Lincoln Road Miami Beach causing it's own demise

Lincoln Road Miami causing it's own demise.

Lincoln Road on Miami Beach has long been known as a wonderful closed outdoor street to stroll, shop, and eat.  But like everything else in real estate life it got way too popular.  So, out with the old and in with the new retailers by way of raised rent.  Today it costs a whopping $325. per square foot to rent retail space there.  At that price it's darn near impossible to make any of profit.  

Once upon a time all of the retailers and restaurants there were local mom and pop stores that paid good rent.  But landlords got a bit greedy when they saw all of the activity and demand and raised rents across the board, thus driving them out and replacing them with Forever 21 and The Gap.  This type of activity cannot be sustained long term.  Even an idiot can tell you that.  Slowly these big corporate stores will wise up and leave and who knows what will happen then.  Maybe rents will go down again or maybe Lincoln Road will turn into a ghost town.  Either way, high rents like that in the commercial real estate world are not healthy.  After all, why spend twice the amount to buy a blouse at Forever 21 on Lincoln Road when you can buy the same thing at the mall cheaper?  Lincoln Road still has the charm of it's architecture, but it has lost all of it's character.