If you have circled the block at 9700 Collins Avenue any time since late February, you already know the entrance you used for years is closed. Since February 24, 2026, self-park, valet, and rideshare drop-off all route through the 96th Street Parking Garage instead. Take the elevator to the second or GREEN level, then follow the signage back toward the Shops. It is a five-minute adjustment, and most regulars have it memorized by now.
The parking change is the part everyone notices first, because it is the part standing between you and dinner. But it is not the story. The real shift at Bal Harbour Shops this year has nothing to do with which door you walk through and everything to do with why you are walking through it at all. For most of the last decade, the Shops were where you went to buy something and grabbed a meal on the way out, almost as an afterthought. That order has quietly reversed.
The Kitchens That Left, and What Replaced Them
Two anchor restaurants exited within about twelve months of each other. Aba closed first. Then Le Zoo, a Riviera-style bistro that had run for a decade at the property, departed at the end of April 2025. If a standing Sunday reservation disappeared on you sometime last year, that is why.
Neither closure was a vacancy the property struggled to fill. Both were cleared footprints held for successors already under contract. China Grill, the Asian-fusion restaurant Jeffrey Chodorow built into a Miami institution after it opened on Collins Avenue in 1995, reopened at the entrance of Bal Harbour Shops on June 9 in the Le Zoo space, bringing back Lobster Pancakes and Peking Duck alongside newer dishes like Tuna au Poivre. Its hours run noon to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to midnight Friday and Saturday, which gives the Shops something it has not had on the ground level in years: a room that stays open past dinner rush. One OpenTable reviewer summed up the reaction simply: "The return of China Grill is a 10 out of 10."
One floor up, the same logic is playing out in reverse. Makoto relocated within the property in 2022, redesigned by Paris-based designer India Mahdavi, leaving its original third-floor space empty. That space is where Stephen Starr's group is opening Slim's, a steakhouse built around leather banquettes and a 1930s-inspired mural, with a menu of prime cuts, a raw bar, and a Wagyu cheesesteak. Coverage last fall pointed to a spring 2026 opening. As of this writing, that timeline has not been independently confirmed beyond the original announcement, and construction timelines at this scale tend to shift more than press releases suggest. If a specific evening depends on Slim's being open, checking the Shops' own restaurant page the same week is a better bet than trusting a date first reported months ago.
One New Boutique, Dozens of Expansions
The restaurant churn is the visible edge of something larger. Bal Harbour Shops is adding roughly 200,000 to 250,000 square feet of new space to a property that currently covers about 450,000, which will push the total toward something closer to 700,000 square feet once construction closes out. That is a near-doubling in footprint.
What is easy to miss in that math is how few new names are actually arriving. Most of the expansion is existing tenants growing in place. Prada, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, and Brioni are enlarging their current shops rather than being replaced by new ones, which means the walking route locals know by muscle memory, from the koi pond over to Saks, will look and feel different even though the store list barely changes. The one genuine retail newcomer of this cycle is Toteme, the Swedish label that opened its first Miami store here on July 2, 2026. Its cofounders have described the choice as a fit between Swedish minimalism and Florida's materiality rather than an assumption that Miami needed another flagship.
Whitman Family Development, which has owned and run the Shops since Jeffrey Whitman's father founded them in 1965, financed the buildout with a $740 million loan and has framed it as more than a real estate project. Marking the property's 60th anniversary, the family called the expansion part of what makes the property, in their words, "a timeless reflection of what makes luxury truly enduring." Fourth-generation family member Matthew Whitman Lazenby now runs the company as president and CEO.
Why Dinner Is Doing the Work Retail Used To
Here is the part that actually explains the last two years of tenant news. Bal Harbour Shops posts annual sales estimated at $2,000 to $3,000 per square foot, well above a typical American shopping center. That number tells you the property does not need to chase volume. What it needs is a reason for people who already have everything to come back on a Tuesday when there is nothing on the list to buy. Department store foot traffic has softened nationally for years. Restaurants have not softened the same way, particularly for residents treating the property as a shared living room rather than a shopping trip.
That is the actual pattern behind Aba leaving, Le Zoo leaving, China Grill arriving with a late-night kitchen the ground floor hasn't had before, and Slim's taking the most prominent vacated space in the building. The Shops are not getting bigger so much as they are getting better at giving you a reason to show up without a shopping list at all.
What Hasn't Changed, and What to Expect on Your Next Visit
A few practical notes for anyone planning a visit this month:
- The core restaurant roster locals have relied on for years is unchanged: Makoto, Avenue 31 Café, Carrie's at Neiman Marcus, Carpaccio, and Hillstone, along with The Palm and Café on 3 at Neiman Marcus.
- Access from 96th Street still runs through the garage walkway, with the elevator to the 2nd or GREEN level as the fastest path back to the Shops.
- Some boutiques have moved into temporary locations during construction, so a storefront you remember from last year may not be exactly where you left it.
- Reservations at China Grill have been running full in its first months back, so booking a few days ahead is worth the extra step.
The Deadline Worth Knowing About This Month
If there is one reason to make a trip before the season shifts, it is this: Miami Spice is running now through September 30 at three of the property's newest kitchens. China Grill and Makoto are both offering a $40 lunch, with China Grill's dinner menu priced at $65 per person. Slim's, where it is currently operating, has its own premium Spice tier at $95 per person Sunday through Thursday. That gives September regulars roughly four weeks left to try Bal Harbour's newest dining additions at a fixed price before the menus revert to full price in October.
None of this changes what Bal Harbour Shops has been since 1965: a small, deliberately curated collection chosen by one family across four generations. What has changed is what that collection is for. The mall you knew for its boutiques is spending its 60th-anniversary buildout turning itself into the place its own neighbors eat dinner.
Jomed Construction has spent decades building homes in the neighborhoods that treat Bal Harbour Shops as a backyard fixture, from Bay Harbor Islands to the Miami Beach waterfront. Watching how a place like this evolves, one kitchen and one storefront at a time, is part of understanding what makes these blocks worth building on carefully. If you're planning a project nearby and want a builder who already knows the rhythms of the neighborhood, Jomed Construction welcomes the conversation.
