Ask University of Miami students if they ever go to the Shops at Sunset Place for shopping, a movie, a meal … Or anything … The response is likely to be “no” or “where is it?” But at one point, Sunset Place used to be a staple of the South Miami community and social scene. So how exactly did we get here, and why is Sunset Place on the brink of extinction?
Though it is the closest mall to campus, Sunset Place, it is not typically on students’ “to go” list.
“I’ve heard of other malls in the area, like Dolphin Mall, but I’ve never really heard of that one,” said University of Miami freshman architecture major Anferney Sutton.
Stan Zolek, a sophomore business management major, also said he does not shop at the mall and doesn’t plan on doing so anytime soon.
“I have never gone before to the Shops at Sunset Place, and I have never thought about going,” said Zolek, who prefers to shop online.
When he does go to a mall, it’s Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables.
Once a seemingly thriving shopping mecca of 60 retail, dining and entertainment venues, the outdoor mall located in South Miami at U.S.-1 and Red Road is now rundown and nearly empty. Where stores such as the Gap, Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret and Armani Exchange once lured UM student retail therapy customers, the mall is now a place students say they pass on their way to somewhere else.
Now the most prominent remnants of the Sunset Place today are AMC Sunset Place 24, GameTime, LA Fitness, Barnes & Noble and Tea & Poets.
“It has kind of just slowly died out,” said Frank Gómez, an employee at the AMC movie theater. “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, and over time there’s been a gradual decline and nowadays it’s almost nothing.”
Reddit and TripAdvisor reviews of the mall suggest at least a decade of local discontent.
“It’s a shame because I used to hang out weekly there with friends and go bowling,” reads a Reddit comment. “Now it looks like an abandoned mall, with dirty walls, dirty stairs and dirty floors.”
Another Reddit reviewer summed up the barrage of online epitaphs: “That place is cursed.”
The “curse” dates back a hundred years, with only one development, Holsum Bakery, having had sustainable, commercial success. According to historical accounts, the first commercial development on the site came in 1926 with the opening of the 1,000-seat Riviera Theater. The theater closed a year later after it could not make a successful comeback following the 1926 Hurricane. The property was repurposed when the Holsum Bread Company opened at the same location in 1934.
For nearly 50 years, the area was defined by the smell of fresh bread and was known for the bakery’s annual crowd-pleasing Christmas displays. After the bakery moved northwest of downtown Miami to Medley in 1982, the property has since housed two malls. The first was the Bakery Center, a shopping mall that brought back a movie theater, AMC Bakery Center 7 Theaters, which opened in 1986.
The sprawling, five-level office and retail complex had no anchor store and failed to attract a viable business and customer base. After 10 years, it was torn down in 1996, and was followed by the Shops at Sunset Place in 1999.
The mall was a popular stop on the Hurry ‘ Canes Shuttle, a UM student government initiative that provided free round-trip shuttle transportation to nearby off-campus locations, including Publix, CVS, Dadeland Mall and Coconut Grove. Various mall venues offered UM student discounts, including Buffalo Wild Wings, which gave students free wings each time the Canes defense forced a punt on fourth down during home games.
So, the Shops at Sunset no longer seems a popular venue for UM students, but UM freshman Mitchell Starks has been once. In search of a costume last October, Starks went to Spirit Halloween, a seasonal costume store at the mall. Although the store was crowded, the rest of the shopping center looked empty, he said. The mall streetlights were not on, and the water fountain was turned off.
“I mean, for a minute I thought I went to the wrong place,” Starks said. “Aside from the Halloween store, the rest of the place just looked abandoned.”
Residents question why the mall is allowed to exist. When Tom Cruise made a surprise showing in July at the Sunset Place AMC for the premiere of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” some questioned why the celebrity was allowed to show up at the decrepit mall. Headlined “This wasn’t our best look,” a letter to the Miami Herald called the mall a “Virtual ghost town of boarded-up stores; a place where shops go to die. I hope Cruise didn’t judge Miami based on his visit to Sunset Place.”
Some mall employees say they go to work not knowing the mall’s immediate or long-term future.
“What I’m hearing is that there was a plan to remodel,” said Tonee Roiz, an employee at GameTime.
“Every few years or so there’s rumblings that there’s a remodel or something going on, but those future plans are never really accurate as nothing has really changed,” said Gómez, the AMC employee.
How to revitalize the property is a continuous hot-topic of discussion for the city. Five years ago, the South Miami City Commission unanimously approved a redevelopment plan for the mall that required zoning changes.
It sought to reduce retail, expand office space, demolish half the mall to build two apartment buildings and a hotel and add a two-story parking lot expansion with valet spaces. Retail spaces would be remodeled to face outward–rather than inward–to allow harmony between the shops on the surrounding sidewalks and the mall.
Before work could begin, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis negatively impacted the economy and social atmosphere of public spaces, placing the Sunset Place project on hold.
“It was so traumatic,” said South Miami commissioner Josh Liebman. “We weren’t sure whether there needed to be more office, retail, and unit space anymore, which would have potentially raised dividends for shareholders.”
South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández anticipates the new site will be mixed use—residential and commercial.
“We want to provide an important, beneficial place for shopping, dining and entertainment to encourage people to move to the area,” Fernández said. “When more people come to live here, it can double the tax base and more stores and restaurants should open.”
words_eva barraclough, anthony logan & jaln vaughn. photo_marra finkelstein. design_sal puma.
This article was published in Distraction’s Summer 2024 print issue.
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