Aventura Mall

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Facts and statistics
Aventura Mall
One of the main entrances to the mall.

Location	Aventura, Florida, United States
Opening date	1983
Developer	Oxford Development & Edward J. DeBartolo Sr.
Management	Turnberry Associates
Owner	Turnberry Associates & Simon Property Group
No. of stores and services	250
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	2.4 million ft²^[1] ranked 5th
Parking	9,800
No. of floors	3 (shopping) 4 (offices)
Website	aventuramall.com

Aventura Mall interior

Aventura Mall is an upscale, enclosed shopping mall located in Aventura, Florida, a municipality of Miami-Dade County. It is the largest conventional shopping mall in Florida, having a gross leasable area of 2.4 million ft² (220,000 m²), and is the 5th largest mall in the United States with three floors, and over 250 shops.^[1]

It is currently anchored by Bloomingdale's, JCPenney, Macy's (in two locations), Sears and AMC 24 Theatres. In early 2008, a new wing anchored by Nordstrom opened, making Aventura Mall the fifth largest shopping center in the United States. Aventura Mall has a food court with eighteen fast food eateries, as well as several restaurants at the mall's main entrance.

1 History
2 Location
3 Anchors
4 Cultural References
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

In 1983 Oxford Development, led by partners Donny Soffer, Eddie Lewis and Ray Parello opened Aventura Mall with four anchors: J.C. Penney (relocated from an older, smaller location at The Mall at 163rd Street), Macy's (the first in Florida; in a three story structure with a tile roof), Sears, and Lord & Taylor. On board as an original investor in the project was legendary mall-developer Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. The mall was originally designed to accommodate a fifth anchor, and there was even a section of drywall in place where its mall entrance would be located.

Soon after its construction, Soffer left Oxford Development, and as part of the break-up of assets, Soffer's new firm, Turnberry Associates assumed control of Aventura Mall. In 1996 DeBartolo Realty Corp., which owned the minority interest once held by Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., was acquired by Simon Property Group.

In 1998 a major expansion was completed in which the two-story mall was extended and two new anchors were added: Bloomingdale's, and a Burdines opened in August 1999 (relocated from The Mall at 163rd Street, though the Burdines there remained open for a year afterwards). The same project also saw the addition of a three-story atrium with an AMC Theatres multiplex cinema and several restaurants. A rare two-story Rainforest Cafe also opened, but was closed just a few years later and a Zara clothing store took its spot. Two multi-level parking deck structures were also added.

Burdines and Macy's were merged in early 2004 by their common parent Federated Department Stores to form Burdines-Macy's. Both locations at Aventura Mall were retained, with the original Macy's being devoted to Women's Fashions, and the former Burdines location housing its Men's, Home Furnishings and Furniture departments. Also during 2004 Lord & Taylor closed their store, as they withdrew from the Florida market.

In March 2005 Burdines-Macy's dropped the Burdines name, and their stores simply became Macy's, while in July of that year it was announced that Nordstrom would construct a store adjacent to the former Lord & Taylor, which would itself be gutted and rebuilt as additional mall retail space. As part of the pending Nordstrom wing expansion, the rest of the mall underwent a $20 million renovation in 2006. The Nordstorm wing opened in February 2008

[edit] Location

Although the mall is not located on a freeway or Interstate (I-95 is over two miles away) it does have an exit off of the William Lehman Causeway, a mile-long road built to freeway standards that connects the beaches with US Highway 1 (Biscayne Boulevard). The mall opened around the same time as the causeway, which was built at a high enough level to eliminate drawbridge delays over the busy Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. That, along with Biscayne Blvd., generate more than enough traffic to sustain the mall.

Aventura Mall opened in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. The area had been known by the name "Aventura" given to it by a local developer, for several years prior to the building of the mall. The name became more well known because of the existence of the mall, and when the surrounding area was eventually incorporated into a city in 1996 it was officially named the City of Aventura.

[edit] Anchors

These are the mall's anchors:^[2]

Bloomingdale's (251,831 ft²)
JCPenney (197,759 ft²)
Macy's
- Macy's Women's Store (252,000 ft²)
- Macy's Men's, Home & Furniture Store (225,000 ft²)
Nordstrom (167,000 ft²)
Sears (191,809 ft²)