Once a sprawling icon of retail, the Galleria Mall is an afterthought for many shoppers these days. Several anchor stores and restaurants closed their doors years ago.<\/p>\n
A group of developers and investors bought the mall in September. Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut is taking the lead on the project. His team submitted a proposal to build nine 30-story towers offering about 3,000 housing units, a hotel and room for retail, restaurants and office space.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly took our breath away. It\u2019s far in excess of anything anyone has before proposed for the Galleria,\u201d said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis.<\/p>\n
The proposal is turning heads for many who live nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not NIMBY\u2019s (Not In My Backyard) here, we\u2019re not anti-development, we want to see that property redeveloped,\u201d said Tim Hernandez, the president of Coral Ridge Country Club Estates Community Association.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s worried about congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re providing over 4,000 parking spaces, which says to me this is an auto-defendant type of development. There\u2019s no alternative means for people to get around,” Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
Russell Galbut, founder of GFO Investments, shared this statement with NBC6: \u201cWe\u2019re community-minded developers who believe The Galleria can once again be a source of pride for all of Fort Lauderdale. Every square foot of retail will remain, and we\u2019re investing more than $100 million to make a vibrant again. The vision is a true mixed-use community where people can live, work, and enjoy the same neighborhood, reducing traffic and creating new energy for the area. Our focus now is to continue working with the city and the community to restore The Galleria as an icon and a beacon for Fort Lauderdale\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal was initially submitted under the Live Local Act, a state law that can fast-track a project when it meets certain requirements, like offering affordable housing. But the law also says the project does not need public input or city leaders to sign off on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about height and density,\u201d Trantalis said. \u201cIt\u2019s about what the impact on the area is, we have to make sure people\u2019s quality of life isn\u2019t diminished because a new proposal comes forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initial proposal didn\u2019t match the live local requirements; it was deemed \u201cinsufficient\u201d by city staff. Now developers are resubmitting it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 28 at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club at 6 p.m. for those who want to learn more about the proposal and the Live Local Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once a sprawling icon of retail, the Galleria Mall is an afterthought for many shoppers these days. Several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-18180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}