"You are right but do not despair -- I believe those good old days may come again before too long. There are only so many high-end retail shopping districts that a city can support, even a city like Miami. Out-of-town investors, mostly from NYC, have vastly overpaid for Lincoln Road properties that are way over-valued because of the currently-astronomical but unsustainable rental rates."
"As soon as the huge new shopping/entertainment districts at Brickell City Centre and Miami WorldCenter go online, the increased competition is going to cause the Lincoln Road rental rates to nose dive. That in turn will cause those out-of-town investors to panic and abandon ship. Everyone knows how volatile Miami real estate can be, and at the first sign of distress they will cut and run.
That will start a downward spiral on Lincoln Road that -- with any luck -- will lead us back to where we started from in the 1990's. Lincoln Road will once again be a monument to faded glory and departed high-end retailers, their vacated shops filled instead with art galleries and eclectic, LOCALLY-owned businesses."—Dick Richards [Photog Shares Incredible Archive of South Beach in the 80s]