Bal Harbour Shops has been a high-end fashion destination for quite a while. It is such a stalwart in fashion as to become a Miami Beach luxury brand on its own. Now, its owner is taking their “shopping center as opulent destination” concept out for a spin – along with some select tenants.
The new Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-up is a dramatic upgrade from your typical pop-up store. It’s essentially a 17,000 sq. ft. traveling mini-mall, complete with a curated collection of 10 luxury boutiques. Tiffany & Co., Dolce & Gabbana, Christofle and Etro are a few of the select brands. The experience also includes a 150-seat restaurant called The Whitman.
After debuting at North Hills in Raleigh last November, the Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-up opened March 8 for an eight-week run next to The Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota, Florida.
After spending a portion of May in Walton County, Florida, in May, this traveling experience will spend August in Greenville, South Carolina, in August. The strategy of minimizing downtime between locations creates the possibility of extending any of the runs beyond the standard eight to 10 weeks; also, their intent is to expand beyond four or five pop-ups each year.
What was the genesis of this luxury pop-up idea? Well, it started with a question many shopping center owners wrestle with. According to Whitman Family Development chair Matthew Whitman Lazenby, “Was there a way to make balharbourshops.com a viable source for folks who wanted to buy luxury goods online?” Of course, luxury retail brands have their their own online platforms, but what’s missing is giving consumers a collection of luxury retailers online in one spot. “The name Bal Harbour had its own strength,” added Lazenby. “Through Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-up we leverage that into a more direct-to-consumer model that would start to deliver the mission through e-commerce.”
The Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-up brings a technology-rich showroom experience to e-commerce while also delivering high-touch luxury. And it’s mobility brings luxury fashion retail to markets that don’t have a selection of luxury stores – all while promoting online shopping at Bal Harbour Shops’ website.
In bringing their concept to life, Whitman Family Development faced the challenge of developing a luxury pop-up that could be assembled, disassembled and moved. “As a real estate developer, the idea of improving someone else’s real estate and then having to leave it behind makes us want to cry,” said Lazenby. The solution came in the form of 30 shipping containers. Whitman Family Development hired LOT-EK Architecture & Design, with a track record of designing shipping container projects around the globe.
The Access Pop-up shops surround a lush outdoor garden designed to replicate the center court at Bal Harbour Shops. “The buildings themselves are meant to melt away so all you really should experience are the stores, merchandising and the serpent garden atmosphere that we’ve created,” added Lazenby.
“The concept is great. It gives you an experience and just shows you how retail is evolving,” said Taubman Co. vice president of specialty leasing Lori McGhee-Curtis. Although luxury brands have used pop-ups to test new markets or debut new lines, the idea of a collection of luxury brands traveling together as a branded experience is innovative, she added. The Mall at University Town Center, which is a joint venture between Taubman and Benderson Development, welcomed the pop-up to complement its existing retail. While McGhee-Curtis expects the mall to benefit from cross-shopping, she also hopes some luxury brands will find Sarasota’s strong base of luxury customers may warrant a permanent location.
The Customer Experience
Whitman Family Development hopes their Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-up will strengthen Bal Harbour Shops’ brand, while expanding their reach into new markets, ultimately acquiring new customers. “It’s very much about customer acquisition, and as we had these conversations with our tenants, many of them felt similarly,” said Lazenby. The company is bringing the pop-up to markets where there are prospective customers, high-net-worth individuals who have no easy access to luxury.
Sarasota residents who want to shop luxury stores like Gucci and Tiffany have to drive to Tampa or Naples. “Those types of markets have untapped potential to welcome new customers into the ecosphere for both Bal Harbour Shops and for all of the participating brands,” said Lazenby. “So it’s as much about how many customers they acquire as it is how much they sell.”
The pop-up is open to the public, but to enter, people must join the loyalty club and download the Access app to enter. Whitman Family Development also recognized the need to
Pairing high-tech with high touch, Whitman Family Development also pairs each customer with a personal shopper when they arrive. Most of the merchandise is for display and thus would be shipped, but retailers carry select items for take-home purchase. Customers also earn rewards for their spending.
“We expected our participating brands to be most excited about this idea of acquiring new customers in new markets — and most of them were — but many of them were equally excited about this as a way to delight existing highly valued customers,” said Lazenby. The pop-up allows the retailer to interact with VIP customers with an in-person experience without the investment of having a local store. Additionally, the pop-up hosts almost daily events, from live music to private parties to charity fundraisers.
In addition to serving the traditional luxury shopper, the Access Pop-up also connects with the aspirational shopper. “We’ve seen that aspirational shopper growth since COVID,” said McGhee-Curtis. “This gives the young teen who maybe wants some Golden Goose shoes that opportunity to go in and make that big purchase.” Consumers also are mixing and matching luxury and value. They might have a luxury handbag or luxury shoes, and then they pair that with a T-shirt from H&M or jeans from Zara.
Whitman Family Development analyzes how many loyalty members sign up at a location and tracks their ongoing spend. “We hope to continue to service these customers in these markets after we’ve left,” said Lazenby.
In addition to some traditional high-end brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, Bal Harbour Shops also has luxury brands like Golden Goose, Orlebar Brown, Gianvito Rossi and Balmain Paris. Including stores that aren’t household-name luxury brands most people have heard of gives a bit more of a destination feel to the experience. “They have such different types of luxury retailers, even some that we don’t have at our International Plaza property in Tampa,” said McGhee-Curtis.
“We also have over 110 stores at Bal Harbour, and all of those stores and all of the product within them is available wherever the pop-up goes,” said Lazenby. “We want to make sure that they’re aware that just because a particular brand that we have at Bal Harbour isn’t here, we can still get [customers] what they want there.”
The Retailer Experience
The Access Pop-up can accommodate 10 participating retailers at a time. After four weeks, a majority rotate out and a new group comes in for the second half of the run. The refresh gives customers a reason to come back. Tiffany & Co. is one brand that has signed on for each location for the full eight weeks.
Brands participate in the pop-up via sponsorship agreements. Some choose to operate with their own managers and sales teams. Other retailers have their own visual merchandising specialists set up the store, and Whitman Family Development provides the on-site sales team.
The Landlord Experience
Bal Harbour Shops wants to work with landlords who view the pop-up not as a complement, not a competitor. “We’re working to bring luxury to [Sarasota], so this will give the customers a taste of it,” said McGhee-Curtis. It also has the added benefit of allowing luxury brands to test each market. She noted the Sarasota location is the perfect opportunity for The Mall at University Town Center’s leasing team to talk to the brands about opening permanent stores there.
“I really think we’re onto something here with trying to unlock the potential of e-commerce and seeing it as an amenity to bricks-and-mortar and not a competitive threat,” said Lazenby. “There’s a solution that we’re still fine-tuning, but it’s really exciting and I think the future is bright for these types of concepts.”