Bal Harbour Shops' West Shops Expansion Lands L'Agence, Toteme Ahead of Q3 Debut

• Bal Harbour Shops is preparing to open the first portion of its West Shops expansion, roughly 200,000 square feet of new retail, in the third quarter of 2026.
• The build-out is backed by a $740 million loan Whitman Family Development closed with Blackstone in December 2024, refinancing $550 million in prior debt.
• L'Agence, Toteme and Peserico are first-time arrivals; Prada, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Brioni are enlarging existing stores.
• A separate 600-unit residential and hotel proposal for the same site remains tied up in litigation with the Village of Bal Harbour, with the Florida Attorney General backing the developer.

Bal Harbour Shops is preparing to unveil the first portion of its West Shops expansion, the biggest physical addition to the 61-year-old center since it first opened. Whitman Family Development is targeting a third-quarter 2026 opening for roughly 200,000 square feet of new retail on the west side of the 9700 Collins Ave. property, pushing the center toward Biscayne Bay.

The Financing

The build-out runs on a $740 million loan Whitman closed with Blackstone in December 2024, a combined refinancing and construction loan that retired $550 million in debt the family had carried since 2019, which itself had replaced a $150 million SunTrust loan from 2018. The new financing carries a floating rate. At the time the loan closed, the existing center ran about 500,000 square feet and was 98% leased across 110 tenants; Whitman has since described the property as full with a waiting list, generating $2,000 to $3,000 in annual sales per square foot. Renderings of the West Shops portion are credited to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Who's Moving In

L'Agence, Toteme and Peserico are entering Bal Harbour Shops for the first time. A cluster of existing tenants, Akris, Isaia, Graff, Bottega Veneta, Zegna, Zimmermann, The Webster, David Yurman and Etro, are relocating within the center to right-sized spaces, while Prada, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Brioni are enlarging their current footprints rather than moving.

On the dining side, two openings have already landed inside the existing building ahead of the broader West Shops opening: Stephen Starr's Slim's Steakhouse opened March 17 in the former Makoto space on Level 3, and Jeffrey Chodorow's China Grill reopened June 9 in the former Le Zoo space with hours extended through midnight.

The Residential Fight Next Door

Whitman has also proposed a separate 600-unit residential and hotel project on the same site, three towers up to 275 feet with a 70-room boutique hotel, using Florida's Live Local Act to designate 240 units, 40% of the total, as workforce housing for 30 years. That plan is not part of the retail build-out now under construction, and it remains contested: Whitman sued the Village of Bal Harbour in January 2024 over the village's handling of the application, the Village Council rejected a scaled-back settlement (one 297-foot tower and two 225-foot towers with 180 units) in late April 2026, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has since filed a brief backing the developer's position. The case is headed toward trial with no resolution date set.

Elsewhere in South Florida

Bal Harbour's expansion lands alongside a broader run of South Florida openings. José Andrés is reopening Bazaar Meat at the Andaz Miami Beach this October, three years after his SLS South Beach location closed. Rusty Pelican's owner, Specialty Restaurants Corp., is opening a 9,600-square-foot Sweetwaters this fall inside Fort Lauderdale's Huizenga Park, which held its own ribbon-cutting in January after a $15 million redevelopment. PGA Tour Superstore is relocating its Delray Beach store to a 37,000-square-foot location on Linton Boulevard, opening September 19. Chef Michelle Bernstein and bar veterans Naren Young and Dan Binkiewicz are opening Zebra Club inside Miami Beach's Townhouse Hotel in September, and fitness chain Pvolve has signed its third Florida studio, in Coral Gables.

What's Next

West Shops is still targeting a Q3 2026 opening for its first portion. The residential and hotel proposal has no construction timeline and now moves toward trial after the village's April rejection of a settlement.