Bal Harbour Shops lands $550 million loan for its long-awaited expansion
Bal Harbour Shops is about to get a lot bigger.
The upscale mall, located at 9700 Collins Avenue, has secured a $550 million construction loan for its long-awaited expansion, which will add 300,000 square feet of retail space to its existing 463,000 square feet. Among the new tenants: A 57,414-square-foot Barneys New York, the first flagship store of the luxury department brand in the southeastern U.S.
Although Barneys first announced it was coming to Bal Harbour in 2017, the expansion loan — one of the largest in Miami-Dade history — did not close until this week.
The real-estate firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. secured the loan from MetLife Investment Management on behalf of the Miami-based Whitman Family Development, which owns and operates Bal Harbour Shops.
As part of the expansion, the Neiman Marcus store will gain an additional 20,000 square feet. A new grand entrance on the northeast corner of the property will also be added. Other new tenants will be announced at a later date. Construction on the expansion is scheduled to be completed by early 2025.
Bal Harbour Shops opened in 1965 as the first all-star luxury fashion shopping center and operates at 100 percent capacity with a waiting list of tenants. The mall is currently home to more than 100 global brands, including Chanel, Gucci, and Tiffany & Co.
An open window that should have been closed in a water-play area caused the death of 18-month-old Chloe Wiegand on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, a Miami attorney representing the toddler’s family alleged.
“Why are you going to have this hidden danger in the middle of a kids play area?” asked Michael Winkleman of Lipcon, Margulies, Alsina & Winkleman.
Asked about the window, Royal Caribbean spokesman Owen Torres said in an email to the Miami Herald: “We are assisting local authorities in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as they make inquiries after an incident aboard Freedom of the Seas on Sunday. We do not have further information to share at this point.”
Winkleman, acting as a spokesman for the family from South Bend, Indiana, said he has talked with Royal Caribbean and wants to see as much video as possible.
“It’s more about getting answers, but there are more questions right now,” he said.
What’s not in dispute is Chloe, with her family on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas while it was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was in grandfather Sam Anello’s grasp Sunday morning before she fell 11 stories to her death. But Winkleman said Chloe’s grandfather was not dangling the child out of the window.
Chloe and Anello were in the boat’s H2O Zone, an area of hot tubs, but mostly pools, water shooters, and color schemes that beckon more to children. Columns of three window panes border two sides of the area with a wood rail running parallel to the bottom of the middle panes.
“Chloe has a 10-year-old older brother who plays hockey and she loves to bang on the glass,” Winkleman said.
Anello held Chloe on the rail and she leaned forward to bang on the middle pane. But, Winkleman said, Anello didn’t realize the middle pane was open. When Chloe threw herself forward, there was no glass, and she fell from her grandfather’s grasp.
“We’ve all seen where someone walks into glass thinking there’s nothing there,” Winkleman said. “This is the reverse of that.”
David J. Neal: 305-376-3559, @DavidJNeal