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<\/p>\nAt this time of year, there would normally be a line of spring breakers thirsting for a frozen alcoholic beverage out the door and down the block of Fat Tuesday\u2019s in South Beach.<\/p>\n
But on a sunny Wednesday last week, there were just a handful of patrons listening to house music thumping through the practically empty bar. After years of overcrowding and chaos becoming the norm for Miami Beach in March, it’s a trade-off even nightlife workers will take.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it’s not so good for business, but it’s definitely better for the community,\u201d Fat Tuesday\u2019s\u00a0bartender\u00a0Andrei Tangalychev said in the unseasonably quiet watering hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in the idea to bring quality over quantity, and that is what I think is happening,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n
\n Fat Tuesday’s is practically empty on a day where there would normally be a line out the door.\n <\/p>\n
It has been two years since the city of Miami Beach launched its campaign to \u201cbreak up\u201d with spring break. The\u00a0city\u00a0had been the go-to party destination for spring breakers \u2014 but with partygoers came overcrowded beaches<\/a>, stampedes and multiple deadly shootings<\/a> in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n In 2024, Miami Beach\u00a0enacted strict rules to rein in the massive crowds of rowdy partygoers. It implemented curfews, started charging as much as $100 for parking, deployed DUI checkpoints and\u00a0even released an advertising campaign with a commercial broadcasting<\/a>\u00a0the new rules.<\/p>\n This year, the efforts appear to have paid off. Peak weekends came and went with nearly nonexistent<\/a> crowds \u2014 even amid a four-day fitness event<\/a> on the beach. Arrests dropped by 24% this year compared to last year, Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez told Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city has also changed its tone \u2014 this year\u2019s\u00a0spring break commercial<\/a>\u00a0was focused on Miami Beach’s fitness and wellness rebrand, rather than telling partiers to stay away<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0transition comes as Miami Beach is ushering in\u00a0a wealthier and more permanent crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a repositioning for Miami Beach on a global level, to put them back on the map, to compete with Monaco, especially Dubai,\u201d\u00a0Compass<\/a>\u00a0luxury real estate agent\u00a0Mike Martirena said.<\/p>\n Miami Beach’s condo market reflects that upward mobility. It led the Miami area in price appreciation and sales growth for condos priced at $1M and up, according to a fourth-quarter Condo Blackbook report<\/a>. It was also the only submarket to post year-over-year growth in sales\u00a0at 7.2%.<\/p>\n Martirena is selling luxury condos at the Raleigh Rosewood, which includes the historic Raleigh hotel, on Miami Beach. The project was previously led by developer Michael Shvo\u00a0before\u00a0Nahla Capital\u00a0took it over<\/a>\u00a0in October.<\/p>\n After living in the area for 15 years and selling in the city for 20, this spring break was a new side of the city Martirena\u00a0hadn’t seen before. The new calm made Miami Beach more marketable to potential luxury condo buyers,\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n \n Bars and restaurants in Miami Beach during spring break 2026 have been markedly slower than in past years.\n <\/p>\n Cleaning up Miami Beach has been especially important to sell condos that are going for upward of $6K per SF, he said. The buyers coming to market are in the high-stress world of finance and tech, who aren’t staying\u00a0out partying until 5 a.m. \u2014 and don’t want to live near people who are.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never spend 30, 40 million bucks for an apartment unless that gets cleaned up,\u201d Martirena\u00a0said. \u201cWe’re on our way.\u201d<\/p>\n The decrease in\u00a0spring breakers\u00a0has nevertheless\u00a0made a big impact\u00a0on\u00a0the surrounding shops, restaurants and bars, which have historically banked on\u00a0the busy seasons\u00a0for business. Sweet Liberty co-owner Dan Binkiewicz told Axios last year<\/a> that business was down 30%, blaming the city\u2019s marketing videos warning party people to steer clear of the city.<\/p>\n While the spring break measures were effective in\u00a0thinning chaotic crowds,\u00a0they may be warding off new business, Coldwell Banker Realty\u00a0commercial real estate broker Rosy Cancela said.<\/p>\n Cancela has been marketing nearly 9K SF at 820 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach for about eight months. It was originally a restaurant with a VIP lounge on the second floor.<\/p>\n The space has been marketed to\u00a0several restaurant concepts and a wellness center, but nothing seems to stick, Cancela said.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the space is in a prime location, surrounded by other restaurants and bars on the city\u2019s main strip, Cancela said potential tenants may be struggling to envision long-term leases in a city with a changing identity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went to a very extreme last year, closing off the garages and whatnot, and that may very well have sent the signal that we’re not open for business,\u201d Cancela said.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n \n An empty storefront on the corner of Collins Avenue just a block from the ocean\n <\/p>\n Miami Beach has one of Miami\u2019s highest retail vacancy rates at 5.8%, according to Cushman & Wakefield\u2019s fourth-quarter retail report<\/a>. Retailers emptied 50K SF more than they leased in 2025.<\/p>\n Those that\u00a0are leasing retail space in the city are shelling out a lot to be there. Average asking rent in the area is around $99.54 per SF \u2014 the highest of the Miami submarkets, according to\u00a0Cushman.<\/p>\n To help boost leasing in the city, Miami Beach passed an ordinance to fill vacant retail spaces by\u00a0loosening\u00a0some rules, most of it aimed at the live entertainment and restaurant scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the temporary deregulatory ordinance, the city increased the occupancy threshold from 200 to 750 people for restaurants with indoor entertainment that may operate without a conditional use permit, mainly along Lincoln Road, Collins Avenue and Alton Road. Businesses may also have live outdoor entertainment, which was previously prohibited.<\/p>\n As\u00a0the third year\u00a0of Miami Beach adjusting its relationship with spring break comes to an end, many are optimistic that it will have a positive effect on the retail scene in the future. But it means landlords will have to adapt.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people are having problems with their business, they have to rethink the business and reorient towards the people that are coming to the beach now,\u201d The Comras Co.\u00a0CEO Michael Comras<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cI don’t think that’s much of a challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Comras, who has owned and operated retail in Miami Beach for three decades, is doing just that. His company is\u00a0planning to turn five<\/a> properties along Miami Beach’s pedestrian mall,\u00a0Lincoln Road<\/a>, and North Lincoln Lane into a retail, dining, wellness and lifestyle concept in November.<\/p>\n Comras, who also markets retail in Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County, said there has been a lot of retail and restaurant interest in\u00a0the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the breaking up with spring break was a great campaign,\u201d Comras said. \u201cI think we’re on such a positive track right now. We’re having some great people come to Miami Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At this time of year, there would normally be a line of spring breakers thirsting for a frozen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[87506,6153,123,1642,125,124,33961,28509,33962,97153],"class_list":{"0":"post-212404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-coldwell-banker-realty","9":"tag-compass","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-beach","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-michael-comras","15":"tag-south-beach","16":"tag-the-comras-co","17":"tag-the-raleigh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n<\/p>\n