For the first time since Hurricane Andrew tore through in 1992, the South Miami-Dade town of Cutler Bay has a large-scale redevelopment underway.

Officials met Thursday for a groundbreaking ceremony at Southland Mall, which is the subject of a $1.5B, 80-acre redevelopment from Electra America and BH Group.

Electra subsidiary American Landmark’s Joe Lubeck and BH Group’s Isaac Toledano are spearheading the project, dubbed Southplace City Center, which will take an estimated five to seven years. The $1.5B construction project is starting with The Current, a 350-unit apartment building expected to deliver in 2027.

“[Joe] said Cutler Bay was underappreciated. I think it was unrecognized,” Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Nobody realized how much we had down here, but these guys right here saw it and decided to invest.”

The developers landed a $125M predevelopment loan from New York-based Tyko Capital in November for the project. In its entirety, Southplace City Center is planned to include 150 hotel units, 4,295 apartments, 60K SF of medical office space, 150K SF of retail and a community amphitheater at 20505 S. Dixie Highway.

Southland Mall opened in 1978 as Cutler Ridge Mall before suffering heavy damage during Hurricane Andrew, closing and reopening in 1993. The 990K SF mall became the heart of the neighborhood but began to struggle in 2017 as major vacancies started to hit — first Kmart, then Sears vacating in 2020, The Real Deal reported.

Its New York-based owner, Investcorp, defaulted on a $67.5M CMBS loan, then lost the property at a foreclosure auction in February 2021 to Wells Fargo with a credit bid of $2,600, TRD reported.

BH Group and American Landmark paid $100M for the mall in 2022. They don't plan to completely demolish the property — Macy’s, T.J. Maxx, Old Navy, LA Fitness, Olive Garden, Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee’s are all staying put — but it will be transformed into a more open-air retail center, surrounded by new commercial and multifamily.

The developers envision a city within a city, aiming to create 3,000 jobs during construction, $44M in revenue within the first five years of the development's completion, and 2,000 permanent jobs after it is built.

“The area really needs it, and it was a pleasure working with the city officials, with the county,” Toledano told Bisnow at the event.

Since Meerbott stepped in to the role as mayor in 2019, redeveloping Southland Mall has been a top priority — an effort that Toledano and Lubeck were determined to see through.

The developers are also replacing Cutler Bay Town Hall, which is relocating to a new civic development called Legacy Park. That project, on 16 acres east of Old Cutler Road, will include a new city hall, a police headquarters and a community center.

“We want them to see South Miami-Dade, and Cutler Bay in specific, as a destination,” Lubeck said. “It's a place to live. It's a place to bring your family. You have great schools, you have great police and fire. It's a wonderful climate, a great neighborhood, a community of people of all sizes, shapes and colors.”

On the stage at the groundbreaking ceremony, which was held in the mall’s parking lot in between the Applebee’s and the T.J. Maxx, the mayor thanked Lubeck and Toledano for bringing the 16-year wait for a Southplace redevelopment to an end.

“We are finally here, at that day, and I couldn’t be happier,” Meerbott said. “The smile on my face is genuine excitement for what's going to happen in South Dade.”