Developer Unveils New Renderings For Galleria Mall, Calls Project's Opponents 'Idiots'
The plan to redevelop Fort Lauderdale's largest shopping mall with nine high-rise towers is barreling forward despite vocal protestations from a group of neighbors.
GFO Investments' Russell Galbut is leading the project — which counts WeWork's former CEO as a partner — and revealed fresh renderings of the developers' vision for the Galleria Mall at Fort Lauderdale on Thursday at Bisnow's Broward State of the Market event.
The handful of renderings, which GFO declined to release following the event, show a redone Macy's, glassy apartment towers with balconies, remodeled parking areas and upgraded retail.
GFO purchased the mall at 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd. in September for $73M, along with partners InSite Group, Prime Finance and Sandeep Mathrani's Atlas Hill Real Estate. The plans include a $100M upgrade for the mall and constructing more than 3,000 apartments, a 170-key hotel, 30 restaurants, office space and new parking.
The developers are utilizing the Live Local Act, which allows projects to bypass local zoning regulations as long as 40% of the project's units are dedicated to workforce or affordable housing.
But even with that leverage, the project is still facing significant pushback from locals. More than 200 residents attended a city meeting last year to oppose the project. A petition on Change.org launched in November, just a month after the project plans went public, and has garnered 1,080 signatures.
The petition's organizers, who didn't respond to a request for comment, said the project would create gridlock, strained infrastructure, shadows, noise and pollution, plus drive up costs and accelerate displacement.
"We cannot let the idiots, the minority — the very strong minority, but they're very vocal — dictate what happens in a community," Galbut said onstage Thursday at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told Bisnow in a phone call Thursday that the developers have reached out to many of their neighbors, but the response hasn't been positive.
"It's not the most diplomatic way to come into a new community and try to build a project such as this," Trantalis said in response to Galbut's comments.
"I would hope he would take that comment back," he added. "If he calls the opponents of his projects idiots, then he called me an idiot."
Because of the Live Local Act, there is little that city officials can do to block the project. Galbut said the law means the project will add affordability to Fort Lauderdale and get through the permitting process much faster.
Galbut also praised Trantalis and the city commission for their collaboration since the project was announced.
"I think for the first time, everybody's getting the feeling that you have to work together with the development community to make great things happen, and it's a complete change of view," Galbut said.
"The people who were the strong minority were the most vocal," he added. "You don't hear their voices anymore, because they're being drowned out by intelligent, logical urban planners."
Galbut, who isn't the first to try to redevelop the site, said it is much-needed. The mall hasn't broken 70% occupancy since 2023, when it was first listed for sale.
It used to be a gathering spot for residents back in the day, but like many malls over the past decade, it has been hollowed out by store closures. Redeveloping the struggling mall will bring celebrations like bar mitzvahs, weddings, quinceañeras back and turn it into a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, live-work-play environment, Galbut said.
"This is hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars being added to a community to make it that central urban location, and we think that it will be immensely successful," Galbut said.
"You have community leaders who independently are coming to that realization that 'Hey, we got this one wrong. Let's give this new developer an opportunity to show us what can happen, what we can dream of and what the art of possibility is,'" he added.
