Miami’s sleepy sister with ‘creepy’ downtown is set to be transformed into Florida’s next boomtown

South Miami leaders recently approved major plans to re-vamp its ‘creepy’ and empty downtown to bring the once-vibrant area back to life.

The Shops at Sunset Place shopping mall – with many storefronts shuttered – will be knocked down and replaced with sleek mixed-use towers. 

A $309 million investment will be put toward redeveloping South Miami’s mold-infested City Hall and police station. 

Both projects aim to make the area more walkable, welcoming and appealing to residents, according to city officials. They will also bring in much-needed residential space. 

The Shops at Sunset Place used to be a booming shopping center, but locals say it has turned into an empty and eerie building.

One resident described the mall as ‘kind of creepy,’ the Miami Herald reported. 

South Miami is Miami’s suburban sister, home to about 12,000 people. The city spans 2.5 square miles and is located about three miles south of Miami. 

It is known as the ‘City of Pleasant Living’ for its charming atmosphere and family-oriented design. 

But South Miami’s downtown has been on the decline for decades. The Shops at Sunset Place were the area’s main attraction.  

In 2009, someone left a glowing Yelp review of the mall, which opened in 1999.

Someone wrote: ’I love this place. It is small but with a good selection of stores like Forever 21, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters.

‘This is like the perfect little retreat from the city to me.’

But in 2012 someone said: ‘It looks like this mall is officially dying as a large portion is now being marketed as office space.’

In 2019, another review revealed the struggling state of Sunset Place.

It reads: ‘Not sure what’s happening with this mall! It used to be so fun and full of open stores but now it’s like ghost town!’

But the city has planned to restore the site to its former glory.  

Seven buildings, ranging from 12 to 33 stories tall, will fill the 10-acre property. 

There will be 1,513 apartments, stores, offices, a 1,300-seat theater and a 287-room hotel, according to the Miami Herald. The new development will simply be called Sunset Place.

South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez said: ‘We need an evolution, not a revolution. 

‘Nothing that we’re doing is an issue that’s new under the sun. What’s missing is people in the district. We have to let the town center evolve and grow with more residential.’

London-based architectural design company Heatherwick Studio has been picked to lead the project with Midtown Opportunities, the developer that bought the property in 2021.

This will be there first project in the United States.  

Heatherwick Studio founder, Thomas Heatherwick, said in a statement: ‘As people are social beings, drawn to places where other people gather, our idea is to get rid of the sterile atmosphere of the previous shopping mall and bring back streets.

‘Influenced by the human scale and charm of Sunset Drive, the plan is to extend the existing street grid into the site to create continuous routes and a village of smaller, more intimate urban spaces, framed in an extraordinary way by apartments above.’

This was, however, a controversial decision because some residents worried about the traffic this complex will cause.

In 2017, similar plans were in the works for Sunset Place, but they were squashed by disapproving citizens and politicians.

The then-mayor Philip Stoddard gave the project his stamp of approval, but the commissioner at the time, Walter Harris, was one of the people who were not onboard. 

The Miami Herald reported that Harris told developers he liked the idea, but thought it would ‘open the door to extreme development the likes of which South Miami has never seen.’

Other critics to the original plan said that people supporting the plan did not represent the South Miami masses. 

But the current make-over of the downtown staple has piqued residents and business owners’ attention. 

A south Miami business owner told Local10: ‘I think that it is a huge benefit to the community. I feel like south Miami has been relatively dead for a while.

‘Being that we’re brining in a whole new concept to the area, I think that Sunset is finally going to be – or South Miami is going to be – an attractive place to come to.’

While blocking the first round of developmental plans, the previous owners of the mall sold it at a $45 million loss.

That’s when Midtown Opportunities stepped in and purchased the property for $65.5 million, according to The Real Deal Real Estate News.

‘They were out of their minds,’ Stoddard said, according to the Miami Herald, about the commission voting against development in 2017. 

‘We’ve got a lovely downtown. But we have a basic problem. And that is, we don’t have enough boots and wallets on the street,’ he added.

The second plan, to fix outdated city facilities, has been in discussion for nearly a decade, the Miami Herald reported.

Developer 13th Floor Investments and Corwil Architects are spear-heading this project. They are not only redoing the police department and City Hall building, but they want to add a public library into the mix.

Named Link at SoMi, the developer has also added an apartment building to the plan, which will range from 15 to 18 stories tall.

There will be 670 apartments, a new municipal building and 28,000 square feet of retail space.

The Sylvia Martin building, built in the 1930s, used to be a level community center. Now, it has been converted into offices.

However, it will be reverted back into a community gathering space – possibly including a cafe – and will serve as the focal point of developers have described as ‘an urban village.’

Managing Principal Arnaud Karsenti of 13th Floor Investments said to the Miami Herald: ‘We thought, why don’t we celebrate the City Hall of South Miami instead of hiding it?

‘It can be a beacon for South Miami rather than an eyesore. And let’s showcase the historic building as well.’

Of the 670 apartments, 67 will be set aside for ‘workforce housing,’ meaning it is for people who earn 120 percent of the county’s median income.

Karsenti told the outlet: ‘Projects like this provide a real alternative to live in this area if you can’t afford a multi-million-dollar home,’

These plans are subject to change. 

Strong reactions from the community were drawn, especially for the Sunset Place plans. 

Someone wrote on Reddit: ‘Not sure how I feel about the new design. I grew up going to Sunset when I was in high school and going to the Vans store to skate the ramp. But I do hate seeing the empty shell that it has become now.’

‘That intersection is already a giant deadlock. I can only imagine the traffic impact adding 1,000+ apartments will cause,’ another person said, echoing the traffic concerns from last time around.

Others were optimistic: ‘Hope they build it. Need so much more residential here to match demand. Good spot for it too, near a train stop.’