8 Things to Know About the State of Miami Retail

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This week the Miami Herald published a lengthy, informative feature on the state of Miami's retail scene covering a lot of things we already knew (like the status of Brickell City Centre, Aventura's upcoming expansion, and the Design District's major retail and restaurant plan).

But the article also uncovered a few tidbits you may not have been aware of. In a nutshell, Miami is doing extremely well as far as retail goes. Vacancies are at record-breaking lows and tons of new projects are either in the pipelines or about to come out of them. Here are a few takeaways from the article:

• Sunset Place and CocoWalk were bought out last year by the same owner, Federal Realty Investment Trust, and it has lofty plans to really renovate and rebrand the properties. The article states that these renovations could cost tens of millions of dollars and include relieving their "heavy, fortress-like qualities" and immersing them better into the community, bringing in cooler and hipper local, regional, and national retail tenants and dining.

• Plantation's Fashion Mall is going to be demolished and replaced with an open air shopping center that will feature more smaller tenants and boutiques.

• American Dream Miami is probably happening, but it has yet to be given the green light by Miami Dade County.

• The average retail rate is $33 per square foot in Dade County, which is more than double the national average.

• MiMo is the fastest growing area in Miami-Dade County. Rents have risen 12 percent every year since 2011.

• Bal Harbour Shops remains one of the most lucrative shopping centers in the U.S., however owner Matthew Lazenby admits that if they had been able to expand earlier, they might have been able to hold on to the tenants they lost, including Louis Vuitton and Hermés. Their shoppers are roughly 20 percent local and 80 percent tourist.

• Aventura Mall's expansion just started, which led us to say goodbye to the foodcourt and hello to three-story extension which will include luxury shopping and better dining options. This should be completed in 2017.

• The Miami metro area has more sales per square foot ($768) than any other metro area in the U.S., including D.C. ($608), New York ($581), and LA ($566), according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.