Cult Movie Director's New Studio Is Latest Signal Of Miami Beach’s Pivot Away From Partying
Acclaimed oddball film director Harmony Korine is opening a 30K SF creative design studio on Lincoln Road.
The new headquarters for EDGLRD, a digital-first studio focused on film, gaming, advertising and sensory experiences, on the top floor of 230 Lincoln Road was announced by Miami Beach City Commissioner Joseph Magazine from the stage at Bisnow’s Future of Miami Beaches event Tuesday.
The lawmaker cited the deal as another feather in the cap for Miami Beach officials as they work to transform the city’s reputation from a raucous party destination into an oceanfront hub of culture and business.
The lease with the man who wrote Kids and, ironically, directed the 2012 cult classic Spring Breakers, follows the Miami Beach marketing campaign earlier this year in which the city declared that it was “breaking up with spring break.”
The campaign to keep away revelers was a “huge success,” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said at the event, held at the Lincoln Eatery, a food hall on the pedestrian retail street that’s also roughly three blocks from city hall.
“A lot of businesses reached out to me to thank me,” Meiner said. “We did equally as well as if not better than in other years. I know some businesses lost money, and I'm sorry for that, but I think overall — for our current brand, for who we are — this was a big win for our city in every possible way.”
Korine’s studio is relocating from a smaller space in the Design District, another cultural hub in Miami developed by billionaire Craig Robins, who Magazine said had tried to convince EDGLRD to stay in his creative district.
The new office could eventually have 300 staff, up from the roughly 50 currently employed by EDGLRD, and it's also expected to be a magnet for artists, musicians and celebrities working with the studio.
EDGLRD's collaborations include an ad campaign for Kim Kardashian's Skims swimwear collection and a promotional video with R&B singer The Weeknd. Last month, the studio announced it closed a funding round with cash from Reuben Brothers, a private equity and real estate investment firm.
“We're really looking forward to this new space being an amazing headquarters for talent, creative professionals and brands from all over the world to visit Miami and have a really exciting, culturally driven place,” Jon Lutzky, chief operating officer at EDGLRD, told Bisnow in an interview Tuesday.
The lease is the latest office win for Miami Beach as its elected officials look to continue riding a pandemic-era wave that brought billions of dollars in wealth to the city and promises to transform its skyline with new glittering condo towers.
The city’s cultural cachet continues to rise as its monied new residents attract luxury retailers and dining options, which perform well in the market and attract more money and high-end retail.
Lyle Stern, the co-founder of Vertical Real Estate, said there are more than a dozen high profile restaurants in the process of building out their space in Miami Beach.
The Michelin-starred Mila opened on Lincoln Road in 2020 and paved the way for today’s culinary renaissance, said Stern and Stephen Bittel, the founder of Lincoln Road’s biggest landlord, Terranova Corp.
“The singular data point that drives restaurant and tenant attraction to Lincoln Road is that Mila is the highest-grossing restaurant in the entire United States,” Bittel said. “That's a huge fact, and that's why we have 16 restaurants coming, all at a high level, because they want a piece of that.”
While Miami Beach’s celebrity hotspots turn heads, Bittel and Magazine said the goal of the city’s latest transformation would be to create a community that’s accessible to more than just the ultra-wealthy.
Eric Williams, a senior director for JLL capital markets in Miami, said he recently closed two deals on Lincoln Road and described interest in the retail district as the highest it’s been in the last decade. The demand spans price points, and the street has attracted retailers across the spectrum.
Zara, Starbucks, Crocs, Oakley, Foot Locker and Sunglass Hut are all expanding or renovating their stores on Lincoln Road, said Anabel Llopis, executive director of the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District.
While Terranova is the landlord of some of Miami Beach’s swankiest restaurants, Bittel said those culinary destinations are not the establishments local residents most often mention to him.
“I'm astonished how many thanks I get for bringing Cheesecake Factory to the beach,” Bittel said, adding that he most likely gets the accolades from friends with children who live near the beach.
“Cheesecake Factory is obviously a very popularly priced restaurant, doing close to $1M a month in sales with no grand opening and no marketing,” he said. “And their core base is our local residents.”
The combination of price points is key to the success of Lincoln Road and the surrounding areas, Magazine said. But his vision for the neighborhood involves bringing development to the surrounding blocks where he hopes to promote mid-rise development with ground-floor retail topped by residential.
Adding more local residents around Lincoln Road would boost foot traffic and reduce the reliance on tourist dollars, Magazine argued from the stage. It’s also a proven, centuries-old model.
“Imagine sitting in a café in France without residential development on top of it. It doesn't exist,” Magazine said. “You know why? Because it’s those residents, with a mix of tourists, that make a community.”
While panelists at the event relished their role in bringing new retailers, restaurants and condo towers to transform Miami Beach over the next decade, panelists has fewer ideas for solutions when asked about the long-term risks posed by climate change.
Porous pavers, complex water mitigation systems and removable floodgates are already being implemented, they said. But Peter Kanavos, partner at Flag Luxury Group, said that the future of properties in Miami Beach is largely contingent on how fast and how high the waters rise.
A map first published by Miami-Dade County in 2017 shows that 18 inches of sea level rise would inundate much of the barrier island. East Coast sea levels are expected to rise by up to 14 inches over the next 25 years, according to federal government estimates.
Even still, there’s an expectation that the demand for ocean views will lead to creative solutions and workarounds.
“If it really is going to be as impactful as they say 50 years from now, there's two basic ways to do things,” Kanavos said. “You either raise the land or you raise buildings. Now, if you have an existing building that you can't raise, perhaps what you do is the ground level, your lobby level, is upstairs.”
Miami Beach faces a unique challenge, in part because its historic art deco buildings — built in an era before the thought of encroaching seas — are now among the most at risk. They're also the same buildings protected by the city’s historic preservation board.
Miami Beach has made strides to reduce red tape and streamline its development approval process, but both lawmakers and industry professionals agreed it remains challenging to build to today’s code while adhering to strict historic preservation rules.
City officials frequently require developers to maintain facades or other property features, and the threat of stronger storms led Suffolk Construction to overhaul its design standards for the support beams that it uses to prop up buildings undergoing gut renovations.
“There is a question: When does preservation get in the way of progress?” said Kane Sarhan, co-founder of The Well.
His firm is partnering with Terra Group on The Well Bay Harbour Islands, a condo and office project with a wellness focus that recently landed Tom Brady’s investment firm as a tenant.
“There has to be a balance between the two,” he said. “As someone who has lived here for 10 years, who cares about this community, who wants to see this beach here 100 years from now, it’s a reality that has to be talked about.”
