As Miami Beach enters a new era of wealth, the pedestrian portion of Lincoln Road is getting the New York High Line treatment.
The city of Miami Beach hired landscape architecture and urban design firm Field Operations to transform the dated shopping district to a premier attraction on par with its vision for the High Line and similar projects worldwide. Mired by the Miami Beach Convention Center’s renovation, the Zika virus, COVID-19, disjointed landlords, and tenants concerned about construction disruptions, the $60.5 million multiphase makeover is at last on course for projected completion in spring 2028.
“We met with businesses excessively over the years block by block,” said Field Operations associate partner Isabel Castilla, who faced similar resistance when Lincoln Road transitioned from its original vehicular traffic to pedestrian with local architect Morris Lapidus’ iconic Mod follies and black-and-white “piano keys” pavement in the ’60s. “Because these businesses suffered significantly during COVID, we aren’t impacting their entrances’ concrete sidewalks by only resurfacing the black-and-white part [essentially the median] with a new nonslip coating that lasts longer.”
Based on Placer.ai-sourced location analytics, the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District reports the mall drew 8.1 million domestic visitors in 2023. Unable to track foreign data, LRBID executive director Anabel Llopis estimates more than 10 million international visitors also came last year.
Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road rendering.
Courtesy of Field Operations
More visible and expressive signage will better direct them and foster a sense of place, selfies encouraged. Field Operations’ plan further improves the user experience by restoring dilapidated follies and broken fountains and adding or upgrading amenities, including large-scale art installations, shaded seating and theater technology for the band shell. The performance venue’s adjacent Euclid Oval, a multipurpose, central attraction where crowds congregate for concerts, holiday decorations and brand activations (recently Jo Malone London and SkinCeuticals) is being reconfigured with new seating, landscaping and a contained area for children to play safely.
Drexel Avenue, which links the mall to SoundScape Park and New World Center, home of New World Symphony, will become pedestrian. Less obtrusive LED light fixtures will illuminate Lincoln Road’s overlooked architectural details and QR-coded, tropical tree specimens. Native orchids already drape trees through a collaboration with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s Million Orchid Project, while planting more shade canopy and extensive landscaping will alleviate the effects of climate change and heat emanating from paved surfaces.
More Than a Street
“Lincoln Road’s architecture and mix of national and local tenants make it a healthy organism, but it’s special because it’s also a park and botanical garden,” said Lyle Stern, cofounder of Vertical Real Estate, a retail leasing firm in Miami Beach.
The project digs deeper than aesthetics. Historic underground infrastructure including sewer and water lines will be replaced; a major component encompasses Meridian Avenue’s new gateway district, where widened sidewalks and shade trees are aimed at encouraging foot traffic between Lincoln Road and Pride Park, Miami Beach Botanical Garden and the convention center with its pending 800-room Grand Hyatt.
“We love to see [conventioneer] lanyards on the street,” said Stephen Bittel, founder and chairman of commercial real estate firm Terranova Corporation, whose headquarters relocate to Lincoln Road in September. “Conventions and New World Symphony are huge drivers of traffic, since everyone comes to eat. Restaurants and cafés are clearly the engine that drives the road, especially post-COVID.”
Though Adidas, Hoka, Luli Fama swimwear, Majorica jewelry, Miniso lifestyle, Ladurée, Oakley’s and Lululemon’s upgrades to larger spaces are among recent retail growth, the tenant mix leans heavily on hospitality. The success of newcomers like Cheesecake Factory, which signed a 20-year lease, and Mila, a rooftop hot spot above Skechers that ranked fifth on Restaurant Business Magazine’s 2023 Top 100 Independents with sales exceeding $31.2 million, has international restaurant groups set to invade with Las Vegas-level concepts.
Lincoln Road 100 block renderings.
Inspired by Mila’s formula, dining-meets-disco combination, Oro and Elixir anticipates a fall debut atop Sephora. Noble 33 Group’s Mēdüzā Mediterrania will also feature a rooftop when it opens next year. Bogotá’s Andrés Carne de Res soon imports its spectacle of steaks and late-night debauchery, while the West Coast’s H.wood Group is slated to expand its Miami presence (Delilah on the mainland) with The Nice Guy. An Art Deco gem that formerly housed a bank and Banana Republic as well as Juvia’s shuttered perch in the Herzog & de Meuron-designed 1111 Lincoln Road building are also leased.
Current rates for sales per square foot run from $150 to $250 net on Lincoln Road, with side streets fetching about half that price range, according to Bittel.
“There’s no question it’s a high street. Once it looks marvelously better after the renovation, rents will be higher than ever,” he said.
Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher cleared Lincoln Road in the early 20th century, envisioning a key piece of his utopia for the well-heeled to occupy their days with golf, polo and entertainment before world events altered its trajectory. Like the beach, Lincoln Road has been on a retail roller coaster ever since. Periods of economic downturn interject its initial heyday of Saks Fifth Avenue, Bonwit Teller and Lillie Rubin; a late ’90s upswing with the arrival of Gap, Banana Republic and multibrand contemporary boutiques, and today’s Nike, Apple, Zara and H&M.
Its rents peaked at $300 a square foot, sometimes even $400, around 2015, according to Michael Comras, president and chief executive officer of the Comras Company, a boutique real estate development and leasing firm in Miami Beach.
At a time when malls like Bal Harbour Shops and Aventura Mall ruled South Florida, fashion brands that wanted street retail there didn’t have many options beyond Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue. Comras said the streets’ proximity cannibalized the South Beach market, and high rents, exacerbated by tax increases from building sales, forged emerging areas on the mainland.
“Everybody wanted a piece of the action when Lincoln Road was at the height of its game. Now they have places like Wynwood, Miami Worldcenter and Coconut Grove,” he said, adding Lincoln Road missed out on the opportunity to offer more affordable rents by not expanding north to 17th Street. “Those boutiques and cafés ended up moving to Sunset Harbour [located northwest of Lincoln Road on Biscayne Bay].”
Riding the Miami Beach Wave
Lincoln Road’s makeover coincides with billions of dollars being poured into Miami Beach. Luxury real estate development firm SHVO’s pending projects bookend the street’s district: the Peter Marino-designed office building One Soundscape Park and the Raleigh, a Rosewood Hotel & Residences to the east, and the Alton, a mixed-use building by Foster+ Partners, to the west. Audemars Piguet soon debuts AP House in a prime space at Eighteen Sunset, a newly constructed, mixed-used development in Sunset Harbour. Whole Foods plans to open a multistory flagship nearby, while the Standard Spa, Miami Beach awaits approval for its proposed renovation and partial condo conversion designed by architect Bjarke Ingels. The CitizenM hotel recently launched on Lincoln Road’s west end, with Thompson- and Bulgari-branded properties to its north on deck.
“You only hear about our city’s problems like spring break and the unhoused, but it’s going through an amazing transition. We’re seeing better quality apparel stores and a relocation of wealth with private equity and families moving their wealth management offices here,” said Stern, citing the Rivani, which Miami-based commercial real estate investment firm Black Lion touts as its foray into “Class X” offices with ultra-luxe amenities.
Historic structures along Collins Avenue are being renovated for Aman Miami Beach, the Delano and The Shore Club Resort & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection. The owners of the neighboring Ritz-Carlton, South Beach and the Sagamore South Beach hotels formed Sobe Sky Development to partner in the oceanfront Ritz-Carlton Residences, South Beach due in 2027.
Since their hotels are surrounded by an area long in decline that deters guests from venturing out on foot, Sobe Sky Development created a master plan to turn around the east end of Lincoln Road through a public-private partnership. Sobe Sky, the city and state have contributed nearly $13 million for the 100 block’s new traffic pattern, infrastructure, lighting and landscaping, which commences in 2025. Sobe Sky further submitted a proposal to reconfigure the 200-300 blocks as pedestrian and rezone their height restrictions to add much-absent, affordable housing and generate revenue for landlords to renovate properties that cater to upscale tenants.
Lincoln Road 100 block renderings.
“We need a permanent residential base to support businesses,” said Sobe Sky Development partner Peter Kanavos, of bringing back disenfranchised people by driving down rents with new building codes that aren’t restricted by the past. “I’ve never seen a city commission as unified in tackling this problem. All of the owners on Lincoln Road know it needs a desperate shot in the arm too.”
He looks to New York, Tampa’s Hyde Park and Miami’s Brickell for inspiration. Change is already happening. Local filmmaker Harmony Korine is moving his digital IP-based studio Edglrd’s headquarters to 230 Lincoln Road with plans to eventually employ 150 people according to Miami Beach city commissioner Joseph Magazine.
“We’re excited about tech and finance, but this brings a coolness factor to the beach,” said Magazine.
