Michael Comras, Peter Kanavos’ Miami Beach Retail Vision

The developers of two projects at opposite ends of Lincoln Road are betting they can kickstart a major revival for the iconic Miami Beach retail corridor.

What was once the city’s most coveted pedestrian strip peaked almost 10 years ago with rents at $300 per square foot, leading to the exit or downsizing of national retailers and upscale restaurants. The corridor spent the better part of this decade trying to recover its footing, as the pandemic exacerbated challenges of high rents and changing consumer tastes.

The two developers — Michael Comras’ Comras Company and Flag Luxury Group, led by Peter Kanavos — aim to restore the pizazz that made Lincoln Road a global shopping and dining destination.

The projects aim to create a stronger sense of place, reflecting what Lincoln Road Business Improvement District president Lyle Stern called the street’s next evolution. The aim is to create destinations that connect neighborhoods and encourage locals, not just tourists, to linger, he said.

The retail strip has an 80 percent occupancy rate, not including pending leases. Miami Beach had a direct retail vacancy rate of 4.4 percent in the second quarter, according to Colliers.

But the many Lincoln Road storefronts that appear empty are actually leased and awaiting permits or tenant build-outs, Stern said. The city’s time-consuming permitting process has improved, he added.

Rents have come down from their peak to $120 to $200 per square foot, Stern said. Insurance and real estate taxes alone can cost between $30 and $70 per square foot, depending on the property, he said. And those costs are passed to tenants.

Comras Company’s NoLi district

Comras is preparing to transform a collection of properties and a service alley into a pedestrian-oriented retail district dubbed NoLi, short for North Lincoln.

The firm spent $140 million in November buying 11 storefronts from Morgan Stanley, at 600, 719–737, 741, 801–821 Lincoln Road and 723 North Lincoln Lane, taking out a $117 million loan from San Francisco-based Acore Capital.

Comras received unanimous approval from the Miami Beach Historic Preservation and Design Review Boards to turn the properties into a 150,000-square-foot boutique shopping district that includes Via NoLi, an 18-foot-wide paseo carved through the shuttered Forever 21 building at the 700 block connecting to North Lincoln Lane.

The project will transform a service alley into a pedestrian walkway featuring storefronts and expanded sidewalks with cafes and outdoor seating.

“My vision really is taking backs of buildings and creating second fronts,” Comras said. “I don’t think we should have backs of buildings, not in an urban environment. Everything should be a front.”

NoLi Plaza, with café seating and a central fountain, is also part of the plan.

Comras said the redevelopment comes with a $30 million price tag, financed through the property’s original loan from Acore. Demolition is underway as the development team works through the city’s permitting process, with full-scale construction expected to take off in September.

Retail spaces will span 400 square feet to 4,000 square feet, offering a range of boutiques, in contrast to the larger storefronts that dominate Lincoln Road and are typically occupied by national retailers such as Zara and Nike.

“That’s part of the problem with Lincoln Road and why it’s so choppy … you have a lot of big spaces, then you have some skinny little spaces in between,” Comras said. “You have 40 different property owners who cross a million square feet. Everybody has a different agenda. Everybody bought their property at different times. Some people were given the properties from their grandparents, so they have no basis. Some people bought 10 years ago and paid high prices, and then you have guys like me who come in at this point and they’re buying more at a depressed level and looking to bring it back up.”

Flag Luxury Group east end gateway

Developer Peter Kanavos’ Flag Luxury Group, which owns Sagamore and Ritz-Carlton South Beach hotels at 1671 Collins Avenue and 1 Lincoln Road, envisions remaking the east end’s gateway, at 100 Lincoln between Collins Avenue and the beach, with pedestrian-friendly public spaces, art installations and eventually a European-style plaza extending farther west to the 200-300 block.

The first phase will overhaul the 100 block, what he called the city’s primary pedestrian connection between Lincoln Road and the beach, improving safety, landscaping and public spaces.

Wider pedestrian paths, landscaping and an art walk featuring sculptures stretching from Lincoln Road to the beach are part of the plan.

It’s expected to cost $12 million, and Kanavos said the project is funded through a three-way partnership that includes about $4 million each from Flag Luxury, the state and the city.

The larger phase focuses on the neighboring 200 and 300 blocks, where Kanavos said fragmented ownership has made traditional redevelopment nearly impossible.

Because assembling the properties is unlikely, the proposal instead allocates investment into the public right-of-way.

“If you cannot use the existing properties to activate the street, use the street to activate the existing properties,” he said.

Plans call for permanently closing the roadway to traffic and constructing landscaped islands with food and beverage concepts, small retail spaces, a performance stage, chess tables, bocce courts and other public gathering areas.

Kanavos said the plans have garnered endorsements from many nearby property owners, condo associations and civic groups.

“The big problem there is money,” he said. “The city doesn’t have the money to do this right now.”

Kanavos said the project would require a combination of public and private funding rather than conventional bank financing. He doesn’t plan to file any applications with the Miami Beach commission until he gets a financial plan figured out.

He called the area between Collins and Washington avenues “the black hole” for pedestrians, and he thinks the investment would pay dividends for Miami Beach by connecting major luxury developments with a revitalized city center.

Meanwhile, Flag Luxury, Lionstone and Ben-Josef plan a 15-story, 30-unit condo tower on the property, which the developers are branding as Billionaires’ Beach.