SOUTHEAST SNAPSHOT, FEBRUARY 2005

Miami Retail Market

With a lack of new areas left for development, the trend in retail development in the Miami area is for redevelopment of existing centers in need of a facelift or repositioning.

An example of this is Hawks Crossing at U.S. 441 and Wiles Road in Coral Springs, which is going through a repositioning and redevelopment. Look for an announcement soon from LNR Property Corporation with plans for that development.

Another example of this is Kendall Town & Country, which is undergoing a redevelopment/re-tenanting in order to revitalize the struggling center. Kendall Town Center is planned for West Kendall, which will be a multi-use project consisting of a theater, hospital, offices, big box retailers and restaurants. The project will serve all of the new residential population that has taken place and continues to take place in the western part of central Dade County.

Midtown Miami, Miami’s first “city within a city” concept, will comprise approximately 3,000 condominium residences and 900 rental units, interspersed with street-level cafes, shops, sidewalks and benches.

The majority of development is taking place in the southern part of the county in Homestead and Florida City due to the fact there are very little land opportunities left elsewhere in the county. Most of the land has been fully developed from the water on the east to the Everglades on the west.

Active developers include Equity One, which has a new development in Homestead, and The Rouse Company, which is developing a project in West Kendall on one of the last available pieces of land. Berkowitz Development has two projects, one in South Beach and one in Coral Gables.

Panera Bread has identified its first Dade County locations for 2005 openings; Ulta Cosmetics opened its first Dade County store in Kendall; and Anna’s Linens entered the market by taking over several existing Linen Supermarket locations

Lowes and Wal-Mart are aggressively looking for sites in South Florida; look for major new developments and redevelopments to center around them. Additionally, IKEA is said to be working on a major project in Miami.

The Home Depot is taking over two former Kmart sites in Miami, one located in Coconut Grove's Grove Gate Shopping Center at 32nd and U.S. 1 and the other in Deerwood Town Center (12107 S.W. 152nd Street) just off the Turnpike in southwest Dade County.

Other major leases include DSW Shoe Warehouse, which signed leases for stores at Southland Mall and Kendall Gate Shopping Center. Also at Southland Mall, Regal Cinemas signed a lease for 75,000 square feet. The average Miami vacancy rate is 4 percent.

With the vast amount of residential development taking place between Cutler Ridge and Homestead/Florida City, look for further retail development/redevelopment to take place in the southern part of the county just north of Homestead in the currently neglected submarket of Naranja.

— Sabrina Meerbott, senior leasing associate, Continental Real Estate Companies

©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.