The new owners of Fort Lauderdale’s Galleria Mall are considering a redevelopment plan that envisions nine 30-story towers, a 170-room hotel and hundreds of affordable-housing units under state’s Live Local Act, the project’s joint venture leader confirmed Monday.
The 1980s-era mall was sold last month to a consortium of real estate and development interests led by Russell Galbut, who is based in Miami Beach and is a founder of investment and development firms with a history of creating mixed-use communities in Florida and elsewhere in the U.S.
The dramatic makeover plans for the Galleria were submitted to the city of Fort Lauderdale in August by the mall’s seller, Keystone-Florida Property Holding Group, which owned the property since 1993. The city deemed certain elements of the application “insufficient,” but Galbut said it is being resubmitted.
“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 original plan. “We need to breathe life into this community.”
A 24-hour community
The proposal appears to be the most ambitious redevelopment plan yet to emerge for the 31.5-acre property at 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., a stretch located west of the Intracoastal Waterway and east of the Middle River.
Copies of the proposal obtained from the city clerk’s office through a public records request show the property divided into two: A “Galleria East” segment containing most of the proposed residential portion, and a “Galleria West” that would contain both residential units 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 includes the following:
Galleria East:
- Towers: Five each, 30 stories high.
- Multifamily units: 1,981 (1,181 market-rate, 800 workforce).
- Commercial space: 675,968 square feet of mall space retained.
- New uses covering an additional 127,966 square feet would include health and fitness, retail and restaurants. There would be an additional 856 square feet of outdoor dining.
Galleria West:
- Towers: Four each, 30 stories high.
- Multifamily units: 1,161 (690 market-rate; 473 workforce).
- Hotel: 170 rooms.
- Commercial space: 251,765 square feet of existing commercial space within the Galleria mall building.
- Office: 9,140 square feet.
- Restaurant: More than 5,000 square feet.
Elected, HOA leaders worried
The proposal has jarred elected city officials and homeowner association 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 surprised the project is being run through the Live Local Act process, citing rising rents in the neighborhood. Moreover, he felt that East Sunrise Boulevard’s status as a storm evacuation route could become problematic with the addition of more residential traffic.
“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 traffic would not be an issue as the project will be filled by people who are unlikely to use their cars.
“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 area.
“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, learned 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 saw 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 worried the area will experience gridlock unlike 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.”
Live Local Act
Last Tuesday, at an Urban Land Institute conference at Fort Lauderdale’s Pier Sixty-Six Resort, Galbut said his joint venture group intends to proceed through the Live Local Act process, which is designed to expedite the building of affordable housing and speed up project approvals.
The act, according to the group’s public filing, “provides the framework and opportunity to reimagine the Galleria as a dynamic mixed-use residential district with a significant workforce housing component.”
“Affordability is something that is escaping South Florida,” Galbut told a gathering of executives, lawyers and other professionals who serve the urban 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 nearby District 2, said Monday he expects the surrounding neighborhoods will be not be happy 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 owners proposed a 45-story condo 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 way for housing, restaurants, new shops, offices, biking and walking paths, a boutique hotel, better lighting and landscaping, and a village green.
But under the Live Local Act, developers won’t need to get public input, 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 ago, some mall tenants and a representative of a nearby commercial center interviewed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel said they welcomed the new owners, citing the likelihood that new money would lead to a more stable future.
Small business operators in particular said there was a general sense of optimism that change would bring more business through their doors.
Galbut said there will be more opportunities for restaurateurs and retailers, suggesting their customers will come from the ranks of nearby residences, including teachers, police officers, and medical professionals.
“We’re very proud of what we’re doing,” he said, alluding to past projects that are occupied and patronized by broad spectrums of local populations. “We are community-minded developers.”
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