Florida’s Aventura tops USA Today’s 10 Best Malls list
With more than 300 tenants, it’s the largest mall in the state of Florida. This week it can make the claim that it’s the best mall in America.
Aventura Mall, located halfway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has landed in the No. 1 spot of USA Today’s Top 10 Malls list.The paper lauded Aventura for its museum-worthy art collections, its chrome slide tower created by artist Carsten Holler and its claim to being the first site in Florida to host an Eataly.
The rest of the list includes:
2. Mall of America More than 30 million people a year visit the nation’s largest mall, keeper of the largest indoor theme park in the land. Other attractions include the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, Moose Mountain Adventure Golf, the Crayola Experience, and some 500 other stores and tenants.
3. Galleria Dallas In often steamy Texas, USA Today awarded Galleria big points for its indoor ice rink that’s in use year-round and especially during the holiday season. Its 95-foot-tall Christmas tree is decorated with 200,000 lights and has a 10-foot-tall star at its top.
4. The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards Manhattan’s mall, opened in the borough’s huge redevelopment across from Javits Center, contains a million sq. ft. of retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses. It’s notable for chic eateries such as Locanda Verde and Estiatorio Milos.
5. King of Prussia Mall The retail and entertainment mecca that’s the destinazion prinzipale of the Philadelphia metro still boasts a primo department store lineup of Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdales; a luxury lineup that includes Gucci, Cartier, and Dior, and a total of 450 retail storefronts.
6. Scottsdale Fashion Square Once shoppers snare their treasures from Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabana, they can go back to the Caesars Republic hotel and take the Scottsdale Trolley to Camelback Mountain.
7. American Dream Big on celebrity-studded events, Mall of America’s Triple Five partner specializes in star-studded events such as the JonasCon Jonas Brothers events and a special, weeklong appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters when its ice rink was converted to a basketball court.
8. Grapevine Mills This 1.8 million-sq.-ft. mall just outside the exit of DFW Airport includes a Sea Life Aquarium, a Legoland Discovery Center, and after-hours entertainment that includes a gaming bistro, a bowling alley, and a dine-in AMC 30.
9. Tysons Corner Center Metro D.C.’s mega-mall is more than just a mall. A redevelopment begun 10 years ago turned Tysons Corner into a 24/7 urban hub that includes an 18-story Hyatt Regency hotel and a 429-unit luxury apartment tower connected to a Silver Line Metro Station that transports commuters into DC.
10. Brookfield Place What was once the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan was transformed into Brookfield Place, a mall that has a marina, a sailing school, a culinary institute, and a glass-domed, plant-filled pavilion called The Winter Garden.
