The short answer
South Florida holds 16,033 retail buildings, and 6,217 of them sit in the 1,500 to 6,000 square foot band most chain concepts occupy. Retail pricing varies enormously across the three counties — a $445 median in Miami-Dade against $337 in Broward, and $567 in Delray Beach against $207 in Riviera Beach — so a rollout budgeted on one number will be wrong in most of them. The work for a multi-unit operator is sequencing, trade-area discipline and lease consistency, not finding space.
The fourth location is a different problem than the first
A first location is a search. You have a budget, a rough area, and a list of things the space has to do. We find candidates, we tour, we negotiate one lease.
A fourth location is a system. Now the questions are: does this site take sales from the store two miles away, does the lease read the same as the other three so your operations team is not learning new rules each time, does the delivery schedule work against a build calendar that is already committed, and what happens to the pro forma if this one opens two months late.
Most brokers are good at the first problem. The second one is where multi-unit operators lose money, and it is mostly not about finding space — it is about sequencing, consistency and knowing which deals to walk away from.
Pookie & Sebastian — a six-store apparel retailer expanding across South Florida. Placed at Plaza at Delray in a space that never reached the open market, with additional locations underway. Read how it was done → · All case studies →
What is actually out there
| County | Retail buildings | In the 1,500–6,000 SF band | Median $/SF sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 9,377 | 3,274 | $445 |
| Broward | 4,047 | 1,752 | $337 |
| Palm Beach | 2,609 | 1,191 | $378 |
Building counts from tri-county property records; medians from recorded arms-length retail sales 2021 through August 2026, screened for assemblages.
16,033 retail buildings across the three counties, and 6,217 of them sit in the 1,500 to 6,000 square foot range that most chain concepts actually occupy. That is the real inventory pool, and it is smaller than the headline number suggests.
The pricing spread is the thing to plan around. Broward retail ran a $337 median with the middle half between $213 and $568. Miami-Dade ran $445 with a middle half of $302 to $739. Palm Beach $378. A rollout that assumes one number across three counties will be wrong in two of them, and the Delray Beach corridor alone recorded a $567 median against $207 in Riviera Beach.
Which means the site that looks expensive is sometimes the cheap one for the sales it will do, and the bargain two exits away is a bargain because nobody walks past it.
Trade area, co-tenancy, and the store you already own
Three things I look at before a site goes on a shortlist for an operator who already has locations here.
Cannibalization first. If the new store pulls 20% of its volume from an existing one, the incremental revenue is not what the pro forma says. I would rather kill a site early than watch it open and split a trade area you already own.
Co-tenancy second. Who else is in the centre determines your traffic more than your own marketing does for most retail concepts. It also determines your exposure — a centre anchored by one tenant who leaves is a different risk than one with a diversified rent roll. And your co-tenancy clause needs to actually protect you if that anchor goes dark, which most landlord forms do not.
Exclusive use third. On a single location an exclusive is nice to have. Across a portfolio it is how you stop a landlord putting a direct competitor next door in year three, and the language needs to be consistent across every lease or your operations team will discover the exception at the worst moment.
Consistency is worth more than the last dollar of rent
This is the part I argue with clients about. Given a choice between fifty cents a foot and lease language that matches the rest of your portfolio, take the language.
Every lease that reads differently is a permanent tax on your operations. Different renewal notice windows mean somebody has to track five calendars. Different CAM definitions mean you cannot compare occupancy cost across stores. Different assignment language means a future sale of the business gets complicated in a way nobody discovers until diligence.
The lease audit work I do for existing portfolios finds this constantly — operators paying for something in one location they successfully negotiated out of in another, because the deals were done by different people at different times with nobody holding the standard.
How I work with multi-unit operators
Usually it starts with a market rather than a site. Where should the next three go, in what order, and what does each need to do financially to be worth opening.
Then a live shortlist rather than a one-off search: what is available, what is coming available, what is not on the market but might be. Off-market matters more here because the good corners rarely get listed — they get leased to whoever the landlord already knows.
Then negotiation to a standard, so lease five looks like lease one. And then I stay in it: renewals, options, audits of what you are actually being charged.
If you are running multiple locations in South Florida or planning to, tell me what the concept needs and where you are going. I will tell you honestly whether the markets support the plan.
Want the number on your building?
Search the property for an instant public-record snapshot and the closest recorded sales, or send me the address and I will come back inside one business day with a comp-driven range, what I think it would actually trade at, and what I would fix first.
Related resources.
Frequently asked questions about multi-site & expansion.
Do you work with multi-location retailers and franchise operators?
Yes, and it is different work from a single-location search. The focus moves from finding a space to sequencing a rollout: which markets in what order, whether a new site cannibalizes one you already operate, and keeping lease terms consistent enough that your operations team is not managing five different sets of rules.
How many retail buildings are there in South Florida in a chain-sized footprint?
Across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach there are 16,033 retail buildings, of which 6,217 fall in the 1,500 to 6,000 square foot range most chain concepts occupy. Miami-Dade holds the largest share at 3,274 in that band.
How do you decide whether a new location will cannibalize an existing one?
By mapping the trade area against where your current store's customers actually come from, not by drawing a radius. Radius rings ignore highways, water and where people already drive to shop, all of which matter enormously in South Florida. If a meaningful share of the new store's projected volume is coming out of one you already own, the incremental case has to stand on what is left.
Why does lease consistency matter across locations?
Because every inconsistency becomes a permanent operating cost. Different renewal notice windows mean somebody tracks multiple calendars and eventually misses one. Different CAM definitions make it impossible to compare occupancy cost store to store. And inconsistent assignment language turns a future sale of the business into a diligence problem.
Can you handle expansion outside South Florida?
My market is Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, and that is where I add real value — I know the corridors, the landlords and what deals are actually getting done. For markets outside the tri-county I would rather refer you to someone who knows that ground than pretend a map is the same as experience.