1988–1990: Planning and construction In 1988, the
Washington, D.C.-based
Western Development Corporation, led by Herbert S. Miller, announced that they would develop a shopping center in
South Florida. This would be their third Landmark Mills mall, after
Potomac Mills opening in September 1985 and
Franklin Mills in May of the following year. It would be built on a parcel of land in
Sunrise, just outside
Fort Lauderdale. Previously, the land and surrounding area were swamps and rural areas, once connected to the nearby Everglades. This is where the mall gained its name, "Sawgrass Mills", because of the plant commonly found in the Everglades. The mall would have seven anchors and over 200 outlet stores. On April 21, Western would announce that three anchors were officially moving into the mall:
Sears,
Waccamaw Pottery, and a European grocery store. The grocery store would eventually not be an anchor. An
IKEA would also be in the plans, however, an agreement was never reached between them and Western. On May 24, 1988, the
Miami-based architectural firm
Arquitectonica would unveil design plans for Sawgrass Mills. The plans included entrance designs and the mall's exterior, and that it would be three-quarters of a mile long, though no information on the interior would be revealed yet. Construction would officially begin that month. The mall was developed as a
joint venture with the
German-based
KanAm Grund Group, an investment firm that frequently partnered with Western and Mills. In April 1989, the mall announced that BrandsMart USA would become another anchor tenant. The 49th Street Galleria, an amusement center with bowling, arcade games, roller skating, and restaurants, would also be a planned anchor. It would be the second location after opening in Franklin Mills the same year. The landscape architects for the project were Craven Thompson & Associates, Inc. In May 1990, a few months before the mall's opening, two more anchors would officially be part of the mall:
Phar-Mor and the 49th Street Galleria. On May 21, 1990, Robert Hottinger, a construction worker installing drywall, fell from a scaffold at the mall. He would pass away four days later. Later,
VF Factory Outlet, Inc. would become the last official anchor. In July 1990, marketing and advertising for the new mall would begin appearing across the region, including airplane banners, newspaper ads, and television and radio commercials, leading up to its opening in three months. Media previews would also be held. On August 20, 1990, Waccamaw opened its store more than a month before Sawgrass Mills opened. This would be due to confusion with another anchor, Sears, supposedly opening the weekend prior, inspiring Waccamaw to open as well.
Sears Outlet would officially open on September 5, 1990.
1990–2001: Grand opening and The Oasis at Sawgrass Mills After two years of construction, Sawgrass Mills celebrated its grand opening on October 4, 1990 at 9 a.m. EDT, with a massive parade led by
Apollo 12 astronaut
Pete Conrad (the third man to walk on the moon) and a jazz performance by
Dizzy Gillespie. The mall opened in two stages. Original tenants included the BrandsMart USA/Sears Outlet wing at the eastern end, extending past the Garden Food Court (next to Sears, previously the Hurricane Food Court), to the
Books-A-Million store at the western end of the mall. The second stage, which opened November 15, 1990, extended the mall westward of the Books-A-Million store, past a second
food court, the Market Food Court (next to
Dick's Sporting Goods, previously the Sports Food Court) to new
Marshalls and
Spiegel Outlets.
Cobb Theatres built an 18-screen
cinema located at the Northeast corner of the mall, opening in December 1991, being disconnected from the main mall.
Target Greatland was added to the east wing of the mall, opening in July 1992. Phar-Mor was another early anchor to the mall.
Sam's Club,
Walmart's warehouse store division, opened outside of the mall to customers in 1993, alongside
Kmart, which opened a
Pace Membership Warehouse, which was eventually converted into another Sam's Club after Walmart acquired Pace. Originally, the
concourses were named and themed, and each turn was considered a "Court" and named for the architectural style it featured. The original mall concourses (running west to east) were Modern Main Street, Mediterranean Main Street, Art Deco Main Street, and Caribbean Main Street. The courts were (running west to east) Entertainment Court, Cabana Court, Video Court, Rotunda Court, and New Ideas Court. Mall entrances were named after the entrance roads leading up to them, which included Yellow Toucan, Green Toad, Purple Parrot, White Seahorse, Red Snapper, Blue Dolphin, and Pink Flamingo. In April 1994, Sears Outlet closed permanently after only nearly four years in operation. It was quickly replaced by
JCPenney Catalog Outlet (later
JCPenney Outlet Store). Then-General Manager Dan Cetina announced in the
Sun Sentinel that
TJ Maxx would open at Sawgrass Mills in June of that year.
Loehmann's would take over the former
Saks Fifth Avenue space, as Saks relocated to a larger space within the mall.
Service Merchandise would develop a store near
Burlington Coat Factory, with an expected completion by the end of 1994.
Chicago-based
Discovery Zone was also interested in establishing a children's play area at Sawgrass Mills. Both Service Merchandise and TJ Maxx anchored a Phase II addition, known as
Veranda Main Street (
Avenue Two, now
The Loop), opened November 14, 1995. It ran parallel to the middle mall corridor (
Avenue Three, now also
The Loop). The first
Neiman Marcus Last Call location opened in the former Spiegel Outlet space. Local retailer L. Luria & Sons was slated to open an anchor at Sawgrass Mills. By mid-June 1996, Sawgrass Mills featured
Warner Bros. Studio Store.
Rainforest Cafe opened on November 20, 1996, in the Cabana Court next to the animatronic pond. The pond was modified to align with the restaurant's rainforest theme. In June 1997, Cobb Theatres would be acquired by
Regal Cinemas for $200 million, and as a result, the Sawgrass Mills movie theater was rebranded as
Regal Sawgrass 18 in September of that year. In October–December 1998,
Hard Rock Cafe agreed with The Mills Corporation to open a restaurant with two floors at Sawgrass Mills as its fourth location in Florida, as Mills planned to develop an outdoor entertainment center at Entry 3 of Sawgrass Mills, called
The Oasis at Sawgrass Mills. It was designed by Imagineity (formerly known as Art in Architecture), and had its grand opening on April 15, 1999, originally featuring
Jillian's Entertainment,
Ron Jon Surf Shop, and
Foot Locker Outlet. This became the mall's first outdoor concourse, bringing it out from near Burlington Coat Factory to Regal Cinemas, which was expanded to 23 screens and became
Regal Sawgrass 23.
GameWorks, then operated by
Sega,
Universal Pictures, and
DreamWorks Animation, opened at The Oasis in mid-May 1999. Hard Rock Cafe would be adjacent to GameWorks, and had its grand opening on July 7 of that year. The Warner Bros. Studio Store closed permanently in December 2001 as a result of the
AOL-Time Warner merger.
2000–2009: The Colonnade Outlets and Simon Property Group The Cheesecake Factory and
Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse opened at The Oasis in March 2000 and 2003, respectively.
Nordstrom Rack opened in the fall of that year at The Oasis. Hard Rock Cafe closed permanently on May 9, 2004 to open a new cafe at the newly-developed
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, which had its grand opening one week prior.
Wannado City opened in the spring of 2004. In the early to mid-2000s, the concourses were numbered and renamed "Avenues" instead of Main Streets. Mall entrances also became numbered to represent which Avenue the entrance would lead to (i.e. Entry 4 leading to Avenue Four). The Courts' names were removed with this change. In May 2006, The Mills Corporation was being investigated by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to extensive accounting irregularities and fraudulent financial reporting. As a result, in February 2007, The Mills Corp.'s portfolio, including Sawgrass Mills, would be acquired by
Simon Property Group and
Farallon Capital Management for $1.64 billion, following the rejection of
Brookfield Asset Management's offer in January of that year, which offered to acquire The Mills Corp. for $1.35 billion. The acquisition was completed in April 2007, and The Mills Corporation was rebranded as The Mills: A Simon Company. The Colonnade Outlets received its first expansion in June 2009, featuring
Tory Burch,
John Varvartos,
Giorgio Armani,
Versace,
Ted Baker. The animatronic pond in front of Rainforest Cafe was converted into Cha Cha's Adventure Area, a kids' playground, in the late 2000s.
2010–2018: Gator Garden and Town Center at Sawgrass Mills (April 2014)|alt=A pink store branded as Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience. In June 2010, Sawgrass Mills launched the "Gator Glam" project, a juried art exhibition featuring 7-foot-tall, customized, and painted alligator statues to celebrate the mall's 20th
anniversary. These statues were installed in the Colonnade Outlets area, and local artists were invited to submit designs in June 2010 to be featured by October.
Art and Culture Center of Hollywood partnered with the mall to select at least 20 artist-designed, freestanding alligator sculptures. Specific designs included an Everglades-themed alligator, one designed by Alejandro Cuadra named "Fiery Gator," and several others displaying unique artwork. The sculptures were primarily placed near the Colonnade Outlets area to enhance the, at the time, new luxury section.
Bloomingdale's - The Outlet Store opened a anchor store at Sawgrass Mills on November 17, 2010. The opening took place at 9:30 a.m. EST with live entertainment by
Dixieland Band. This was their second outlet location in Florida following
Dolphin Mall, which opened one month prior, and their third outlet location overall, with their first one being at Potomac Mills. Wannado City closed permanently on January 12, 2011 after struggling financially. In June 2011, Simon Property Group announced a massive expansion and redevelopment project for Sawgrass Mills. This was the mall's first major growth phase in two years, intended to attract high-end retailers. The project included demolition of the former Wannado City building. In October 2011, the mall's JCPenney Outlet Store was announced to be spun-off and rebranded as
JC's 5 Star Outlet by its new owner, SB Capital Group, as
JCPenney made a strategic plan to exit the outlet business, reorganize operations, and focus on its core
department store business, which included selling 15 of its outlet locations to new management led by Glen Gammons. That same month, GameWorks was rebranded as
GameRoom Sawgrass (or simply
GameRoom), and
Johnny Rockets opened there. In March 2012, Simon Property Group acquired full control of the property's management by buying out Farallon's stake in 26 Landmark Mills malls for $1.5 billion. In the spring of 2013, Sawgrass Mills opened a new section,
Fashion Row, on the former site of Wannado City, with of retail space. This redevelopment allowed
Forever 21 to move into a massive space, and provided a location for
Calvin Klein.
Columbia Sportswear Company was also included in the expansion. In January 2013, the mall's
Spec's Music was converted into an
FYE (For Your Entertainment). On May 8, 2013, the
Barbie Dreamhouse Experience had its grand opening in the former Hard Rock Cafe space, designed as the second biggest tourist attraction in Florida after
Walt Disney World. However, the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience was met with heavy criticism, with locals specifically citing sexism. Despite this,
Mattel extended the lease of the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience at Sawgrass Mills in September 2013 to last until the end of August 2015, as a result of the massive number of attendance on its opening day. In contrast, JC's 5 Star Outlet was largely unsuccessful, and in October 2013, the company announced it would close all of its stores, including Sawgrass Mills, by the end of the year. The Barbie Dreamhouse Experience closed its doors at the end of August 2015, leaving the former Hard Rock Cafe space abandoned for another two years. In May 2016,
Sports Authority announced that it would also close all of its stores – including Sawgrass Mills – after filing for
Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which was previously
Chapter 11.
Liquidation sales were visible at this time. A renovation for The Oasis was announced in June 2016, with an expected completion of December of that year. The architects of the renovation, D'Agostino Izzo Quirk of
Somerville, Massachusetts and Birdair, explained that for shade,
canopy structures would be added, and the directory would be updated. A new
parking garage opened next to The Colonnade Outlets in September 2016, which itself received an expansion at the same time, featuring new stores including
Tory Burch,
John Varvartos,
Giorgio Armani,
Versace, and
Ted Baker. The expansion also opened a new restaurant, Matchbox. GameRoom was sold to Family Entertainment Group (FEG) and rebranded once more as
In the Game Sawgrass Mills (stylized/or simply
In The Game).
Century 21 Department Store opened in December 2016, which removed Cha Cha's Adventure Area due to the store needing to expand.
Texas de Brazil opened on March 13, 2017 in the former Barbie Dreamhouse Experience space, with the Sawgrass Mills location being their 50th restaurant. In June 2017,
Dick's Sporting Goods would move into the former Sports Authority anchor space. In October 2017,
Yard House announced an opening at The Oasis.
H&M opened a flagship-style store on November 16, 2017, taking over space formerly held by TJ Maxx, which moved to a larger site. An expansion was opened in late 2018 called the
Town Center at Sawgrass Mills which featured 25 full-price retailers, four new sit down restaurants, and another new parking garage for 2,000 vehicles. The new expansion is located next to The Colonnade Outlets and extends the stores.
2019–present: Florida Panthers In February 2019, Sawgrass Mills began a multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation, with a plan to celebrate its 30th anniversary in October 2020. New tenants included the
adidas Outlet Store and
Sephora. A True Food Kitchen location was scheduled to open at Sawgrass Mills in the spring of 2020. The
Levi's Outlet Store was expanded. Continuing through May 2019, remodeling of Sawgrass Mills included the original enclosed portions, such new signage, paint, aesthetics, and furniture, to bring it up-to-date with Simon's other properties. After the completion of the mall's renovations, the concourses and mall entrances were renamed again, this time returning to names instead of numbers, removing the "Avenues" tag. Since then, the mall concourses have been branded as (from west to east) West End, Fashion Row, The Loop, The Oasis, and East Side. The renovations were designed by RSM Design and were largely completed by 2023.
Seasons 52 opened adjacent to Matchbox in April 2019. In August 2019,
Barneys New York Warehouse announced that their location would close as part of plan to close 15 locations nationwide after filing for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Shake Shack opened in a portion of the former Hard Rock Cafe space on December 23, 2019, adjacent to Texas de Brazil.
Primark would open in the former JC's 5 Star Outlet/Sears Outlet space in October 2020. All Simon properties in the U.S., including Sawgrass Mills, closed temporarily on March 18–19, 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The mall reopened in late May of that year. On September 10, 2020, it was announced that Century 21 Department Store would be closing all stores, including the Sawgrass Mills location. This location closed on December 6, 2020. Q Store California opened in the former site of Century 21 the following year.
AC Hotel Fort Lauderdale Sawgrass Mills/Sunrise opened on March 31, 2021, designed by
Stantec and developed by Norwich Partners LLC in partnership with Simon Property Group. On September 15, 2022, it was announced that
Bed Bath & Beyond would close 150 stores nationwide as part of a plan to close stores. The former Century 21 was eventually replaced by an Epic Pickleball & Padel Athletic Club, while the former Bed Bath & Beyond was eventually replaced by a general store in mid-August 2025 called Super Bins. Both openings add new experiences and stores to the mall. Announced on September 26 of that year,
HomeSense would open in August 2023 adjacent to Primark. In September 2024, Simon Property Group partnered with the
Florida Panthers to host a naming contest for their new 7-foot-tall alligator statue, celebrating the team's
Stanley Cup championship. In October 2024, Currito Burrito,
Sbarro, and Japan Cafe at Sawgrass Mills were shut down temporarily after inspectors discovered food temperature issues and a rodent infestation. In mid-October 2025,
Skims would open.
Forever 21 filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced in March 2025 that it would close its location at Sawgrass Mills, alongside other stores in the country.
Saks Global also filed for bankruptcy, and as a result, Neiman Marcus Last Call would close its doors at Sawgrass Mills, with
liquidation sales starting in February 2026. However, the mall's
Saks Off 5th would remain operational. That same month,
Disney Character Warehouse announced that it would close permanently on April 15, 2026 after refusing to renew its lease. == Notable incidents ==