The biggest malls in America, from the troubled American Dream mall to Florida's alligator-shaped shopping center

Palisades Center in West Nyack, New York, opened in March 1998. The four-level shopping mall has 225 stores and 16 sit-down restaurants inside. It also has guest attractions like a bowling alley, ice rink, and indoor ropes course. 

Palisades Center offers 2 million square feet of leasable store space and is owned by EklecCo NewCo LLC, a division of Pyramid Management Group.

Mortgage lender Wilmington Trust is now looking to foreclose on Palisades after EklecCo failed to pay back a $418.5 million loan from 2016 in full, Patch reported last month. Wilmington Trust has filed suit against Pyramid asking the New York Supreme Court to have mall tenants pay rent to the firm directly until Palisades Center is put up for sale.

Sawgrass Mills mall opened to the public in October 1990. At 2,327,642 square feet, it is the largest single-story outlet mall in the US. The mall is also famously designed in the shape of an alligator.

The Simon Property Group-owned property is based in Sunrise, Florida, and houses over 300 outlet stores, from Balenciaga and Michael Kors to Adidas and Nike factory stores. 

The Miami Herald reported in January that six new stores have opened at the mall already this year, with more coming by the end of 2023. 

Correction April 7, 2023: An earlier version of this story incorrectly mentioned two attractions at the Sawgrass Mills mall. The mall does not have a water park or ice skating rink. 

Only slightly bigger than Sawgrass Mills at 2,344,758 square feet is Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, New York. 

The shopping mall has 257 stores, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's. In addition, located inside the mall is Glowgolf and an AMC movie theater. Residence Inn by Marriott and Hyatt Place hotels are also available at Roosevelt Field for shoppers looking to spend the night. 

Simon Property Group is the owner of Roosevelt Field mall, which it acquired 25 years ago. The property first opened to the public in 1956. 

Destiny USA, owned by Pyramid Management Group, opened in October 1990 in Syracuse, New York. 

At 2.4 million square feet, the mall houses 250 stores, including restaurants for shoppers to visit. Over a dozen entertainment options are also available inside the mall, from laser tag to a mirror maze and its famous antique carousel. 

Twenty-six million guests visit Destiny USA every year, according to its website. A new Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel at the mall is available, as well, after a long day of shopping.

Ala Moana Center in Honolulu is the world's largest open-air shopping mall, according to its website. 

Spanning 2.4 million square feet, the mall has 239 retail stores and 116 dining options for customers. New shops opening soon at Ala Moana include Ray-Ban, Levi's, and a Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse retail location, Khon2 reported. 

In addition to classic mall entertainment options like bowling, Ala Moana also hosts free daily hula shows.

The four-story mall is owned by Brookfield Properties and first opened in August 1959.

The Galleria in Houston, Texas, opened in November 1970 and welcomes 30 million visitors each year.

The mall is modeled after Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. As such, it is home to many luxury retailers, including Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Versace.

Overall, there are 319 stores and over 60 dining options for shoppers to choose from. The shopping center, owned by Simon Property Group, has 2.4 million square feet of leasable retail space.

Located outside of Los Angeles in Torrance, California, Del Amo Fashion Center mall clocks in at over 2.5 million square feet. 

The mall, which is also owned by Simon, is home to more than 250 stores, including Coach and Tesla, as well as restaurants like Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung. True to its Southern California locale, Del Amo Fashion Center is dotted with palm trees and its own living wall, according to its website. 

And soon, residents will be able to live where they shop. The Torrance City Council approved plans in March to turn a parking lot adjacent to the mall into a 200-unit apartment complex, The Real Deal reported.

South Coast Plaza — located in Orange County, California — is home to over two dozen restaurants and 250 boutiques, including luxury retailers like Gucci, Dior, and Balenciaga.

The 2.8 million-square-foot shopping center currently sits where the Segerstrom family once farmed lima beans, a business the family built into an agricultural empire. The Segerstroms later opened South Coast Plaza, in March 1967, with 70 stores, including Sears as an anchor tenant — the mall celebrated its 55th anniversary in 2022. 

More than 20 million people visit South Coast Plaza every year, according to its website. 

South Florida's Aventura Mall spans 2.8 million feet and houses over 300 retailers, including Louis Vuitton, Hermés, Lacoste, Nike, and more. 

The mall, which is situated between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, is home to more than 20 works of art, including the interactive Rainbow Valley Playground for kids and the Aventura Slide Tower, a 93-foot-tall working slide created by artist Carsten Höller. 

Aventura Mall is owned by Turnberry, which also operates two other Florida-based shopping centers. 

Simon-owned King of Prussia mall is the nation's third-largest mall at 2.9 million square feet. 

Opened in 1963, the mall serves the greater Philadelphia region. In 2016, it expanded by an additional 155,000-square feet, including 50 new retail and dining locations. These days, King of Prussia is home to over 450 shops and restaurants like Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Maggiano's Little Italy, and more. 

The mall recently announced that seven new stores would be opening in the near future, including Balenciaga, Uniqlo, and Guy Fieri's Chicken Guy eatery. 

American Dream, situated in New Jersey's Meadowlands Sports Complex, is second only to its sister mall, Mall of America, in square footage. Spanning roughly 3 million square feet, American Dream currently houses over 100 stores, including Apple, Saint Laurent, and Saks Fifth Avenue, according to its website.

But the mall bills itself as being more than a shopping destination. American Dream is home to the nation's largest indoor theme park and largest indoor water park, a giant ferris wheel, indoor mini golf, a mirror maze, an ice rink, indoor skiing, and a wave pool.

American Dream was a multibillion-dollar project more than 20 years in the making, but it opened in October 2019, just months before the pandemic hit and shut down shopping centers across the country. Since then, the mall has struggled to make its debt payments. In early March, the borough of East Rutherford filed suit against the mall's owner, Triple Five Group, over its refusal to make over $7.5 million in payments. 

Opened in 1992, Mall of America is the nation's largest mall at more than 5.6 million square feet. 

Located outside Minneapolis, Mall of America draws 40 million visitors each year to its more than 520 shops and restaurants. Mall of America also boasts attractions beyond shopping, including a Nickelodeon theme park, an immersive Crayola Experience, an aquarium, and a flight simulator. 

Mall of America's owner, Triple Five Group, used the mall as collateral for its other US megamall, American Dream, and lenders including JPMorgan reportedly seized a minority stake in Mall of America in 2021 amid American Dream's financial troubles.