Updated 5:40 p.m. ET on Nov. 2
Bal Harbour Shops, among the nation's toniest and most productive shopping centers, has finally completed its highly anticipated, two-level, 200,000-square-foot expansion, bringing a total of 30 new luxury shops and restaurants to the venue in the coming weeks and months.
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Khaite, Boucheron, Tom Ford, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Eden Gallery, Moorer, Elie Saab, Messika, and Paul & Shark are opening in the new wing, called the West Shops, on a rolling basis beginning this month and through next year.
Additionally, the expansion enabled several brands to enlarge their existing space or relocate to larger spaces in the West Shops, including Saint Laurent, Roger Vivier, Bottega Veneta, David Yurman, Zegna, Pomellato, Santoni, Graff, Rene Caovilla, Loro Piana, Etro, Jacob & Co., The Webster, Zimmermann, Golden Goose, Vilebrequin, Elisabetta Franchi, Scanlan Theodore and Ermanno Scervino.
Toteme and Peserico just opened shops in the older section, known as the East Shops, while Lululemon and Simkhai expect to open in 2027, followed by other brands in 2028.
"This is a big deal. We're growing from an existing position of strength while protecting the qualities that made Bal Harbour Shops distinctive for more than 60 years," said Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and chief executive officer of Whitman Family Development, owner of Bal Harbour Shops, citing its three generations of family management. "Our customer wants more than product. They want discovery, service and hospitality, and it's really always about the experience and creating that emotional connection."
The project, backed by a $740 million loan secured by Whitman Family Development, has been decades in the making and had been stalled by community opposition, entitlements, complicated construction plans and the pandemic. With the addition, Bal Harbour Shops grows to 600,000 square feet, and fortifies its offering of many of the world's most extravagant and coveted designer brands and white tablecloth dining.
"Every project has some sort of significant hurdle," Lazenby said. "Sometimes it's coming up with a viable plan. Sometimes it's financing. There's lot of things it can be. But ours has always been getting the entitlements. The Village of Bal Harbour is a small, mature community. There's not much brownfield or greenfield development happening. In communities like this, there's often a fear of change, a not-in-my-backyard, NIMBY-ist attitude. We had to overcome that to get the community to allow us to spend our own dollars improving our own real estate. It was way more of an uphill battle than it should have been."
Bal Harbour Shops, located at 9700 Collins Avenue in Miami, also had to relocate a Congregational church on the property, which wasn't easy. The center had to get the congregation to agree to sell the property, then demolish and rebuild it nearby. "That was literally a 40-year negotiation, across multiple generations, but finally we came to a deal," Lazenby said. "They have a beautiful new church in Bay Harbor Islands." A new parking garage was built where the church was, replacing an old garage demolished for the expansion.
Lazenby is the grandson of the late Stanley Finch Whitman, the visionary developer and owner of Bal Harbour Shops, which opened in 1965 on the site of a former World War II barracks. He saw the potential in luxury long before the rest of the shopping center industry by bringing chic Fifth Avenue retailers to Miami Beach and creating a lush, tropical, open-air setting for them with upscale restaurants, palm trees, valet parking and concierge service. He sensed Miami as a tourist destination would only grow, and that tourism and luxury would be a potent combination.
From the get-go, Whitman had plans for vertical and horizontal expansion, which he executed strategically during his lifetime. "Even in the '60s, the buildings that exist today were designed to go to three levels. We added an upper level in the '80s after Neiman's and Saks joined us," and a subsequent third level, essentially on half of the property, Lazenby said.
When it's all done, the shopping center that existed prior to the expansion will be three stories of retail with rooftop parking. The expansion has two levels of retail and parking above, though the city agreed to allow one parking level to convert to retail in the future.
"With Waymos and other autonomous vehicles, at some point we're not going to need as many parking spaces, and we have a ton of bicycle parking. We have customers arriving on bicycles, and more than 100, maybe 200, employees show up every day on bicycles," Lazenby said.
The expansion was designed and landscaped to appear seamless with the older part of the center. "We don't want someone here for the first time to know the old from the new," Lazenby said. "It all feels cohesive. The idea was to do more of the same, not create a new palette."
Like the East Shops, the West Shops is lush and tropical in feel, with koi ponds and waterfalls. The buildings are white with black railings and black awnings in contrast to the greenery. "The biggest noticeable difference are the 60-year trees, which are taller than the 60-minute trees in the West Shops. But give it a few years and it'll blend in."
Restaurants are being added in the West Shops and possibly to East Shops if the additional retail level opens. "As the department store business and customers' trends and habits change, we see restaurants driving meaningful traffic. We're essentially doubling the amount of restaurants to at least eight, maybe 12," Lazenby said.
The CEO said Bal Harbour's annual sales range from $900 million to $1 billion, or between $2,000 and $3,000 a foot, and are up 35 percent since pre-pandemic. Fine jewelry and watches, ready-to-wear and restaurants are historically top performers. The average transaction is approximately $1,600.
Bal Harbour Shops' customers visit 19 times a year, on average, and stay about two hours. "As far as we know, that's the highest visitation rate among our competitive set," Lazenby said. Sales through August this year are up 4 percent, which in this economy and market is "a win," Lazenby said. "We would be up higher except jewelry is down 8 percent, but that's almost singularly attributed to one massive sale last year at Graff that wasn't duplicated this year. In a shopping center like this, a year-ago transaction can skew the numbers."
Lazenby doesn't provide specifics on shopper traffic. "Stanley always told prospective tenants concerned about traffic counts, 'If you want to see people, go to China.' We don't brag about having tens of millions of visitors. We brag about having a very serious shopper who knows what she wants and spends a lot of money on an annual basis with us." Lazenby said at least half of the visitors are either international tourists or those with second homes in the Miami area.
Litigation with Saks Fifth Avenue regarding uncollected rent since the pandemic is ongoing. In several cities, including St. Louis, Las Vegas and Chicago, Saks closed, while Neiman's in the same market stayed open. In Bal Harbour Shops, both Saks and Neiman's continue to operate, at least for now.
Plans for Bal Harbour Shops call for adding approximately 500 residential units at market and more affordable rates, a hotel and another tower. Through the Live Local Act, Florida is trying to entice employees to live closer to their work to limit traffic. Many Bal Harbour workers live far from work because they can't afford to live closer.
For the present, Lazenby said the West Shops, "is the most significant expansion that we've ever made. Humility aside, I'm giving my grandfather, Stanley Whitman, credit here. He created a shopping center that was exclusively dedicated to high-end fashion brands. It was unheard of at the time."
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