BankAtlantic Center: The arena of the middle of nowhere...

[Alexzero77]

The BankAtlantic Center is located in Sunrise, a small city with no proper downtown. Who agrees the builders/designers should have put in in a downtown area such as Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, or West Palm Beach?

[Toucano]

Thats what I was saying since it was built....

[Urban_Legend]

Because land in South Florida is such a commodity, it makes sense that it was built out in the swamp. Even though the location isn't urban, I think that it's not too late to use that immense piece of land wisely.

Perhaps parking garages, residential, office, and retail (thought the mall next door has retail coming out the Wazoo!). Make it psuedo-urban, even though it's bland, old Sunrise.

[larrysofla]

The BankAtlantic Center is located in Sunrise, a small city with no proper downtown. Who agrees the builders/designers should have put in in a downtown area such as Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, or West Palm Beach?

All that will be changing in the comming years. With the addition of Tao (2 26 story condo towers) and the expansion of the Sawgrass mills to include another outdoor shopping area (think Las Olas, only more uniform and corporate) and the plans to build more highrises in west Sunrise as part of a new downtown concept... well you get the picture. They just did things a little backwards thats all. Usually you get the city then the stadium, but in Sunrise it just worked out differently.

[95-Souf]

IMO, I like the fact that there is an arena outside of the usuall downtown or urban area. It gives tourist something else to see that normally they wouldnt when visting the area.

[Bill Mocarsky]

Maybe they were thinking of a more regional central location...accessible from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca and even Naples.

The Sawgrass area is like a gateway to urban South Florida for those arriving from the west coast.

[Urban_Legend]

^Good point. I've never really had the perspective of those that live WEST of us.

[destijl]

I'm sure that 'regional accessability' was a major consideration. The company I work for consolidated its downtown Ft. Lauderdale and Miami area offices to a location near the arena because it put everyone in the same building, yet was a reasonably easy commute from all of Miami-Dade and Broward.