution. “We think it’s just going to change traffic patterns and make traffic worse.”

The opening a few years ago of Northwest 87th Avenue, which was controversial back then too, is an example. “Although it was good for Northwest Dade on connectivity, it was bad for Miami Lakes,” Cid said.

In fact, the town council voted unanimously last year to reject any attempt to open the bridge without a traffic study — paid for by either the county or the private developers on the west side of I-75 who are pushing for this — that finds it will benefit the people of Miami Lakes. Which, let’s face it, is a long shot. Opening that bridge might benefit the people west of I-75, who only can get out via 138th or 183rd streets. But it’s unlikely that it will benefit the people on the east.

Except to make it easier to get to the American Dream Miami mega mall.

Bovo and other sources close to the American Dream discussions told Ladra, however, that the owners of the mega mall are not the ones pushing for this. They are working on other entrance and exit points that would be less disruptive to the surrounding residential neighborhood — there has been talk of developing ramps directly onto the property from the Turnpike or I-75 — and their traffic study indicates no need to have the Northwest 170 Street bridge opened.

Though, certainly, it would be a welcome bonus, wouldn’t it?

Read related story: Miami Lakes mayor wants a piece of American Dream pie

More likely, several sources say, this is being pushed by Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez — a Bovo pal and ally — on behalf of and in partnership with

There’s more. Please press this “continue reading” button to “turn the page.”

As expected, the American Dream megamall project passed its first hurdle — if one can even call it a hurdle — at Wednesday’s meeting of the Miami-Dade County Commission as they voted to move forward with a proposd change to the county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan that would allow the development of the massive retail and enterainment complex.

But what is more surprising is that there were no ifs, ands or buts.

Commissioners didn’t set any conditions on the development of the 200-acre plot north of Northwest 170th Street between the Turnpike and I-75 into six million square feet of retail, restaurants and amusement park features — like an indoor ski slope and a water park and an indoor lake with submarine rides and performing seals — that aims to attract up to 30 million visitors a year and that will no doubt wreak havoc in that corner of the county.

Read related story: American Dream mall seeks first county approval

They set no limits on Canada-based Triple Five, the family-owned company that built Minnesota’s Mall of America and wants to build American Dream Miami in the county’s farthest Northwest corner. They requested no promises to use no public money or prioritize locals when hiring for the 14,000 promised permanent low-wage jobs or protect the wetlands that are part of the property they got for government-to-government prices in a sketchy deal authored by Mayor Carlos Gimenez or mitigate traffic impacts or invest in infrastructure or never turn it into a casino destination, as they may do with their New Jersey version of the American Dream (more on that later), or even cap admission fees for the amusement parks that so many delusional supporters think their kids and grandkids are going to hang out at after school every day.

Not one. That’s a lot of stuff to leave up in the air.

“The battle really is in April or May, whenever it comes back,” said Commissioner Joe Martinez.

The vote Wednesday simply sends the proposed change down the pipeline to the state agencies that will review it for transportation, utility and environmental compliance before sending it back to the county with notes and conditions of their own. To be fair, commissioners do get a few more bites at the apple.

But Ladra is not so sure the developers are going to be in a mood to negotiate once they have their ball rolling. Heck, they don’t even believe traffic is going to be a problem to mitigate.

“Twenty years from now, traffic is going to be less than it is today,” said Triple Five Chief Executive Officer and patriarch Don Ghermezian, even after he already got what he wanted. He said people would work from home on computers. “All this traffic? Twenty years from now, it will be zero.”

Zero? Ladra couldn’t stop laughing. Then it hit me how serious this is: Is this ludicrous vision of a fantasy future going to be guiding the negotiations for an eventual development agreement? A development agreement, by the way, that may include some form of tax break in the form of kick-backs through a special taxing district or deferred tax payments or economic incentive grants or whatever they come up with next.

That’s a real issue. Especially since the mayor admitted that the developer had repeatedly verbalized the intention to get public dollars to pay for some of the infrastructure improvements that they should be responsible for. Maybe that preclusion, at least, should have been negotiated on Wednesday. Gimenez told them he said no, repeatedly. So it shows that they are already being persistent.

This was an opportunity to get that off the table, and to set some standards, some criteria and some conditions for the project. And our county electeds — for all their talk about no public dollars — blew their chance to get it in writing. Only Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, in her first show of real spine — knowing she would be the sole dissenting elected didn’t stop her — voted against sending this amendment to Tallahassee as is. The vote was 10-1 (commissioners Audrey Edmonson and Jean Monestime were absent).

“I know it’s the process but the process doesn’t lend itself to the magnitude of this project,” Levine Cava complained. “It should be like a development of regional impact.”

She said she read the Miami Herald story about the tax break that Triple Five got in Bloomington, the Minnesota home of the Mall of America which agreed to a special tax district that funded costs for parking garages and new roads hasn’t gotten a single dime from the property on its tax rolls since it opened 25 years ago. Now that it will, the city may have enough new revenue to lower the average resident’s tax bill by five percent.

Read related story: Miami Lakes wants a piece of American Dream pie

“I’m not opposed to this project. I see the economic benefit,” Levine Cava said. “The question is, at what cost? When will we be able to reap the benefits?”

That’s a question that wasn’t answered Wednesday. Lots of questions weren’t answered. 

“If we delayed, some things could be included in the covenant,” Levine Cava said, practically imploring. “Agreeing to move forward without seeing an agreement …”

Is crazy? Is absolutely nuts?

Now, we have to wait until April or May, when they come back with whatever the state agencies say and to review any requested zoning amendments and an eventual development agreement. I guess that’s when they’ll ask for stuff. Not developers. Oh, they’ll ask for stuff, of course. A ton of stuff they didn’t dare ask for now. But that’s also when our elected representatives will start to represent our best interests. Or at least we hope they will.

Because they haven’t so far. Gimenez has simply acted as a pass through, a real estate broker, if you will — for 80-some acres that we bought from the state — after convincing Florida officials to put it on a surplus land list — for a government-to-government price. Rather than put it out to bid or see what else could happen there, we then passed the savings along to the developer — again without any quid pro quo guarantees of what will happen with it. That’s not looking out for our interests. That is looking out for their interests.

Read related story: Megamall gets its public land on rushed timeline

Is the commission doing that again by delaying any talk about the ifs, ands or buts. Won’t it be too late to start asking for concessions after the fact? I mean, how hard can we really negotiate on the back end of the deal? Isn’t the front end when we have the most leverage? Once the wheels are rolling, Triple Five knows that the county will not want to roll it back. They have the advantage.

Then there’s the issue of covenants. Levine Cava’s intention was good, but what good are covenants when in the next breath (read: the next item), commissioners actually considered breaking one only halfway through its 99-year life?

After approving the CDMP changes, or voting to send them down the pipeline (same thing), commissioners looked at another application to redevelop a golf course into 600-some townhomes. That item wasn’t rejected outright, as it should have been. Even after 42 people who would be directly affected spoke against it, the change was simply deferred (more on that later).

But it certainly brings into question what good any agreement signed by Miami-Dade County will be.

Especially when we’ve started by giving them the upper hand.

Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid believes the American Dream mega mall have a bigger impact on his town than anywhere else. And, so, he thinks they should be compensated.

Cid wrote a letter last month to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Chairman Esteban Bovo stating his desire to have not only 100 percent of the impact fees spent in Northwest Dade but also a recurring amount of tax dollars to be funneled to Miami Lakes.

“As you are already aware, our community is concerned and is monitoring the progress of the proposed American Dream Miami project. We are anxiously awaiting the agreement between MDC planners and the mall’s developers that will outline a proposal to address the traffic impact.

What is abundantly clear is that Miami-Dade County will receive millions of dollars in impact fees and millions of dollars on a recurring basis once the mall is open. My request is to have 100% of all the impact fees stay in Northwest Miami-Dade County, both in the incorporated and unincorporated areas, to alleviate the impact on our roads and public services. Additionally, to assist us in dealing with the day-to-day traffic impact, Miami Lakes should receive a percentage of all recurring revenue on a yearly basis to fund our strategic transportation initiatives, which will hopefully alleviate the mall’s impact for Miami Lakers (attached you will find our transportations initiatives list with a cost as of July 2016).

As elected officials, we represent the people’s interests. Ensuring that we get the best deal possible for our residents is paramount. I look forward to working with you both on this very imporant issue for Miami Lakers.”

In other words, is Miami Lakes for sale? Because what Ladra is hearing is that they would oppose this development unless they get a piece of the American Dream pie.

Ladra expects Cid to be at the meeting Wednesday when county commissioners consider changes to the Comprehensive Devlopment Master Plan, the first of many applications to amend land use and zoning requirements in the way of the megamall’s development.

Read related story: American Dream megamall seeks first county approval

Once open, the American Dream megamall would provide close to $35 million a year in property and sales taxes. The Miami Lakes wishlist of transportation projects cost about $12 million. But the key word here is recurring and Ladra is sure that Cid and his colleagues in Miami Lakes can find other projects that they “need” to mitigate whatever impact the megamall has.

Cid has talked about a 15% size piece of the pie, though he has said it should be proportional to the impact on the town.

But if they get a piece, won’t Hialeah wan’t one? Hialeah Gardens? Ladra is sure they have wish lists of their own. How about Broward?

How many pieces does the pie have?

Plans for the Amerian Dream megamall — billed as the largest retail center/amusement park in the U.S. — will go before the Miami-Dade County Commission for the first time Wednesday as they seek changes to the county land use and development master plan maps. And the two big topics will be traffic and tax breaks.

After all, we are talking about 3.5 million square feet of retail, a 350,000-square-foot amusement park, a 350,000-square-foot water park, a miniature golf course, an indoor ski slope, a lake with underwater submarine rides and water skiing, a 120,000-square-foot entertainment zone with restaurants and nightclubs, a youth sports center, one or more hotels providing 2,000 rooms and enough parking to accomodate all of that.

Traffic is the main concern plaguing both those who opppose the megamall and those who are in favor. There should be plenty of public speakers Wednesday as commissioners consider amending the Comprehensive Development Master Plan, the first step to allow for the mall’s construction.

“I would just hope the plan they show us has a robust transportation plan that allows people to get in and out relatively easily,” said Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo, who otherwise supports the mall because of the jobs it will create — Ladra has heard anywhere from 30,000 to 46,000, with 15,000 being permanent — and the $35 million or so in tax revenue that it is estimated to provide beginning the first year of operation, he said.

“Make no mistake, it’s going to have an impact,” Bovo said. “If what they submit to the board does not show a transportation plan that works for them and for us — and they know this — then this is not going to fly.”

A lot of folks also want promises that developer Triple Five Group is not going to seek tax breaks either from the county or the state — not even through the creation of a special taxing district that would divert tax dollars from the county’s general fund and earmark them for infrastructure and traffic mitigation that the mall’s developers would otherwise have to pay from their own pockets. Impact fees are estimate to cost Triple Five close to $120 million.

“At no time has anybody represented to me in any kind of way that they plan to come to us for financial support,” Bovo said. “He can go to the state and get transportation dollars, but the county is not going to entertain using property taxes to support this project.”

Triple Five sure talked to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez about a tax break. Gimenez admitted to the Herald that they had been asking for subsidies since Day 1.

Read related story: Mega mall gets public land on rushed timeline

But they already got a tremendous deal on the land, didn’t they? After months of secret negotiations with Gimenez, the mayor in 2015 lobbied the state to put the land — 80 some acres they had already identified they needed to complete their accumulation of properties — on the surplus properties list so that the county could buy it at government-to-government prices. Then he sold it to the developer without getting appraisals or putting it out to bid — for the same government price, $12.3 million. That’s $153,750 an acre, which Ladra is sure is way below market value. So, Gimenez had the county act as a pass through for a special government price on 80 acres of land for a private megamall development. We should hope there’s no more coming from the public trough.

Gimenez told the Miami Herald that he had told Triple Five the county was not interested in diverting any taxes through any “tax increment financing” or special taxing district mechanism and that he had told them so. But the developer has tapped government financing before, for the Mall of America in Minnesota and the first American Dream mall, which is an unfinished empty shell in Meadowlands, N.J. And one of Triple Five’s lobbyists, former State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla — who coincidentally sponsored legislation last year to allow counties to create their own tax increment financing districts for commercial developments — wouldn’t commit to a no and told Herald reporter Doug Hanks that it was too early for any conversation about public funding.

Too early? Pffft. Here’s a translation of that: Yes, we are going to seek public dollars wherever we can but we just don’t want to talk about that until we get the ball rolling and it is too difficult or cumbersome to stop it.

Diaz de la Portilla also told Ladra that this was just the first of at least seven to nine public meetings and steps for the megamall development. If the requested changes to the CDMP are approved by the commission Wednesday, that gets transmitted to the state for review by several agencies which could set conditions for further approvals. Then it comes back to the county in April or May for zoning changes and the development agreement. That’s when the real wheeling and dealing is supposed to start.

The flagship DLP also said that the only real opposition is coming from competing malls (who, in a funny twist, hired Gimenez pal and fundraiser Alex Heckler as their lobbyist). But Ladra has talked to residents in Miami Lakes and Palm Springs North, as well as environmentalists, who are concerned about the impact. Some business leaders have also quietly questioned the wisdom of such a huge megamall development at a time when retail sales are suffering nationwide (which may be why the New Jersey version of the American Dream is not yet awake).

That brings us back to the taxing district thing, which could possibly offset the losses of a down retail market. While it’s supposedly too early to talk about tax breaks, Diaz de la Portilla said he would be willing Wednesday to talk about anything that commissioners ask him about it. So commissioners better ask him about it! Ladra is talking to every single one of you. We are all watching.

Read related story: American Dream lobby team = casino connections

Although, really, Ladra doesn’t know how much we can believe what the developer and/or their mouthpiece says. The American Dream application says the project, once complete, will attract 40 million visitors a year. That’s more than twice as many as the 19.3 million people who visit Disney’s Magic Kingdom annually. So you’re really telling us there’s going to be more visitors here than at Disney World? Really? Does a ski slope in South Florida have that much pull? 

If that is the case, then the transportation plan better be freaking magical.

There’s also an application at Wednesday’s meeting for a zoning amendment to the land development map for a mixed-use project on a neighboring site by the Graham Companies. This project has a proposed 3-million-square-foot business park with retail, offices, industrial space and hotels, as well as 2,000 apartment.

And that, alone, is expected to generate more than 10,000 new trips by 2020.