The secrets of America’s thriving luxury malls: What’s working to attract high-end brands and high-net-worth shoppers

Back in 1965, “the name on the door [of the store] was the name of the person you were dealing with,” said Lazenby, the president and CEO of Whitman Family Development. The 1970s lease for Gucci’s store at Bal Harbour Shops, for instance, sports the signature of none other than Aldo Gucci. “These were all family-owned houses,” Lazenby said. “Now, they’re all very sophisticated conglomerates. It’s a bit of a different dynamic.”

Times have changed for Bal Harbour Shops, but also, for all luxury mall operators. Luxury remains a powerhouse industry, and it saw extreme growth during the pandemic, but the sector has slowed down as inflation and tariffs took a toll. In May, Bain & Co. forecasted that sales of luxury goods worldwide would fall between 2-5% this year — a sharp downgrade from its previous estimate of 0-4% growth. While luxury appeals to those with more discretionary income, shoppers are still selective about where they’re spending their dollars. And, the large number of avenues in which they can procure goods — including online, in a store or via a personal shopper — means competition is high, especially for the traditional mall.

In turn, luxury malls are now tasked with finding new ways to stand out. Many still post strong numbers from glitzy flagships and department stores. But to stay ahead of the competition, operators of the top luxury malls say they’re constantly focused on attracting the right mix of historic luxury brands and buzzy, contemporary upstarts, and finding unique touches to make their property feel truly special to the high-net-worth shoppers who have no shortage of places to shop. These range from hosting events like styling sessions to adding features like private shopping rooms — anything to make shoppers feel like VIPs.

Today, “it’s not exclusively the merchandise that draws people in, because it’s increasingly harder to find something that you can’t buy from your living room couch,” Lazenby said. “We’re hoping to offer an emotional connection, and not just a transaction.”

A solid tenant mix

At Tysons Galleria in McLean, Virginia — an upscale mall with Versace, Marc Jacobs and Saks Fifth Avenue stores — maintaining a list of buzzy tenants has been key. The mall, which opened in 1988, places a big emphasis on flagships, exclusivity and first-to-market stores. “Brands have to be accretive to us in some way,” Kirsten Lee, evp of luxury leasing for Brookfield Properties, told Modern Retail. Tysons Galleria, for instance, has the only Chloé in “the entire D.C. market,” Lee said. Similarly, perfumer Maison Francis Kurkdijan opened its first store in the D.C. market at the mall.

Still, it’s not enough to just have a big name. At Tysons Galleria, luxury brands are trying to curate a more personalized experience, Lee explained. Many, in fact, are expanding their store footprints so they can have both a larger spread of merchandise and “very important client” rooms for people to shop privately. Chanel’s store, for instance, recently expanded 300% in size. Cartier and Louis Vuitton are also in the process of doubling their stores.

“We’re constantly thinking about how to service clients in the most optimal way,” Lee said. At this time, she said, “traffic at our properties and our sales have never been higher.”

“When you have a property like Tysons, the biggest challenge is actually finding enough room for everyone,” Lee said.

The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, New Jersey is also drawing crowds to stores like Chanel, Christian Louboutin and Tag Heuer, it told Modern Retail. Placer.ai data shared with Modern Retail shows that the mall’s foot traffic for the second quarter was up 7.9% year over year. “We’re one of the only destinations nationwide to house four major department stores under one roof, and most of our stores are top-performing in their portfolio,” said Breana Grosz, the mall’s general manager.

The Mall at Short Hills has 150 tenants, and luxury is a huge draw, Grosz said. The mall has also worked to curate a wide range of brands. Fifty of its stores are “only unique to us in New Jersey,” Grosz said, naming Golden Goose and Marine Layer as examples. More than 15 are digitally-native direct-to-consumer brands, like Rhone and Vuori. The mall opened a Little Words Project store a few months ago, and “there was a three-hour wait to get in,” Grosz said. “There’s excitement about all of the brands that are here.”

NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas maintains a similar culture. Its Neiman Marcus store is undergoing a $100 million renovation, but the mall is also home to brands like Faherty and Free People. Glossier opened its store at NorthPark Center at the end of 2024. It was drawn to the mall, in part, thanks to its “impressive tenant mix and traffic,” Emily Lewis, Glossier’s gm of retail, told Modern Retail. “We have found that a mix of established luxury and current contemporary brands, along with culturally relevant local businesses, is an ideal mix for us,” she said.

One of the reasons Glossier decided to open a store at NorthPark Center was to reach a new customer base, Lewis said. Glossier’s location at NorthPark Center has been “highly successful” in this way, Lewis said. In fact, it ranks “in the top third of our stores in new customer penetration, despite being our smallest footprint to date,” she explained.

Going beyond shopping

Bal Harbour Shops also counts shopping as one of its biggest draws. It’s close to hitting $1 billion in total sales volume and, as of May, saw an 8.8% year-over-year increase in sales per square foot for mall stores, Lazenby told Modern Retail. But the mall — like others — is also placing a larger focus on offerings like dining and entertainment to provide a more well-rounded experience for visitors. Its restaurants include Carpaccio, Makoto and Avenue 31 Café.

Bal Harbour Shops is currently working on a food and beverage expansion timed to April. It will have about a dozen restaurants when completed. Dining has been a financially sound investment for Bal Harbour Shops, Lazenby said. “We’ve got restaurants doing $20 million, $30 million, $40 million [in sales],” he said. “And it reminds me of the way [the neighborhood] used to be — you could come here for dinner and then figure out where you would go when you got here.”

Tysons Galleria is also stepping up its dining offerings, with a special emphasis on local businesses. For example, Kevin Tien, who owns the Vietnamese restaurant Moon Rabbit in Washington, D.C., is opening a new small-bites place at the mall next year. Meanwhile, The Mall at Short Hills opened an Eataly last year, wooing visitors with pasta-making classes. “We saw an increase in foot traffic ever since [Eataly] came to the center,” Grosz said.

Mall operators are doing other expansions, besides food and drink establishments. The Mall at Short Hills is undergoing a $2 million furniture renovation project to make sure its common spaces are “welcoming and inviting,” Grosz said. There will now be tech tables where people can charge their phones and enjoy coffee. “It’s creating more of a lounge environment,” Grosz mentioned. Meanwhile, Tysons Galleria has a bowling alley and a dine-in movie theater.

Balancing community with exclusivity

Luxury malls operate at a unique crossroads. Much of their traffic comes from international and domestic tourists, but they’re a draw for local visitors, too. The Mall at Short Hills, for example, sees an influx of visitors from surrounding areas around the holidays.

It’s a delicate dance to appeal to both groups, especially in today’s economic and political environment, Lazenby said. Bal Harbour Shops is historically a big draw for Canadian tourists coming down to Florida in the winter. In 2024, 3.4 million Canadians visited the state, making them the No. 1 international tourist group. Now, though, fewer Canadians are coming to the U.S. amid Donald Trump’s policies, meaning Bal Harbour Shops may have to pivot. “Maybe the answer is: Let’s ramp up marketing toward our local audience or our South American audience,” Lazenby said. “Let’s do something that recognizes we have a plan.”

Today, malls are working to appeal to both the local community and a larger global audience. Events are one way they’re trying to woo different types of shoppers. Bal Harbour Shops, for instance, has an annual event called Ice Cream We Love, in which it brings in dozens of ice cream purveyors. “It’s about bringing your kids out, and all the proceeds from that event benefit the children’s hospital,” Lazenby said. The mall also holds dinners and fashion shows tied to specific stores.

The Mall at Short Hills, meanwhile, hosts visits from the Easter Bunny and Santa. It offers styling sessions at its stores two times a year, during the fall and the spring. In October, it will hold its first “Luxury in Motion” showcase, a ticketed event in which jewelry stores show off their best watches. “We’re going to do cigar rolling and have craft cocktails, and there will be prizes we’re raffling off,” Grosz said.

As seasons pass, feedback from guests has been crucial to staying relevant, mall executives told Modern Retail. Grosz mentioned that she walks the floor of the mall and talks to customers about where they’re shopping. The Mall at Short Hills is also in the process of revisiting its membership program to make sure it’s meeting visitors’ needs, she said. Bal Harbour Shops, likewise, has a membership program for its most avid visitors, and it invites them to lunches, asks them questions and sees which shops they’re frequenting.

Customers’ requests sometimes take an untraditional form. At least four Bal Harbour Shops fans have asked to have their ashes scattered at the mall, Lazenby said. (Their asks were declined. “Of course, I’m flattered, but we cannot sprinkle your ashes in the koi pond,” Lazenby told Modern Retail.) But the sentiment behind the ask remains true, he explained. “If you create a place that connects with people on an emotional level so deep that they want it to be their final resting place, that’s kind of amazing,” he said.

Ultimately, luxury mall operators are finding that maintaining a relationship with shoppers is critical for staying ahead. “Landlords in my grandfather’s time used to rely entirely upon the tenant to establish the connection with the customer,” Lazenby said. “That doesn’t get the job done in 2025. Life moves too quickly these days. If you’re not directly engaged, you can’t possibly give a customer what they want, because you have no idea what they want.”