Yahoo Finance Can a Miami mall near the Palmetto find a future with these stores? Here’s what’s coming
Does Midway Crossings have an identity crisis? Is it a mall? A DMV? Just a nice memory?
No need for confusion, with two major shopping destinations coming soon. Construction is almost done on the additions: Aldi, a growing grocery chain, and Micro Center, a national tech center.
The mall on West Flagler Street and Northwest 79th Avenue isn’t the fanciest shopping complex in South Florida. But it is alive and growing.
Tucked off the Palmetto Expressway for the last 54 years, it has had several names and lacks the amenities of modern malls. So don’t expect to find late-night arcade centers, lavish gyms or chef-driven restaurants. Theme park attractions like towering slides and mist fountains for kids to splash about? At Midway, there’s not even water in the fountains.
But don’t underestimate the old-fashioned feel of Midway Crossings. It’s more than a sentimental landmark as improvements are underway and people flock there to get things done.
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Midway Crossings opened on 55 acres in September 1970 as Midway Mall, named because it was in Central-West Miami-Dade and served a then rural community living along Flagler Street. You had to drive not quite six miles to the south to get to Dadeland Mall in Kendall. A year later, in 1971, Westland Mall opened in Hialeah, a little over six miles to the north.
That was the extent of Midway Mall’s close competition until The Falls opened in 1980 in the Kendall area and Doral’s Miami International Mall opened in 1982. The flashier Aventura Mall opened 24 miles to the north on Biscayne Boulevard in April 1983. Dolphin Mall, the closest to Midway at about 3.4 miles to the northwest, arrived in 2001.
But as similar workaday malls like the Diplomat in Hallandale Beach, Skylake near North Miami Beach, and the Hollywood Mall in Broward County disappeared, the little mall off the Palmetto Expressway has survived and caters to a loyal customer base.
About 17 years after its founding, Midway Mall was rebranded as Mall of the Americas in 1987. That name stuck for more than a generation until 2022, when the fading mall was rechristened Midway Crossings — a nod to its origins.
What’s coming to Midway Crossings?
Today, it’s not just the name’s revival of “Midway” that reaches back to the beginning.
One of the mall’s original tenants in September 1970 when Richard Nixon was in the White House and Claude Kirk was Florida’s governor was a free-standing Winn-Dixie supermarket. That grocery store was demolished in 2002.
Now, one of Midway Crossings’ major coming tenants is a free-standing Aldi supermarket, set to open this summer, said Chris Hewitt, an Aldi spokesman.
Aldi, with 217 discount grocery stores in Florida, acquired Winn-Dixie last year, a deal that was finalized in March. The acquisition will eventually lead to numerous conversions of Winn-Dixies to the Aldi brand, about 50 in the latter half of 2024. These conversions will be announced later in the year. The chain has set a goal to open 800 new Aldi stores nationwide over the next five years, Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in a statement in March.
The mall’s property management company and owners, Sterling Organization, posted a report that Aldi signed a 20-year ground lease in 2022 to open a store on its property.
On Thursday, a construction crew was also working next to the Aldi on a Micro Center mega store. Micro Center boasts an inventory of 25,000 computers and electronics, according to its advertising for its planned opening at Midway Crossings.
From Aldi’s near-complete appearance — the signs are already in place — stocking and staffing the store will be the finishing touches before opening.
Xiomara Fraga of Sterling’s marketing department said the firm wasn’t ready yet to release the exact opening dates for the Aldi or Micro Center, but confirmed both were expected to be ready for business in 2024.
When Micro Center’s signs go up, they should be visible from the Palmetto Expressway exit that leads cars onto Flagler and into the mall’s entrance and parking lots at 7995 W. Flagler.
What can you find at Midway Crossings?
Midway Crossings’ tenants include a free-standing 151,100-square-foot Costco Wholesale, which was opened in 2017 in a space that once held the north end of the mall.
A 115,300-square-foot Home Depot replaced the old Woolco — the mall’s first tenant — more than 20 years ago.
An Outback Steakhouse is another free-standing Midway Crossings anchor.
Step inside the mall’s enclosed portion, topping 666,000-square-feet and 60-plus stores — not far off the 68 that existed on its opening in 1970 (there are nine vacancies according to Sterling Organization, the property owners since 2004) — and you’ll find a mix of mostly discount merchants, service organizations, a small food court and a rather lonely amusement area for kids. Don’t toss pennies in the fountains adorning several benches because the coins will clang. There is no water in any of the fountains.
The mall’s current stores, services and food outlets include a mix of name-brand merchants, service centers and food outlets, much like the 1970 version.
Major merchants: Burlington, Ross Dress for Less, Marshall’s, Five Below, Rack Room Shoes, Citibank, T-Mobile, Radio Shack, Metro PCS, Steps New York and a Miami Art Club that advertises music lessons. These storefronts will be joined in 2024 by the Micro Center and Aldi. Burlington is in a growth phase in South Florida. On May 31, two new stores opened — one at Miracle Marketplace at 3301 Coral Way and the other half a mile away from Midway Crossings at Flagler Park Plaza at 8241 W. Flagler St.
Service: There is a DMV drivers’ license station and several storefronts dedicated to a Leon Driving School, which also touts immigration services at Midway Crossings.
Then there is Las Madrinas, a venue that helps people sign up for Obamacare, Medicare, Access Florida, and other Florida social services and health plans. Also: Midway Mall Barber Shop, Dorian’s Beauty Supply, Aspen Dental. These service-oriented businesses will be joined by Ulta Beauty in 2024.
Food court: Subway, La Fogata BBQ Specialties, Cajio’s Cuban Cuisine, Flagler Charbroiled Burgers & Chicken, Magic Grill and Yogurt Life. There’s a Radio Shack in the food court sandwiched between the grill eateries and a mango juice bar.
The mall’s Miami history
When did the mall open? Midway Mall opened on Sept. 16, 1970, with the arrival of a Woolco discount mart. A month later, a two-story JB Hunter, a Richards department store, and The Holiday Theatres’ single-screen Midway Mall Theatre opened in October, according to the Mall Hall of Fame website. A mall dedication was held on Feb. 3, 1971.
Original 1970 stores: Midway Mall officially opened for the holiday 1970 season with 68 stores, including an F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime store, Winn-Dixie, Universal Records, GNC, The Plum Tree gifts, Miles Shoes, Foxmoor Casuals, Docktor Pet Center, Bertram’s Restaurant, National Shirt Shops and an Orange Bowl snack bar.
The movie theaters: What did Miami audiences see screening at the Midway Mall Theatre on that Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1970, opening day? The $1 Midway Mall movie house opened with Gene Kelly’s “The Cheyenne Social Club” starring James Stewart and Henry Fonda and the Western, “A Man Called Horse,” with Richard Harris and Dame Judith Anderson, according to Cinema Treasures. Both films had already concluded their first runs in movie theaters earlier in 1970. Two Westerns? Note: There were numerous farm lands off Flagler in those days. The area was not built up as it is today.
The theater, housed toward the back of Midway Mall, was closed in November 1986, and replaced in November 1988 with a first-run AMC Mall of the Americas 8 multiplex. The trend in the late-1980s was to build multi-screen theaters. The Wometco Twin, later a triple, at Dadeland Mall, for instance, closed in 1989 and was replaced with a nine-screen Wometco a few miles away on North Kendall Drive. Midway Mall was refurbished and renamed Mall of the Americas by that point. Movie hits opening that holiday season in 1988 included “Scrooged,” “Cocoon: The Return,” “Oliver and Company” and “Child’s Play.”
That AMC theater added six screens and was renamed Mall of the Americas 14 in 1992. The last picture show happened for the AMC 14 theater in December 2015 when it, along with portions of the north end of the mall, was demolished. Costco Wholesale filled the void when it opened in April 2017.
READ: Remember movie palaces? South Florida had plenty — and Hollywood-style premieres, too
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Anchor-shuffling: JB Hunter was acquired by and reopened as a Jefferson in 1974 and rebranded as Jefferson Ward by 1980. Richards was gone by 1980. Woolco closed in January 1983 and its space was initially taken over by Winston’s Discount Fashions. By 2002, the former Woolco building was demolished and the Home Depot and a new mall entrance were in its place. Winn-Dixie was also demolished in 2002.
Market shifts: By 1983, Midway Mall was declining, so“off-price” or discount retailing was its main focus, and that concept remains today. The mall underwent a $4 million refurbishing in August 1983, sprucing up the look a bit with landscaping and benches and flooring.
Mall of the Americas era: The complex was renamed Mall of the Americas on June 11, 1987. More face lifts came as a result, along with arrivals in 1987 like Marshall’s in the old Richards space along with L. Luria & Sons, Linens ‘n Things, Oshman’s Super Sport USA, Santa Cruz Furniture, Kay-Bee Toys, La Fogata Latin Grill and a T.J. Maxx.
Midway Crossings era: After 35 years, the Mall of the Americas name was scrapped in favor of Midway Crossings in May 2022. The mall saw more construction activity in early 2024 as an Aldi and Micro Center got ready to join the lineup.
