Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
Bal HarBour SHopS announced plans to collaborate on the 520,000-square-foot retail component of Brickell CityCentre. The first phase of this $1 billion complex is under construction in the financial district, with a grand opening slated for 2015. Although the move marks a new era for luxury retail in Miami, it also comes as no coincidence, given the economic resurgence the city has undergone over the past few years, says Alan A. Esquenazi, a principal at Continental Real Estate Cos., Coral Gables, Fla. Indeed, Miami's remarkable rebound helps explain why such brands as Prada and Louis Vuitton have been pushing to open stores outside of Bal Harbour of late, he says. "For a long time in South Florida, there has been a huge amount of pent-up demand for luxury retail," Esquenazi said. "As is obvious to those of us who live here, we have very wealthy 228 SCT / M a y 2 0 1 3 foreign buyers from Brazil, Venezuela, Russia and the Northeast who are coming here and spending freely on condos, cars, jewelry and expensive clothes. They are going to malls with suitcases in hand and filling them up with luxury goods." Such trends are certainly apparent at Bal Harbour itself, where tourists account for about 70 percent of sales and where stores like Bulgari, Jimmy Choo and Versace are as busy as ever. "As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2013, our business is the strongest it has ever been in our 48 years," said MiaMi MEDiaN aNNual HouSEHolD iNcoME ($) 2011 2012 2013* *project ion $47,877 $49,175 $50,140 so urce : Marcus & M il lichap Matthew Whitman Lazenby, operating partner of Bal Harbour and grandson of Stanley Whitman, Bal Harbour's 94-year-old founder. "We are doing over $2,800 per square foot. That is more than a 15 percent increase from the same time a year ago. There has just been huge growth in the luxury sector." In total, Brickell CityCentre, which broke ground in 2012, will comprise some 5.4 million square feet across a 9-acre site along South Miami Avenue, a district in which several other projects are in stages of planning and development. As Brickell CityCentre's primary developer, Swire will oversee all the nonretail components; the Whitman family will handle leasing for the ground-floor retail component, in which it is an equity investor. Although Bal Harbour Shops is a retail oasis of sorts, says Lazenby,