A resolution to redevelop the barren Shops at Sunset Place was unanimously approved Tuesday in South Miami. 

The master development, submitted to South Miami’s planning board, would replace the existing mall with over 1,500 residential units and 350,000 square feet of retail stores and offices.

The plans include: 

• 1,513 residential units
• Seven highrises ranging from 15 to 33 floors
• 287 hotel rooms
• a 1,300 seat theater
• 2,418 parking spaces
• 213 bike spaces

Located off of South Dixie Highway and Red Road, the Shops at Sunset Place opened in 1999. It was known as a bustling mall offering food, dining and fun.

But now, it’s desolate. A virtually empty building with no foot traffic.

The development aims to change that.

One resident voiced support, saying: “I grew up in Miami… I am happy to hear of these plans for it to be revitalized.”

The revamp planned for Sunset Place also follows a real estate trend we covered in April that involves converting shopping malls into residential units to meet demand for housing.

In the presentation to the planning board, developers listed reasons why the current structure does not work, including that the mall ignores the surrounding area, while creating fake internal streets. 

“It doesn’t really feel like a part of the city,” one of the developers said. 

Still others questioned the potential side effects of such a redevelopment, including traffic.

“A dead mall produces no traffic, right?” a developer responded. “Do you want to create a neighborhood and a community that brings residences back into the downtown? And when you compare the traffic of a 500-and-something thousand-square-foot regional mall versus what we’re proposing, there is a significant reduction in the amount of traffic that those two types of uses generate.”

The idea, he said, was to build the Shops at Sunset Place into an area where people have everything they need: “It’s really about creating a community.”