The Finest in Miami Luxury Shifting to a New District

October 30, 2013

If you ask any local resident of the South Florida area where you can find the best luxury products, most will give you directions to Bal Harbour Shops. For many years, this open-air mall has been known for high-end retailers. Gucci opened a boutique here back in the 1970 and since, this has been the place for luxury shopping in Miami.

However, many big-name tenants are leaving the Bal Harbour mall for a neighborhood about ten miles away. The following luxury stores are both ones that have already opened their new Design District stores, or are planing to make the move to the Miami Design District very soon:

•    Louis Vuitton
•    Cartier
•    Hermes
•    Valentino
•    Fendy
•    Harry Winston
•    Giorgio Armani

All of these shops have signed leases in the Miami Design District and many more are expected to follow.

About the Miami Design District

This area of the city used to be known for furniture stores, empty streets and not much else. Craig Robins is changing this neighborhood by sinking nearly $1 billion into a transformation to compete with the likes of Bal Harbour and other luxury areas. Robins is a 50-year-old real estate developer in Maim, with a passion for art and design.

After realizing Miami is the third largest luxury market in the world and nearly 100% of the luxury sales come from the Bal Harbour Shops, Robins saw an opportunity to crack into this market. Since the shops in Bal Harbour have an agreement not to open another location within a certain distance (20 miles) and many of these tenants are looking for a larger storefront, the Miami Design District is a perfect fit.

The Bal Harbour Mall is only 500,000 square feet, which is very small compared to the malls covering over two million square feet of space. This makes it hard for tenants to expand.

Miami’s luxury market is shifting and soon, many of the best high-end shops will no longer be found at the Bal Harbour Mall.