Rouse Co Ready With Plan For West Kendall Center

By Catherine Lackner
The Rouse Co., developer of Bayside Marketplace and the proposed Village of Merrick Park in Coral Gables, is ready to seek zoning approval for the 160-acre West Kendall Town Center it hopes to open in 2003.

"We’re ready to go into the public approval process with Miami-Dade County," said Rouse spokesperson Nancy Tucker.

The first hearing on Rouse’s rezoning petition is scheduled for Oct. 5 before the Miami-Dade County Commission.

The development will cater to residents in the densely populated area west of the Florida Turnpike and south of Kendall Drive, a market Rouse considers under-served. The region’s population is estimated at 250,000 and, though strip malls and older shopping centers abound, there is no major shopping facility west of Southwest 117th Avenue.

Population in West Kendall is expected to grow to 434,000 by 2015 and Rouse market studies indicate that a potential 350,000 customers live within easy driving distance to the mixed-use project.

"We expect the center to include up to five department stores and also include small stores, theaters, office space and a hotel," Ms. Tucker said. She said no architect has yet been signed to the project as "it’s too early for that."

The center will be a 1.35 million-square-foot, mixed-use project on a site at Kendall Drive and Southwest 157th Avenue that Rouse has under contract, company officials said.

Competition will come from the newly opened Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami; Swerdlow Real Estate Group’s Dolphin Mall, set to open at the Florida Turnpike and State Road 836 next spring; The Falls, at US 1 and Southwest 136th Street, and the Town & Country Mall at Kendall Drive and the Florida Turnpike.

Amid charges that South Florida doesn’t need another mall, Rouse officials have stressed that the West Kendall Town Center will include space for municipal uses, possibly a Team Metro office or a satellite courthouse, and a 500,000-square-foot community center.

"What West Kendall needs is a community hub of its own," said Anthony Albanese, Rouse vice president and senior development director. Details: Rouse Cos. (305) 441-1401.