Changes En Route for Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road and Austin’s Dirty Sixth
Something new is popping up in Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road shopping district, which draws more than 10 million visitors per year. The Miami Beach City Commission has endorsed Lincoln Road as the only spot in the city allowed to host food-and-beverage pop-ups. The commission also has extended the maximum duration of retail pop-ups throughout the city from three months to as many as 12. Furthermore, pop-up restaurants and bars now will be able to occupy vacant spaces along Lincoln Road that had been rented by similar businesses.
The eight-block-long Lincoln Road pedestrian mall, designed by art deco architect Morris Lapidus, features more than 200 shops and restaurants, including Anthropologie, H&M, Lululemon and Nike. Photos above and at top courtesy of The Dana Agency
“This forward-thinking policy provides emerging businesses with the runway they need to test and scale their ideas while empowering landlords and neighborhoods like ours to bring fresh, creative energy to our commercial corridors,” said Lincoln Rd Business Improvement District president Lyle Stern.
The intersection of Sixth Street and San Jacinto Boulevard in Austin, Texas
“True Downtown Neighborhood” Taking Shape in Austin
A bar-lined stretch of downtown Austin, Texas, that locals refer to as “Dirty Sixth” is getting a face-lift. Stream Realty Partners is rehabbing seven of 31 properties it owns along the two-mile-long Sixth Street entertainment strip, which has been likened to Bourbon Street in New Orleans and Broadway in Nashville. Stream’s Sixth Street portfolio totals 200,000 square feet. The makeover, dubbed Old 6th, will involve cosmetic and business changes, Community Impact reported.
The Sixth Street redo is designed to create a “true downtown neighborhood,” Stream senior vice president of investments Paul Bodenman said. Work at the seven properties currently being revitalized is expected to wrap up by next April, and new restaurants should debut by the summer of 2026, Bodenman told Community Impact. “We want really high-quality restaurants,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be expensive, but it does mean that we want really great chefs that bring really great concepts to spread a really wide array of affordability and experience.”
Wealthy Investors Pumped $282 Billion Into Global Retail Real Estate from 2013 to 2024
A new report shows how powerful retail’s draw is for private wealth investors in commercial real estate. According to the JLL Private Wealth Tracker, retail attracted 18% of global private wealth investments in real estate from 2013 to 2024. Only office, at 30%, and housing, at 24%, bested the retail category. The total dollar amount for retail: $282 billion. The tracker indicated that wealthy investors, such as high-net-worth individuals and family offices, were particularly attracted to high street retail during the period covered by the report.
In all, private wealth investors earmarked $1.5 trillion for commercial real estate deals around the world from 2013 to 2024. The U.S. dominated, representing 40%, or $604 billion, the report said.
Retail’s Share of Global Private Wealth Investment in CRE
| 2013 | 20% |
| 2014 | 20% |
| 2015 | 23% |
| 2016 | 20% |
| 2017 | 20% |
| 2018 | 20% |
| 2019 | 17% |
| 2020 | 17% |
| 2021 | 15% |
| 2022 | 16% |
| 2023 | 18% |
| 2024 | 18% |
Source: JLL Research
Floral Arrangements Poised To Blossom as Mother’s Day Gift
Flower shops might be even more bloomin’ busy this Mother’s Day than they were last year. In the Ziff Davis Shopping Q2 Seasonal Survey, 38% of Mother’s Day gift givers indicated they’d be shopping for floral arrangements in 2025, up 5 percentage points from 2024. Floral arrangements ranked No. 1 on Americans’ shopping lists for Mother’s Day this year, the survey showed, followed by greeting cards or letters at 36% and gift cards at 35%. Mother’s Day falls on May 11 this year.
Marcus & Millichap Makes 8 Growth-Oriented Promotions
As part of a companywide reorganization to rev up growth, Marcus & Millichap has promoted eight executives to new roles. “The company’s brokerage operations will be consolidated under the position of chief operating officer, which will streamline key growth initiatives,” president and CEO Hessam Nadji said. “At the same time, we are expanding responsibilities and market coverage for our most effective leaders, positioning them to focus on production and salesforce productivity as the core drivers of their roles.”
J.D. Parker, most recently COO of Marcus & Millichap’s eastern division, is now COO for the entire real estate brokerage and an executive vice president. And Richard Matricaria, COO of the western division, is now chief growth officer and senior vice president.
Other changes:
- Greg LaBerge has been promoted from chief administration officer to chief client officer.
- John Chang has been elevated from national director of research services to chief intelligence and analytics officer.
- Ryan Nee, Tim Speck, John Vorsheck and Michael Glass have been promoted from division managers to executive managing directors and chief revenue officers for their respective divisions.
Winick Rebrands as RTL and Names New CEO and President
With an eye toward expanding its service offerings, New York City retail leasing and advisory firm Winick Realty Group has rebranded as RTL and reshaped its executive team. Steven Baker is now CEO and Lee Block is now president. Each executive had been a managing principal. Jeff Winick, who founded the firm in 1982, will continue as a top broker and mentor via RTL’s Winick Team.
By John Egan
Contributor, Commerce + Communities Today