The Shops at Brickell City Centre in Miami is bringing in a fresh group of brands, restaurants and experiences, and moving past pandemic declines and some tenant turnover.
A 5,000-square-foot Nike Live concept store launches toward the end of the summer. Sunglass Hut and Warby Parker are expected to open before the end of this year. Psycho Bunny men’s fashion is opening within a few weeks, and last week, Azulu, a fashion brand from Colombia, opened shop.
Also coming to Miami’s downtown mixed-used complex: Puttshack, billed as “the world’s only upscale tech-infused” mini-golf course, and on the food and beverage side, New York’s Black Tap Burger; The Henry restaurant; Miu’s Tea for Taiwanese bubble tea, and Café Americano.
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Marciano, Intimissimi, Solid and Striped, and Rebag, as well as a San Francisco-based preventative health care start-up called Forward Health, are among recent additions to the Brickell City Centre mall.
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Officials at Swire Properties, developer of the $1.05 billion, 4.9-million-square-foot Brickell City Centre, told WWD that its 500,000-square-foot mall component is now 98 percent leased and on solid footing, after the five-year-old mixed-use complex experienced some growth pains and pandemic-related challenges.
“Retail turnover is part of a natural evolution any mall goes through,” David Martin, vice president of Swire Properties, said in an interview. “Very rarely does anyone get it completely right from Day One. When you put a mall out there you see who it attracts and you get to know your customers. We have a great mix of customers, and a strong local market. There is new condo development, thousands of units have been going up, and that density is only going to increase. We are two blocks from Brickell Avenue, the CBD (central business district) of Miami. And we have a captive office crowd. Occupancy rates are back up, but not quite all the way yet,” to pre-COVID-19 levels.
The three-level Shops at Brickell City Centre also draws international customers, particularly from Latin and South America, though the numbers vary with currency fluctuations and were brought down by the pandemic.
“We have a young customer, 40 percent are between 20 and 35,” Martin said. A lot of the new stores, such as Psycho Bunny, target younger audiences, he added.
Overall, the mix of fashion offerings and prices is eclectic and includes Saks Fifth Avenue, the anchor tenant; a Chanel fragrance and beauty shop; Kiton; Lafayette 148 New York; Lululemon; Victoria’s Secret, and Zara, to name a few tenants.
According to Martin, whose primary responsibility is leasing the project, Miami fared better than other major U.S. cities during the pandemic, in terms of visitors. “Domestic tourists who weren’t able to travel to New York or California opted to visit Florida and Miami. The big advantage was after the lockdown period in 2020, Miami’s reopening was progressive and didn’t reverse. Markets like New York and California flip flopped,” with changing and sometimes confusing protocols, mandates and restrictions designed to curtail COVID-19 infection rates. “Florida and Miami never reversed opening up. That helped businesses enormously,” Martin said.
Tourists, he said, could book trips with confidence that they wouldn’t have to cancel, and businesses regarded Miami as a “consistent and improving market.” That helped Martin find retail tenants and arrange leases.
Still, Florida at times during 2020 and 2021 was a hot spot for new COVID-19 cases and regarded by some as being lax on implementing health protocols. That seems behind Florida and most of the rest of the U.S. this spring, with the rate of COVID-19 cases falling way down with the exception of a few areas where upticks have been reported. A new variant of the Omicron variant is causing concern among officials, however, that a renewed outbreak could happen soon, as is being seen in some European countries.
As an open-air shopping center, The Shops at Brickell City Centre would be regarded as less risky to visit during the pandemic than enclosed malls because of the difference in air circulation, which could limit the spread of COVID-19. Generally, open-air, strip and outlet centers drew greater shopper traffic than enclosed malls during the pandemic.
“I was in Miami the whole time of the pandemic. People have the impression Florida never locked down, but there was a strict and well-observed lockdown in March, April and May of 2020. It was quiet for three months. People were not out. I don’t think Miami necessarily opened up earlier than anywhere else, though the difference was the reopening in Miami was progressive,” without fits and starts, Martin added.
With Brickell City Centre’s influx of new stores and restaurants, the mall is 98 percent leased, according to Swire.
“Having closed out 2021 with The Shops at Brickell City Centre 98 percent leased, this new and improved mix of tenants will be an exciting point of difference,” Teri Hernandez, general manager of The Shops at BCC, said in a statement.
Nike Live, the brand’s new concept based on providing locally relevant experiences and personal service and leveraging technology and digital capabilities, is moving into space previously occupied by Emporio Armani; Psycho Bunny replaces a Nest high-end home store; Warby Parker is filling the former Stuart Weitzman space, while Sunglass Hut fills the former Alex and Ani jewelry shop.
Among Brickell City Centre’s most unique feature is its $30 million, three-block long, elevated glass and steel trellis called the Climate Ribbon, which protects visitors from sun and rain. It cools the environment and collects rain water that gets recycled for irrigation and other uses. Due to the construction, the light in the center changes constantly as the day progresses and the position of the sun, in relation to Earth, shifts.
Another unique element is the Metromover station right at Brickell City Centre. Metromover is a free train service that operates seven days a week in the downtown Miami and Brickell area, taking people to the FTX Arena, where the Miami Heat basketball team plays, Bayside Marketplace and Miami Dade College. Also, the Metro Rail line stops two blocks away.
“The biggest thing is really how we are fitting into the neighborhood. Above the mall, there are two office buildings, two condo towers and the East, Miami Hotel. It’s all linked and sitting above the retail and parking. This is a true mixed-use development. It’s become very much the center for the Brickell neighborhood. Brickell was missing a significant retail presence. We really filled that gap,” Martin said.
Last year, sales were up 121 percent compared to 2019, and foot traffic was up 11 percent, he said. “We’re celebrating Brickell City Centre’s fifth anniversary by becoming better suited to serve longtime locals, newer Miami residents and our national and international visitors alike — all under the same umbrella.” Gains would be attributed to finessing the mix of retail tenants, the waning of the pandemic, people anxious to get out and shop and refresh their wardrobes after living a stay-at-home lifestyle for too long, and others just discovering the mall for the first time.