Matthew Whitman Lazenby, whose family has owned Bal Harbour Shops since its inception 61 years ago, is in a dog fight with estranged wife, Kristin Lazenby.
Matthew is trying to block Kristin from gaining access to Bal Harbour Shops’ financial records, and he’s seeking a court order to remove a foster dog she adopted from their home in Asheville, North Carolina. Those are the latest salvos in the couple’s bitter divorce proceedings that began more than a year ago, court records show.
Kristin wants bank statements, canceled checks and general ledgers for Whitman Family Development, the entity that owns Bal Harbour Shops at 9700 Collins Avenue. She wants Matthew’s general partnership stake in the luxury mall to be considered a marital asset.
“It is unfortunate that the Bal Harbour Shops have been thrust into the Lazenbys’ divorce proceedings which were intended to be a private matter,” Matthew’s attorney Kathyrn Hamilton said in an email statement. “Mr. Lazenby’s personal involvement in this multi-generational family business predates their marriage.”
Kristin’s lawyer Paul Leinoff did not respond to requests for comment.
Bal Harbour Shops traces its origins to the late developer Stanley Whitman, who in 1957 acquired a former World War II army barracks site in the village of Bal Harbour. He created an open-air shopping center featuring designer brands in a tropical garden setting, opening Bal Harbour Shops in 1965. Whitman, who died in 2017, was Matthew’s grandfather.
Bal Harbour Shops features landscaped, breezy walkways lined with retailers such as Balenciaga, Balmain, Bvlgari, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferragamo and Prada, as well as department stores Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Whitman Family Development is renovating and expanding Bal Harbour Shops by 200,000 square feet, securing a $550 million loan in 2019 for the project. The mall owner landed a $740 million refinancing in 2024.
Tussle over Bal Harbour Shops data
Matthew is Bal Harbour Shops’ CEO and the operating general partner for Whitman Family Development, whose chairman is Randall Whitman, Matthew’s uncle. Matthew joined the family business in 2003 and rose to his current position a decade later, according to Bal Harbour Shops’ website.
He married Kristin in 2009, and they have three children, court records show. She filed for divorce on in July 2024, alleging the marriage is “irretrievably broken.”
She is seeking alimony, attorney fees and an equitable distribution of marital assets, which includes three homes, in Bal Harbour, Santa Rosa Beach and Asheville, where she lives with the three kids, her divorce petition states.
The couple has duked it out in court motions in recent months. At an October hearing over her demands to see Whitman Family Development’s books, Philip Schecter, a forensic accountant hired by Kristin’s legal team, testified that he needs to know if Matthew is signing a majority of the checks and payments for Whitman Family Development to determine if Matthew has an “active participation in the entity.”
Kristin contends in her filings that Matthew’s general partnership stake in Whitman Family Development could be considered a marital asset. Schecter explained that if Matthew is “signing hundreds of checks over a 12-year period” for Whitman Family Development that would show he’s the chief decision maker, as well as determine whether Matthew has paid himself any profit disbursements from the company.
Leinoff, Kristin’s attorney, told Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Christine Bandin, who is presiding over the case, that Matthew acquired his general partnership interest during the marriage.
Leinoff said during the hearing that he needed the information to identify what the marital interest is and what the value is, prior to conducting depositions.
Hamilton, Matthew’s attorney, pushed back. She noted Whitman Family Development was formed by Stanley Whitman and his brothers, and that Kristin had not provided proof that “marital funds” were used to acquire an interest in the company.
Foster dog caught in the fray
As Matthew tangles with Kristin over Bal Harbour Shops’ financial records, he is also seeking to kick out a recent pet addition to their Asheville household. According to a motion filed the same day as the October hearing, Matthew claimed Kristin “unilaterally fostered [a dog] on a temporary basis without the husband’s knowledge or consent, and the wife had the audacity to ‘double down’ and has now informed the Husband that she has adopted the dog.”
Matthew alleges the dog killed Lewey and Dewey, the family’s pet birds, and destroyed furniture and personal property inside the Asheville property. His estranged wife also allegedly let the foster and their two other dogs have free rein in the house.
Matthew lives in Florida 51 percent of the year, splitting his time between the couple’s homes in Bal Harbour and Santa Rosa Beach, according to court filings.
“The most recent catastrophe caused by the wife has resulted in the expensive Ipe hardwood flooring in the mudroom being destroyed,” the motion alleges. “This happened because the wife deliberately left the dog door closed, thereby preventing the family dogs from going outside to go potty.”
When Matthew returned home, he found “a minefield of dried-up excrement everywhere, including all over the floors, the walls, and the doors,” the motion states. “The wife undoubtedly left this mess to sink into the flooring overnight because she did not want to bother cleaning it, requiring the husband to spend over an hour to clean it up himself.”
Matthew wants a court order to boot the foster dog or to give Matthew sole, exclusive use of the Asheville house. In a response filed in November, Kristin accused Matthew of violating a May 2025 agreement to settle some of their temporary conflicts, including allowing both of them to stay in the Asheville house. During a deposition, Matthew confirmed that he’s “now seeking the wife’s removal from her home,” Kristin’s motion states.
A hearing on the dog and the house is set for April.