CONTENTS

PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

Dolphin mall coming to Florida

Developers of The Dolphin Mall, now being built in the Miami metrpolitan area, are billing the much-anticipated center as "the first of its kind."

The 1.65 million-square-foot value-oriented megamall, a joint development between the Michael Swerdlow Cos., Hollywood, Fla., and the Codina Group, Coral Gables, Fla., is expected to make its debut in the fall of 1999. It will feature more than 300 stores.

The Dolphin will be unlike any other megamall in the county, due to its greater emphasis on entertainment, according to Victor Suvall, Swerdlow's vice president of retail leasing.

Located at the northeast corner of the Florida Turnpike and the Dolphin Expressway, just five miles west of Miami International Airport in Dade County, The Dolphin Mall will occupy 117 acres of a 320-acre mixed use site.

Because of its proximity to the airport, the mall will feed off the approximately 9.6 million tourists who visit Miami each year, as well as appeal to local shoppers, Mr. Suvall said.

There will be more than 600,000 square feet of value retail anchors; in excess of 400,000 square feet of value specialty shops; and a more than 400,000-square-foot entertainment center featuring a 30-screen cineplex, an indoor and outdoor amusement park, dining, entertainment and parking for 8,000-plus cars.

Besides a racetrack design, the mall will boast a state-of-the-art roller coaster and a public entertainment plaza designed to offer the intimacy and scale of a European piazza.