What the Former Esplanade Became Once Aventura Mall's Owners Took Over
On November 25, 2025, Turnberry Associates and Simon Property Group closed a $131 million purchase of the open-air center at 19505 Biscayne Boulevard from Seritage. They renamed it The Abbey at Aventura. The 219,000-square-foot property now has the same owners as the mall next door, and Turnberry manages, programs and leases it.
Ten months later, most of the change has been in scheduling. The two properties now share events, dining promotions and a weekly routine. The one physical fix promised when the deal closed, an easier walk between the mall and The Abbey, has no public record of being built.
Harrison Soffer, the Turnberry principal who announced the deal, said the new name comes from Abigail Road, the ring road around both The Abbey and Aventura Mall. For years that shared road was about the only thing the two properties had in common.
The Esplanade went up on a 12-acre site that once held a Sears and a Sears Auto Center connected to the mall. Sears was torn down in 2017, and the Esplanade opened in 2023. Seritage, which owned the site, had already sued Aventura Mall in 2016 over its $214 million expansion, calling it "a land grab." The case was settled. Even with a loop road joining the two centers, neither one gave shoppers an easy way to walk to the other.
An Aventura shopper named Gorin told the Miami Herald what that meant on an ordinary night out:
"We once had dinner with friends from out of town who don't know how to get around the mall so well and what should have been a good five-minute walk from where they were, turned out to be more than 30 minutes."
She described the old route as walking outside Bella Luna through the parking lots, cutting across the grass and going up a ramp. That complaint is what the new owners were asked to fix first.
Instead, the first visible change was programming. The Abbey's events page now lists a fixed weekly rotation, and each night belongs to a named tenant:
The bigger sign of the merger came in summer. Aventura Mall promoted Miami Spice as a single dining program across both properties for August 1 through September 30, 2026. Two Abbey restaurants are running their Spice menus through October 31. Jarana charges $50 per person, Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., including a welcome Pisco Sour tasting plus a starter, entrée and dessert. The Amalfi Llama lists $40 for lunch and $60 per person for dinner. Inside the mall, Jacinta de México has a three-course Spice menu for lunch and dinner on the same October 31 schedule.
Jarana has also hosted a guest kitchen. WSVN reported that a La Mar Peruvian pop-up with a special menu by chef Diego Oka runs four Saturdays through October 10.
Aventura Mall's own blog announced Driven at Aventura, a Cars & Coffee series held at The Abbey. The debut was set for Saturday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to noon, with a series finale planned for November 7. A week after that finale, the series grows into DRIVEN, a concours of exotic, luxury and collector cars presented by Prestige Imports. The two event pages give different hours. The Abbey's page calls it an evening event, while the official DRIVEN site lists 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 14, 2026, with VIP hospitality, food and drink, and live entertainment. The DRIVEN site is the one to trust when planning.
Here are the fall dates across both properties:
| Date | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| October 10 | The Abbey | Lola + The Boys grand-opening celebration; last scheduled La Mar Saturday at Jarana |
| October 31 | The Abbey and Aventura Mall | Miami Spice menus end at Jarana, The Amalfi Llama and Jacinta de México |
| November 5 | Aventura Mall | UNIQLO opens |
| November 7 | The Abbey | Driven at Aventura Cars & Coffee series finale |
| November 14 | The Abbey | DRIVEN concours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. per the event site |
The UNIQLO opening is the biggest retail date on the mall side. The Miami Herald reports the Aventura store will cover 17,269 square feet on two floors, with a UTme! station for customizing T-shirts and tote bags. Miami New Times adds that the store will include a RE.UNIQLO Studio offering embroidery and mending. Bershka's first permanent U.S. store opened on the mall's lower level over the summer and was open by mid-August, according to WWD. In July, the Herald's retail coverage added Amouage, which opened July 7, and Missoni, which opened July 10, and listed Celine for October and Bulgari for November.
When the deal closed, the Herald counted more than 40 shops at the center. It noted STK Steakhouse and Joey, plus 2025 arrivals Tremble, Pura Vida Miami and Salt & Straw. It also reported that a LEGO store which had left the mall next door had reopened at the center. Salt & Straw opened on January 31, 2026, open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Its menu includes Florida-only flavors such as Panther Coffee Chocolate Tres Leches and The Salty Donut Guava + Cheese.
The current dining directory lists Amalfi Llama, Jarana | Gastón Acurio, Joey Aventura, Lady M, North Italia, Pura Vida Miami, Salt & Straw, STK Steakhouse, Sweetgreen and The Salty. Most of the retail side is services and wellness: Fit 2 Run, Runner's Depot, Pure Barre, Tremble, Skin Laundry, Next Health, One Medical and Industrious appear alongside Hastens, The Shade Store and LEGO.
The newest shop is Lola + The Boys, a children's clothing store. The Herald reported it had recently opened as of July 31. Its grand-opening party is set for October 10, with a live DJ all afternoon, cotton-candy art, face painting, 20% off in-store purchases and gift bags for the first 100 guests.
Three tenants are still marked "Coming Soon": The Keyes, FEULARD Aesthetic Lab and Jenny Polanco. A June 2025 Herald preview had FEULARD opening in spring 2026, so that date has already slipped.
When the deal was announced, Soffer was specific about access between the two properties:
"This will include adding pedestrian access at both exterior entrances adjacent to North Italia/Jarana, as well as the entrance adjacent to Joey's."
As of early October 2026, no news report, permit record or announcement from either property that we could find confirms that this work has been built or started. The City of Aventura's January 13 mobility-plan record and its March 3 Local Planning Agency packet are indexed online, but the copies we found are scanned images with no searchable text, so we couldn't check whether either one mentions the connections. The mall's own article about The Abbey describes its palm-lined paths and outdoor walkways as a continuation of the mall, but it doesn't describe a route between the two. The Abbey's visitor page gives an address and driving directions, and nothing about pedestrian access.
A missing record doesn't prove no work has happened. It does mean the entrances by North Italia, Jarana and Joey's are where to look for the change Gorin and other shoppers asked for, and that the Herald's December reporting is still the last public word on it. The center keeps its own identity under the joint ownership. Its address hasn't changed either: Northeast 195th Street and Biscayne Boulevard, east of a stretch of Biscayne the Herald calls often gridlocked.
Mark Yaffe follows changes in ownership, leasing and access around Aventura's major addresses, including details like whether a promised walkway gets built. If you'd like a clear view of what is changing around your building, Work With Mark.
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