RIP Stanley Whitman
Miami Beach, FL – May 24, 2017 – Stanley Finch Whitman – son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, patriarch, “sire,” friend, pioneer, veteran, civic leader, and the visionary real estate developer of Bal Harbour Shops – lived a wonderful life. He died peacefully of natural causes at his Miami Shores home on May 24, 2017, shortly after learning that his plans to expand and improve his Bal Harbour Shops were finally approved. He was 98. While few besides his wife and mother believed in Whitman’s unswerving vision – indeed most dismissed him as crazy – Whitman’s Bal Harbour Shops was a runaway success from the moment it opened its doors. It was the first shopping center to focus exclusively on high end fashion stores. It boasted both the first Neiman Marcus location outside of Texas and the first full line specialty department store in the state of Florida. It was the first shopping center anywhere to feature both Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue and was the first shopping center to be planned – from the outset – for both vertical and horizontal expansion. Among a myriad of other tenant firsts, it was also the first shopping center to break $1,000 per square foot in sales productivity (and then, some years later, the first to break $2,000 per square foot) and remains today, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the world’s #1 shopping center. And it was Whitman’s obstinate persistence and steadfast faith in himself and his dream that made it all happen. Although his accomplishments as a businessman and developer are many, he considered his commitment to community paramount. He was privileged to serve as Chairman of the Dade Water & Sewer Authority, Chairman of the South Florida Highway Users Federation, Chairman and Founding Member of the Village of Bal Harbour Resort Tax Committee, and Original Organizer and Paul Harris Fellow of the Bal Harbour Rotary Club. He was an Independent Director at SunBank (the predecessor entity to SunTrust), an Elder at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, and a Trustee Emeritus at Miami Country Day School. In addition to these institutions, to which he gave generously, he was also proud to support innumerable local charities, including the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and the University of Miami’s Miller School’s Project: New Born. For his innumerable contributions to his community, both Miami-Dade County and the Village of Bal Harbour recognized “Stanley F. Whitman Day” in separate proclamations in 1998 and 2015, respectively, the Urban Land Institute presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, and the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce bestowed upon him in 2016 its Leondard A. “Doc” Baker Lifetime Achievement Award. Stanley Whitman lived a wonderful life.
Stanley Whitman at Art Night at The Shops on February 16, 2011
Stanley Whitman at Art Night at The Shops on February 16, 2011
Schatzi Kassal & Stanley Whitman at Art Night at The Shops on February 16, 2011
Angela, Gigi, & Stanley Whitman at Bal Harbour Shops Destination Fashion 2012 on November 10, 2012
