Scott Sherman still remembers when landlords could get top dollar asking rents for retail and restaurant spaces on Lincoln Road, the outdoor pedestrian mall in Miami Beach.

“Eight years ago, rents got ridiculous,” Sherman, who leads Miami-based Torose Equities, told The Real Deal. “They went from $150 to $300-plus a foot. Restaurants fled, national brands downsized and the street lost its energy.”

Sherman, who was among the landlords steering the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District in the 2010s, returned to the street last year after nearly a decade, paying $10.4 million for a two-story building at 910 Lincoln Road that’s leased to AllSaints, a clothing store.

“I’ve always believed in the street,” he said. “The pandemic and inflated rents reset everything. For the first time in years, the street’s affordable enough for creative operators to come back.”

Once Miami Beach’s most famous pedestrian strip, Lincoln Road has spent the better part of the early 2020s trying to recover its footing. High rents, changing consumer tastes and the pandemic all gutted a corridor once teeming with national retailers and high-end restaurants. Now, some investors and commercial brokers are banking on the idea that a refreshed mix of restaurants, experiential tenants and lower rent expectations can again raise Lincoln Road’s profile.

Sherman and other Lincoln Road experts see recent trades, such as retail and hospitality investor Robert Rivani buying a building on the street (the former The Lincoln Theatre) that’s leased to H&M and other tenants, as the beginning of a long-overdue rebound.

“I think now is a good time to be getting in,” Sherman said. “And I think we’re gonna see it turn the corner and continue to get better over the next couple of years.”

Retailers run

Lincoln Road’s tumble as one of South Florida’s prime retail streets began in 2016, when asking rental rates peaked at around $325 a square foot, according to David Abrams of the commercial brokerage masonre.

“It took a hard nosedive right before Covid,” he said. “At the same time, Brickell, Design District, Wynwood — places where retail didn’t really exist — started popping up. Tenants looking at the beach decided to go to these other neighborhoods.”

—David Abrams, masonre

Brickell, Wynwood and the Design District are areas that have more people, more traffic, more density and more opportunities for top brands, noted Lyle Stern, CEO of Miami Beach-based Vertical Real Estate and president of the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District.

“Lincoln Road certainly had its fair share of national tenants, and still has some,” Stern said. “But one of the biggest issues is the perception of what Lincoln Road was. While some lament the Lincoln Road of yesteryear, the street is actually doing well.”