Kendall Shopping Center To Get $70M Rehab

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MIAMI-The owners of the Kendall Town & Country Center are planning a $70 million redevelopment of the property which will include demolition of the existing mall and construction of 700,000 sf of commercial space including a new 400,000-sf open air center.

The owner of the property, located on 70 acres off Kendall Drive and the Florida Turnpike, is WRC Properties, a subsidiary of TIAA-CREF. The developers of the project are Flagler Codina Development. In addition to the new open air center, there will be 50,000-sf of second-floor office space and two adjacent medical office condominiums. The project also calls for renovations to an existing 288,000-sf shopping plaza.

Kendall Town & Country Center general manager Debora Exley tells GlobeSt.com that the redevelopment is being undertaken because Kendall has experienced growth in recent years and there is an increased demand for retail. “There’s very little opportunity to build new space,” Exley says.

Demolition of the existing structure is expected to begin in January with construction of the new building to begin in the third quarter 2007. The owners are in discussions with national retailers for the space and anticipate the space to be filled by home, apparel, entertainment, office supply and restaurant users. In addition, 24-Hour Fitness, the fitness chain with which the basketball star Shaquille O’Neal has a partnership, will open in the 40,000-sf space now occupied by an AMC movie theater.

Exley also anticipates that, after the existing 288,000-sf shopping plaza is renovated, some retenanting will occur. “The original concept for this site was fashion,” Exley says. “With the redevelopment, we’ll go beyond fashion and add more of a lifestyle mix of retail.”