No other mall in the entire world rolls in the dough quite like the Bal Harbour Shops. The fancy mall rakes in $2,555 per square foot, according to the latest issue of Shopping Centers Today, which means it beat out ritzy shopping destinations in the likes of London, Dubai, and New York City for the title of the world's most lucrative mall by square foot. And the competition wasn't even close.
The second-most lucrative mall was the Forum Shops in Las Vegas, which only brought in $1,750 sales per square foot. That's about a $750 difference. For reference, $300 sales per square foot is considered pretty healthy by American retail standards. $451 is considered average for shopping malls.
However, the results shouldn't come as a surprise. Bal Harbour is relatively small at under 500,000 square feet, its hasn't had a vacant store front in two decades, and all the stores there are top-of-the-line luxury boutiques.
Aventura Mall also made the list at number 15. That mall is five times bigger than Bal Harbour at 2,700,000 square feet, but still manages to pull in $1,110 in sales per square foot. A third Florida mall, the Mall at Millenia in Orlando, also came in at 10th.
Of course, both Bal Harbour and Aventura better watch their backs. They're both about to get some competition from a non-mall competitor as the Design District transforms into a luxury retail destination. Notably, many brands owned by the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton conglomerate are moving out of Bal Harbour and will open up in the Design District.
Bal Harbour however tells SCT that they plan to expand the store thanks to a land swap with a neighboring church and will add 50 more tenants. The mall also plans to see its sales per square foot push $3,000 by the end of the year.
[via Curbed]
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