I Hope it happens.

SFBJ now posted an article on the plan this morning:

Commercial neighborhood planned for Miami's Design District


Miami Herald:

Plan details vision for Design District retail development

The Atlantic Cities:
The Death and Life of Downtown Shopping Districts



Miami's Design District. Image courtesy Flickr user Bob B. Brown
Consider Miami’s Design District. A decade or so ago the idea of creating a high-end retail destination in the Buena Vista neighborhood would have seemed laughable. Just a mile or so north of the city’s financial and economic core, the 18 square blocks between North 36th Street and North 43rd Street, West First Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard was a somnolent district that almost no one but professional designers ever went to. Some of the surrounding neighborhoods were high-crime studies in blight, places to be driven through quickly with the doors locked.

Downtown Miami building two miles south of Miami's Design District. Photo taken in 1991. Via Library of Congress.
But starting in the late 1990s, Craig Robins, a founder of Design Miami and the lead developer at DACRA, began acquiring properties. Within a few years, the neighborhood had regained its status as a leading center for architectural and interior design, with more than 100 galleries and showrooms. Gradually, Robins was able to attract upscale design shops as well, such as Luminaire, Kartell, Capellini, Ligne Rosset, Vitra, and Jonathan Adler among others, and high-end fashion brands such as Marni, Christian Louboutin, and Tomas Maier.

Atlas Plaza, where Michaels Genuine Food and Drink is located. Image courtesy Flickr user Bob B. Brown
Drawn by its great spaces and reasonable rents, a host of destination restaurants opened in the district—first Michaels Genuine Food and Drink in 2007, then Michelle Bernstein’s Sra Martinez, Harry’s Pizzeria, and Fratelli Lyon Driade, to name just a few.

A storefront at Bal Harbour Mall. Image courtesy Flickr user achimh
Last year, Robins and his partners turned the corner when they were able to convince the Bernard Arnault’s LMVH group, whose luxury brands include Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Cartier, and Christian Dior, to leave the Miami area’s most established high-end suburban mall, the Shops at Bal Harbour, and relocate to the Design District as well.
Arnault and LMVH are trying out a new model for retail—embedding their brand destinations in the core of a rapidly reviving city. The first stores plan to open this summer.
Miami, of course, is much more of an international watering hole than most cities of its size; it has more than its share of the LMVH demographic. But retailers had served them out in the exclusive suburbs where they lived, or near their vacation condos and houses in and around South Beach. They hadn’t tried to entice them back into the old city.
Just a mile or two from Miami’s economic and financial hub and a couple of miles from South Beach, the Design District is actually much more centrally located than the Shops at Bal Harbour or the suburban malls in Coral Gables and Adventura. It’s easier to get to and there’s much more to do once you arrive.

Design District's Oak Plaza. Photo courtesy DACRA/Corey Weiner.
DACRA recently announced plans to extend one of the Design District’s most architecturally appealing streets, Plumer’s Alley, all the way through the district, creating a pedestrian mall, anchored by department stores at either end. Instead of a food court, shoppers will be able to eat at some of Miami’s best restaurants. Instead of generic and manufactured charm, they can experience some of the most interesting architecture in the world, old and new, classic and cutting edge. It is a case study of how to create or recreate a real urban shopping experience.
Some might say that Miami’s success in luring high end shopping back into the inner city portends little if anything for harder-hit small and medium-sized cities that don’t have Miami’s global influx of wealthy part-time residents and tourists. But they haven’t considered just how bold LMVH’s experiment is. They are moving their shops out of one of the most affluent, if notthe most affluent malls in the country, into an urban center which is essentially untested.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/ar...th-and-life-downtown-shopping-districts/1925/

This is the time for shopping in miami again.

Looks like exmiami was first to report this news!

Miami herald now has more on this:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/04/2832902/developer-unveils-project-to-transform.html

DACRA is developing the project in partnership with L Real Estate, a Paris-based investment fund backed by French luxury giant Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.

“Miami needed more retail infrastructure for luxury brands,” said Mathieu Le Bozec, managing partner of L Real Estate.

LVMH is bringing its namesake Louis Vuitton to the Design District, as well as another 11 of the company’s brands including Christian Dior, Fendi, Bulgari, Pucci, De Beers, Celine and Marc by Marc Jacobs. Cartier is one of 10 Richemont brands committed to opening in the district, along with a growing list of luxury tenants that includes Hermes, Zegna, Tom Ford and Burberry. Some will be opening in temporary spaces this year.

Posted on Thu, Jun. 07, 2012
Design District makeover gets preliminary nod from Miami’s planning board

By Andres Viglucci
The Miami Herald
Miami’s planning, zoning, and appeals board on Wednesday unanimously endorsed developer Craig Robins’ ambitious plan to create a mini-Lincoln Road Mall in the heart of the Design District, part of his strategy to turn the once-dormant neighborhood into an ultra-high-end retail destination.

In two 9-0 votes, the board recommended that the City Commission approve land-use changes and Robins’ proposed “special area plan,” which covers 51 Design District properties controlled by his development company, DACRA. Those holdings, though not contiguous, comprise more than 60 percent of the district.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/06/2837161/design-district-makeover-gets.html

SFBJ has a nice slideshow of the design distict and plans:
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflo...2/06/design-district-transformation-into.html

You can see demolition work going on for the new department store. Is it Bergdorf Goodman?

Wynwood grows in popularity

It's one of the hottest neighborhoods in Miami


http://www.local10.com/news/Wynwood-grows-in-popularity/-/1717324/15155460/-/mshwopz/-/index.html

langbro, why do you think it's Bergdorf Goodman?