Early years (1965–1981) Germez Developments was founded by Jacob Ghermezian in 1965, and his family, the Iranian-Canadian Jewish
Ghermezian family, remains the owners and operators of the company today. Jacob's four sons were the core of the business, and after them the brothers' children have begun to take leadership roles in the company, including CEO Don Ghermezian and
Braze founder Mark Ghermezian. In the mid-1970s, Germez Developments was involved in land
speculation on the outskirts of Edmonton. The province of Alberta established "restricted development areas" (RDAs) encircling Edmonton and Calgary in 1974, and two years later announced that the areas would be used as "transportation and utility corridors". Germez was one of several companies that bought up large parts of the RDA ring around Edmonton, paying higher prices to rural landowners than the government was willing to offer. Despite not being allowed to develop the land, Germez dramatically raised its prices before selling its parcels back to the government. The Ghermezians made an $18 million profit when the Albertan government purchased the land in 1979, and much of that profit was used to finance their first retail project, the
West Edmonton Mall. Early in the development process, Raphael Ghermezian was faced with allegations of attempted bribery towards an alderman on the Edmonton city council. Eskandar Ghermezian retaliated with accusations of favor-seeking against the son of another Edmonton alderman. The first phase of the mall was completed in 1981, and Triple Five immediately began further construction for a second phase which opened in 1983 and a third in 1985. These expansions brought the West Edmonton Mall from the largest in Canada to the largest in the world. In addition to building the West Edmonton Mall, Triple Five also developed the
Eaton's Centre mall and mixed-use development in downtown Edmonton, which began development in 1980 and opened in 1986. The Ghermezians held a 50% stake in the complex, alongside
Confederation Life Insurance, which bought Triple Five's share of the development for $1 in 1991. In 1985, Triple Five created
Peoples Trust, a bank and
trust company whose first branch was located in their West Edmonton Mall. When Peoples Trust opened, its primary focus was on residential mortgages and
guaranteed investments. Today, there are branches across Canada, and the bank offers several other services, including mortgages for care facilities and other commercial properties, and
prepaid credit cards. The project was quickly approved, and ultimately became the
Mall of America, which has remained the largest mall in the United States since it opened in 1992.
Searching for a third project (1986–2011) Triple Five announced its plans in 1986 to build its third major project, considering
Toronto,
Montreal, and
Niagara Falls, New York as possible locations. Montreal was dropped from consideration soon after, pitting the other two cities against each other for a project that was then dubbed "Fantasyworld". In the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, the first proposed location was rejected and the project was ultimately dropped. In
Niagara Falls, the state of New York offered $400 million in subsidies to build Fantasyworld. The state later canceled its offer after deciding that the project was unlikely to be completed while Triple Five was preoccupied with building the Mall of America. The late-1980s
Soviet policy of
glasnost encouraged Western businesses to seek opportunities in Russia and the other Soviet republics. In December 1988, Triple Five proposed building a megamall in
Moscow, competing with the
Cyrus Eaton Group's similar proposal in
Leningrad. Both proposals were dropped, and within the month Triple Five had moved on to a proposal for a complex in
Holbeck,
Leeds,
England. In addition to over of retail floor space, the Leeds development would have demolished significant parts of Holbeck to build a series of octagonal skyscrapers for mixed-use development. The project was intended to be completed by 1993, but was never approved. Other Triple Five proposals prior to 1994 were made in
Burnaby, British Columbia,
Tampa, Florida,
Beijing, China, With the support of
Montgomery County, the plan grew to include "a multimedia educational facility, sports club, and wellness center", and at the request of a board of local residents, a performing arts center and a
miniature golf course were added to the project. Triple Five announced in 2004 that its next major project would be the
Great Mall of Las Vegas. While not as large as the Mall of America, the plan for over of floor space still would have placed it among the largest shopping malls in the nation. The project was approved by local authorities in early 2008 and was expected to begin construction by the end of the year. However, plans for the mall were shelved as a result of the
late 2000s recession, and by the end of 2010 Triple Five defaulted on the loan for the mall's intended real estate. The 60-acre parcel was purchased in 2011 by EHB Companies for $6.3 million, and in 2019, the Las Vegas City Council approved plans for 303 single-family homes and 491 apartments to be built on the site. West Edmonton Mall lost the title of world's largest shopping mall in 2004, with the opening of the
Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, China. The following year, the
New South China Mall in
Dongguan opened and took the title, with an area of over . Triple Five has disputed whether these developments are actually shopping malls, and continues to claim that West Edmonton Mall is the world's largest. In 2005, Triple Five also attempted to enter the Chinese retail market with two proposed projects: the Mall of China in
Dalian, and the Triple Five Wenzhou Mall in
Wenzhou. Both of these were intended to feature over of floor space, and each would have become the largest mall in the world if completed. As of 2015, a project called "Triple Five China Dream" had been announced as an addition to the under-construction
Beijing Daxing International Airport. Mark Ghermezian founded
Appboy, a mobile marketing automation company based in
New York City, in 2011. He has raised millions in venture capital investments from family members and Triple Five. The company, now known as
Braze, advertises that it serves 420 million mobile users.
American Dream projects (2011–present) in 2009, before Triple Five ownership On April 29, 2011, Triple Five took ownership of the unfinished Meadowlands Xanadu mall in
East Rutherford, New Jersey, which had been under construction since 2004. The company had previously attempted to develop the site, having made a proposal for "MeadowFest America" in 2002 before construction on Meadowlands Xanadu began. The project was renamed American Dream, placing it under a brand that had previously been used for the Silver Spring project. As with many of Triple Five's projects, the company has requested significant public funding to build American Dream Meadowlands, and has received hundreds of millions of dollars from the state of New Jersey to finish the project. The mall opened on October 25, 2019. The American Dream megamall posted $59.4 million in losses for 2021, and $254.4 million in losses in 2022. In November 2022,
JPMorgan Chase gave Triple Five a four-year extension on repaying over $1.7 billion in construction borrowings. Triple Five announced plans for
American Dream Miami in 2015, a project in
Miami-Dade County, Florida which would become the largest mall in the United States if built. As of May 2018, the proposal for American Dream Miami has been approved by local authorities, but construction on the mall has not yet begun, pending regulatory approval. In 2022, Triple Five Worldwide LLC was sued in federal court for allegedly distributing counterfeit bottles of
hand sanitizer containing potentially unsafe levels of
methanol at the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic, which unlawfully used the "Urbane Bath & Body" trademark of an unrelated company. Several members of the Ghermezian family have been implicated in the lawsuit. In February 2026, a jury returned a verdict against two members of the Ghermezian family and multiple business associates. ==Properties and businesses==