Dania Live renamed as new partner Kimco unveils big retail plans
This article, written by Brian Bandell, was originally published on May 11, 2015 in South Florida Business Journal.
The 102-acre Dania Live project along Interstate 95 has been renamed Dania Pointe as Kimco Realty has released details about its plans for one of South Florida’s largest mixed-use projects.
Master Development President Robert Shapiro spent years assembling the land west of the Stirling Road exit, snatching up the closed wooden roller coaster and shuttering Boomers and the go-kart track.
“We call this parcel hiding in plain sight,” said Shapiro, who brought in New York-based Kimco (NYSE: KIM) as a partner in 2014.
The initial title of Dania Live stressed entertainment, but that’s not the best way to describe Kimco’s vision, Shapiro said.
“Dania Live implied entertainment and it will be more than that,” said Paul Puma, president of Kimco’s southern region. “It will be retail and a variety of restaurants and entertainment venues…We hope to have a fitness center, bowling alley, and a plaza with scheduled live entertainment.”
Should it finish receiving zoning approval, Dania Pointe would have 1 million square feet of retail (similar in size to the Westfield Mall in Plantation), plus 1,000 residential units, about 500,000 square feet of office space, and 300 hotel rooms, Puma said. It would be designed in an open-air, main street feel with three entrances on Stirling Road and one on Bryan Road. A parking lot with retail behind it and monument sign would abut Interstate 95. The larger buildings would be closer to Bryan Road.
MCG Architecture in Cleveland is the designer of Dania Pointe. No general contractor has been selected yet. CPP Canadian Pension Plan is also a partner on the project, Puma said.
“It has 1,500 feet of exposure on 95 so for those who thrive on that visibility it’s important,” Puma said. “It also offers great proximity to the airport and the cruise point. People waiting to board a cruise ship can eat and shop.”
The first phase of Dania Pointe is for one-story retail buildings near the corner of Stirling Road and Bryan Road. The largest would be a 150,000-square-foot “big box” anchor with buildings ranging from 13,000 square feet to 29,000 square feet beside it. There would also be a couple of smaller out-parcel spaces.
Puma said Kimco is after unique mix of tenants for Broward County.
“From a retail point a view, with the tenants we are pursuing this represents a hole in the marketplace for them and we think they need stores in this location,” Puma said.
The second phase of Dania Pointe would be a main street filled with retail and restaurants, plus residential towers, two office buildings of 10 stories and 250,000 square feet each, the hotel and structured parking.
Puma said Kimco is talking with various residential and hotel developers about potential partnerships with them on those aspects of Dania Pointe. Kimco is primarily a retail developer.
Puma said he hopes to start site work in late 2015 for the first phase and in late 2016 for the second phase. Dania Pointe could be completed in three to four years, he said.
“It will be a massive project that will appear like everything is under construction at once in some cases,” Puma said. “It’s going to provide a wonderful improvement to the Dania tax base and become a major shopping center in Broward, and a place to work, eat and visit.”
SHARE IT ON
