July 16, 2024
South Florida has recently seen a range of headlines questioning the future of its emerging restaurant and retail scene. But despite a slowdown in neighboring Miami-Dade County driven by falling foot traffic, Fort Lauderdale and especially Las Olas Boulevard are maintaining their post-pandemic strength.
By The Numbers:
OpenTable’s State of the (Restaurant) Industry dashboard provides a high-level snapshot of dining demand based on seated guests from online reservations. This indicator demonstrates that Fort Lauderdale restaurants are still experiencing growing foot traffic compared to previous years.
Fort Lauderdale eateries are seeing a 3.4% increase in reservations, greater than the national average. In contrast, reservations in Miami and Miami Beach are declining compared to 2023 levels.
With respect to Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Placer.ai confirms this trend and reports that eateries in Fort Lauderdale’s urban core are seeing a 6.5% increase in foot traffic compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“With the growing population throughout Downtown Fort Lauderdale remains an extremely underserved market for both restaurants and quality retailers," said Jeff Evans, Managing Director - Retail Leasing for Comras Company.
What About Las Olas Boulevard?
Fort Lauderdale’s most iconic street has consistently seen increases in foot traffic over the last few years.
Based on year-to-date (January to June) foot traffic data from Placer, visits have increased by 28% since 2017 and by 10% in the last year alone.
"The character of Las Olas and its various restaurants and retailers reflects the evolving character of the Fort Lauderdale area. As the downtown residential population has exploded with a young highly educated, higher income demographic and new hotels have populated the beach, the expectations of the clientele on Las Olas has grown more sophisticated," said Barron Commercial Development's Charlie Ladd.
"Older restaurants give way to newer offerings as reflected in the emergence of locations such as Moxies, Flemings, and Fogo de Chao with another group on their way including Earl's Kitchen + Bar, Sixty Vines, and a new concept being introduced by The Restaurant People."
“We receive calls on almost a daily basis from restaurateurs hopeful to find an opportunity along Las Olas Boulevard, and any vacancy we happen to get typically has several operators vying to absorb it very quickly," added Evans.
"This same process continues with retail offerings that have now come to the Boulevard including Lilly Pulitzer, Warby Parker, YETI, Lululemon, the expanded Tommy Bahama, Southern Tide, South Moon Under and now Britto gallery, (pictured above)" said Ladd.
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