LAS VEGAS—Monday night, Cushman & Wakefield celebrated at the Four Seasons, just followings its Town Hall panel, which included panelist chef Todd English (pictured).

And according to Cushman & Wakefield's Frank Begrowicz, director of retail brokerage out of Miami, from 2010 to today, there's been a veritable explosion of opportunity in his local market.

“Market segmentation really began to take hold over the last cycle,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Driven by overall market density and quite a bit of speculative investment, smaller trade areas have emerged like Wynwood, The Design District, and South Miami, each of which have their own character and customer (although there is certainly crossover).”

These new retail submarkets are on everyone's “must-understand” list, he points out, and a retailer that once had very limited choices when it came to distribution points now has a tremendous amount of options.

This variety, he adds, “allows them to consider, very carefully, how they can best cater to their target audience and allows them to be far more precise in their expansion strategy than ever before.”

As a global tourist destination, Miami's economy is driven by the buying power of seasonal visitors, he continues. “Below the surface of our general tourism data is an often underappreciated aspect of this broad economic indicator—the 'shadow resident' to whom Miami may be a second, third or fourth home.”

And beyond their impact at the cash register, the shadow resident continues to influence commercial and residential development throughout South Florida, he says. “Much like the commonly recognized Chinatown and Little Korea neighborhoods of cities in the western US, submarkets such as Doral, Kendall and Sunny Isles are representative of the Venezuelan, Colombian and Eastern European shadow residents who influence those neighborhoods.”

And when combined with the seasonal snow birds that flock to South Florida from the northeast US during the winter months, Bergrowicz says that it is easy to see how this uptick in population can also add pressure to local infrastructure and traffic patterns. “While it has historically impacted the unit sales of retail operations, this increased density is now supporting market segmentation into smaller and smaller trade areas, which each require their own service uses and retail experiences.”

Twenty-five to 30 years ago, if you were a retailer heading into South Florida, you went to a major regional mall like Bal Harbour or Aventura, explains Bergrowicz. “Up until about 10 years ago, that was the only option. There were a few affluent residential enclaves, but not the co-tenancy you'd like to see if you're a luxury brand looking to break in. Quite simply, there were no high streets.”

But over time, however, he says that those enclaves became more and more relevant as retail centers. “Retailers, realizing the depth of the market, took a chance at street locations where there was strong (primarily tourist) pedestrian traffic, and the Collins Avenue and Lincoln Road retail corridors (and, to a lesser extent, Coconut Grove) emerged. As co-tenancy improved, these became the market's high streets.”

Hear more from experts in the next few days as we fully cover the RECon event, with thoughts not only from attendees and panelists, but coverage of sessions, parties and more.

LAS VEGAS—Monday night, Cushman & Wakefield celebrated at the Four Seasons, just followings its Town Hall panel, which included panelist chef Todd English (pictured).

And according to Cushman & Wakefield's Frank Begrowicz, director of retail brokerage out of Miami, from 2010 to today, there's been a veritable explosion of opportunity in his local market.

Hear more from experts in the next few days as we fully cover the RECon event, with thoughts not only from attendees and panelists, but coverage of sessions, parties and more.

Instant Insights /

Retailers Now Have Tremendous Options in “New Submarkets”

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