The AAF station development, Miami World Center, convention center, and many others have broken ground and are busy construction sites. Some others are further along. The only one that is held up is Miami World Resorts.
And these are private developers and land owners and has nothing to do with government, other than the usual permit approval process.
The casino, The tower in bayside (one bafront center), and a few others are in a halt due to various reasons. Private development makes no difference on the ability to build, red tape is red tape.
Trust me, I would love to see Miami clean up and become a better destination, but it has a long battle ahead of it. The reality of it is the Miami advertised on TV and in brochures only showcase a very small part of the EXTREAMLY large city. A great example (and this is only one) of what I mean is in regards to the downtown courthouse district (Flagler). It has gotten so bad with crime that judges are no longer allowed to keep a jury past 6pm (NO exceptions) as people (in one instance a Judges wife) keep getting mugged walking the 2 blocks to the parking garages once the sun goes down. Flagler, as you may know, is designated as historic (in particular the Miami Dade County Courthouse). They are unable to keep the crime levels manageable there, and its supposed to be a major sightseeing location (and honestly in my opinion that building has one of the most impressive histories in the country). Orlando has one of the highest crime rates in the country, yes...but that is mostly in their downtown area which is far from the tourist spots. Miami's crime is unfortunately right in the same areas as most of these projects.
Back onto the original topic:
IF this mall gets built (which from what I've come to understand its being opposed by the builders of all the major malls of the south florida region), it still will have the issue of location. Miami is MASSIVE in size. As it is right now, the public transportation wouldn't work in reaching its proposed location, and the "locals" will only travel so far. Believe it or not, its pretty much well known that Broward/Palm Beach residents seldom want to travel south (outside of work commutes), where Miami residents will always venture north. This is mostly due to the highway systems (which are currently a disaster). Traffic (the 10 mile stretch between the golden glades and downtown via 95 takes approx an hour every day on most weekdays), tolls (which as of the last year are all automated so unknowing travelers end up paying without realizing), as well as the CONDITION of the roads are widely noticed.
For those curious as to why the other mall builders are trying to avoid this, its pretty obvious. Almost all of the malls in the area have recently (as in within the last 10 years) gotten major investments for expansion (especially Aventura which has quadrupled in size since it first opened). The problem is that (and was mentioned in another post on this thread) is that its hard to keep tenants as it is now. A major new outlet will pretty much murder all others, and thus eliminate more jobs/economy than the new one would create. At least thats the argument.
To make this all interesting, lets not forget that Warner Brothers supposedly got their green light to build a theme park in Miami as well. THAT, would be the bigger concern.
