Brick-and-mortar retail isn't going obsolete, as people still crave a social experience. That's the message from Miami's own retail guru, Turnberry Associates CEO Jackie Soffer, who is in the midst of big developments in Miami.
Turnberry is redeveloping Aventura Mall with more luxury brands and creating what she described as a European-like “town center” where people would gather. Her comments came during our Miami 2016 Retail Renaissance event last week at the InterContinental. “This expansion is very much needed,” Jackie says. “We're in a very fortunate position where a lot of the brands are very interested in doing flagships at the property.”
Turnberry's second development is the outdoor lifestyle center SoLe Mia, a 180-plus-acre master planned mixed-use project with towering condo buildings and street-level retail on Biscayne Boulevard. Unlike Aventura Mall, Jackie says SoLe Mia will be focused on families, and its retail lineup will differ as well, with more experiential retailers like a movie theater, a gym and grocers. While shopping online is blossoming, projects like SoLe Mia are catering to consumers' desires to “see and be seen,” Jackie told our audience of more than 200 commercial real estate pros.
“I think brick-and-mortar is at risk in certain locations, but I also believe that people are social creatures, and they want to get out,” she says. With her work with MasterCard on some of her properties, Jackie sees that younger generation of families eat out more than half the time rather than cook at home.
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