MIAMI—Bal Harbour Shops has updated its $400-million Enhancement Plan to village officials to create a high-end seaside shopping center. The goal is to allay any concerns council members had so the project can move forward.

Initial plans called for the shops to provide nearly two acres of land to the village in exchange for the one-third acre beneath the existing Village Hall. Plans also included Bal Harbour Shops funding and building a brand new Village Hall for the community.

However, Village Mayor Martin Packer and Assistant Mayor Patricia Cohen voted against the Village Hall proposal. The revised proposal would be built entirely on land already owned by Bal Harbour Shops. GlobeSt.com caught up with Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and CEO of Whitman Family Development that owns Bal Harbour Shops, to learn more.

GlobeSt.com: How will the current Bal Harbour Shops Enhancement Plan continue to keep the Shops a top luxury retail destination?

Lazenby: The uniquely intimate shopping experience that my grandfather created at the Shops more than 50 years ago has proven successful and established Bal Harbour Shops as the top luxury retail leader and, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the number one shopping center in the world. The Enhancement Plan will not reinvent the wheel or change our formula for success.

It will build on the unique, open-air experience we have already created at the Shops by offering our clients more choices, new boutique luxury retail, a variety of dining options, and improved versions of our anchor retail partners, Neiman's and Saks. Fundamentally, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse, so it is our Enhancement Plan that will ensure that we will remain the world's top shopping destination.

GlobeSt.com: The plans for Bal Harbour Shops' expansion have been more than five years in the making. Tell us about where the plan is in the process now.

Lazenby: Yes, this process has taken longer than we ever anticipated. The fact is that we were ready to move forward with the plan since very early on in this five-plus year process.

Our initial proposed plan, which included more than $127 million in economic benefits for the Village and required the approval of the Village's own residents and voters, died in a 2-2 deadlocked Village Council vote when Mayor Martin Packer and Assistant Mayor Patricia Cohen denied their own constituents the opportunity to vote on this project themselves.

Putting all that aside and looking to the future, we're determined to see this project through to completion. We submitted a revised version of the plan—without utilizing the Village Hall land that the mayor and assistant mayor suggested was the only thing preventing them from supporting our project and are awaiting a Council vote on it, probably in July. With that in mind, we're hopeful that the council will finally approve this plan and allow us to move forward to make these overdue enhancements, which are not only entirely funded by us, at no taxpayer expense, but which still create nearly $50 million in public benefit to the Bal Harbour community.

GlobeSt.com: How will the current Bal Harbour Shops Enhancement Plan continue to keep the Shops a top luxury retail destination?

GlobeSt.com: The plans for Bal Harbour Shops' expansion have been more than five years in the making. Tell us about where the plan is in the process now.

Lazenby: Yes, this process has taken longer than we ever anticipated. The fact is that we were ready to move forward with the plan since very early on in this five-plus year process.

Instant Insights /

Five Years Later, Bal Harbour Shops Still Trying to Expand

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