Top of the world: malls come and go in South Florida, but Stanley Whitman's Bal Harbour Shops remains the region's—and the nation's—top player in sales per square foot. just how does he do it? - Retail - chief executive officer

South Florida CEO, Jan, 2003 by J.P. Faber

A recent event at Bal Harbour Shops illustrates the mall's trademark luster of trendiness and exclusivity. Patrons were invited to the opening of a newly expanded Hermes store, where they could see a rare Birkin handbag. Despite an immediate clamor for the fashion accessory, it was not yet for sale. "It was flown in specially for the evenings," says Bal Harbour Shops marketing director Cheryl Stephenson. "It went to the first lucky couple the next morning. They arrived early." Price tag: $5,000.

Staying on the cutting edge of fashion is tough for any retailer in glittery South Florida. In the case of Bal Harbour Shops, its tenacious hold on high-end retailing borders on the fantastic. Thirty-seven years after its opening, Bal Harbour remains not only South Florida's top shopping center in terms of sales per square foot, but the nation's as well. At $1,350 in sales per square foot, according to Woman's Wear Daily, only the Forum Shops in Las Vegas even comes close.

The success of the center -- and in many ways the success of Bal Harbour itself -- stems from one man, founder Stanley Whitman. If ever there was a Horatio Alger of retailing, Whitman is it. In 1965, when the real estate broker founded Bal Harbour, it was all but written-off by critics. Trolling New York's 5th Avenue in search of retailers, "I got kicked out of more stores than any human being in the history of the human race," says Whitman, now an extremely spry 84.

But Whitman, whose family settled on Miami Beach in 1914, was indefatigable, eventually convincing both Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue to co-anchor the unusual outdoor mall he developed from a former Army barracks and POW camp. "Nobody seemed to recognize what could be done here except for myself," he says. "It's unbelievable when you look back on it."

Right from the start, Whitman set out to create a miniature version of 5th Avenue, appealing to snowbirds from the Northeast and well-heeled international shoppers. Today the mall includes outlets for names such as Gucci, Cartier, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Sergio Rocci and Dolce & Gabbana.

Whitman's secret? For starters, he signs his tenants to only shortterm, one-year leases. "All other shopping centers, and I mean all of them, are financed on their [long-term] leases. We're financed on the value of the land, the real estate," says Whitman. "We don't look for attributes in merchants that other centers do. They are after high credit ratings, we are after quality fashion and high productivity... We don't keep the under-performing dogs hanging around."

Also important is the mall's sense of exclusivity, beginning with an expensive parking lot that helps cull the crowds. "You need to take into account the amount of each transaction, versus what a consumer spends at a traditional shopping center," says retail consultant Herbert Leeds of Miami-based Leeds Business Counseling, who considers the Whitmans (Stanley's son Randy is the leasing agent) nothing less than geniuses. "The customers that shop there want to avoid the mass attendance you typically find [in a mall]. What they find is a more polite environment."

Bruce Koniver, a partner in real estate/retail consultancy Koniver Stern Group in Miami Beach, says Whitman's success is all about sticking to their exclusive retail formula. "They are just outstanding in terms of being selective in their tenant mix. They have encapsulated in one area some of the great shopping streets around the world, from Paris, New York, London, Rome, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco."

Whitman, who also prides himself on his contributions to the City of Bal Harbour (everything from improving streets to pushing the city to landscape itself), attributes his success to South Florida's "enormous buying power."

That may be partly true, considering that the Dadeland and Aventura malls also rank among the nation's top 15 shopping centers. But it's also very much the product of a South Florida native who, as a boy, saw Lincoln Road succeed as a high-end retail center "back when Worth Avenue was a wagon trail."

As for what's next, Whitman is working on creating a high-end movie theater for Bal Harbour Shops. "We're trying to get a premiere movie house here, at $12 to $25 per ticket, with food and booze and every high-element thing you could put into it," he says. "If it isn't the finest in Florida, I won't have any interest in it."