http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11793104.htm

DEVELOPMENT

Sales and the city

Amid the condominium boom, a second big-box retail project is approved for construction in downtown Miami

BY MATTHEW HAGGMAN

mhaggman@herald.com

For years, Miami residents have had to drive south to Kendall or north to Aventura to shop at big-box retail centers with stores like Target or Best Buy. Now the city is set for two such developments.

The newest, a five-story complex located blocks from the under-construction Performing Arts Center, received final approval last week from city officials. Plans for the project -- called Bayview Market -- include 24 residential units wrapped around 580,000 square feet of space for four large retailers along with smaller, ground-floor shops.

If built, Bayview Market could transform Miami from a city with virtually no large-scale retailers to a municipality with potentially too many. A large big-box retail project is currently already under construction at Midtown Miami, a development on the former Buena Vista Rail Yard.

Set to go on a vacant eight-acre parcel along Northeast Second Avenue between Northeast 17th Street and the City of Miami Cemetery, the project will test whether an edgy, underdeveloped Miami neighborhood just becoming revitalized with new condos can attract and support large retailers.

Hmm, seems like a good idea, however I believe the two developments might be too close to each other. Hopefully I am wrong but, i do not believe that the area can support this yet and we need to wait and see how downtown materializes first. Otherwise, it may turn into our next Omni Disaster.

its a gamble... hope it pays off... itll take from residents of downtown, brickell, the pac district, design district, wynwood, edgwater, and itll draw people from the beach, so its not like theres a small amount of people, but whether or not there are enough is questionable... if the boom continues, then they wont have a problem...

if the urbanites take to the big box stores the way the sub-urbanites have, then i'm sure they'll be fine. wouldn't surprise me at all if they end up putting more big box stores downtown somewhere in the future, like in brickell.

i mean, if manhattan is starting to get them, anywhere can.

Wouldn't this be close to the streetcar line as well? You could hit up both big-box plazas on the same trip.

Hmm, seems like a good idea, however I believe the two developments might be too close to each other. Hopefully I am wrong but, i do not believe that the area can support this yet and we need to wait and see how downtown materializes first. Otherwise, it may turn into our next Omni Disaster.Note that there is major distinction between developments north of the Metromover and those within the "brackets" of the Metromover. The major distinction being that the Metromover exists now.
If you have ever taken it for a ride, starting at the Four Seasons Brickell and ridden the MM through the CBD to the Omni Station you will note that the highest paying jobs within 50 miles are all located within the brackets of the Metromover. Whether you are a diamond broker, judge, banker, cruise ship company, attorney, real estate tycoon, etc.
The street cars are speculative...I'll cross my fingers and wish it the best, but the Metromover is, the river walk is, and the Mary Brickell village is.
The developers of the big box at 17th street are counting on the 10's of thousands of people that will live in the CBD, Brickell, Miami River, Park West Area...none of those people will ever need to go north of "the brackets" of the Metromover (no matter what the glossy Ocean Drive advertisements try to persuade you into believing).

There's a guaranteed market for at least two massive developments anyway.

Contractually, Best Buy and Circuit City will NEVER tolerate the other's presence in the same plaza, and will demand exclusivity as a condition for signing the lease. Ditto for Barnes & Noble and Borders, Publix and Winn Dixie, Home Depot and Lowes, Office Max and Office Depot, Target and Wal-Mart, Ballys and LA Fitness, Marshall's and Ross, and the rest.