$600M Village of Merrick Park Opens

MIAMI-The 435,000-sf, $600 million Village of Merrick Park, including Miami’s first Nordstrom, has opened in Coral Gables, FL.

All of the retail space is rented out, and about 50% of all the stores are open for business. By the holiday season, 85% of all of the upscale retail center’s stores are expected to be open.

The Village of Merrick Park has 60 retailers and will have an additional 25 by the end of the year. Eight tenants are making their U.S. debut there. In addition, 35 stores are opening their first Miami-area locations in the center. These include designer clothing boutiques Faconnable, Jimmy Choo, Burberry and Loro Piana.

The Rouse Co., the 63-year-old, Columbia, Md.-based developer of the retail center, refused to disclose the specific rental range there, but industry sources estimate rents at $35 to $50 per sf, plus 5% per year on all gross sales. Retail rents are always a function of volume, and the Village of Merrick Park is a high-end center in an affluent area.

New York-based IBEX Construction built the approximately $30 million, 200,000-sf Nordstrom, the retailer’s third Florida store. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are the anchor tenants in the open-air mall. Neiman Marcus has six Florida locations, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

The mall is the retail component of the planned project, including 110,000 sf of office space and 120 residential units.