Katie Warren/Business Insider
Miami's old Millionaires' Row: Not what it used to be.
- Miami's "Millionaires' Row" is a stretch of waterfront in Miami Beach that was once a celebrity hotspot, home to coveted oceanfront mansions and luxury hotels.
- But the wealthy are no longer moving to this once-glamorous neighborhood, which spans Collins Avenue between 41st Street and 62nd Street.
- Instead, younger money is choosing livelier, more walkable areas of Miami like South of Fifth, the Venetian Islands, and Sunset Harbour.
- I walked Miami's "Millionaires' Row," and while I did see many luxury condos and hotels, there were no beautiful mansions and there was absolutely nothing to do.
- I couldn't even find somewhere to buy a bottle of water.
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Not too long ago, the stretch of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach between 41st Street and 62nd Street was a celebrity hotspot, lined with lavish oceanfront mansions and hip luxury hotels.
But several real-estate agents I spoke to said that while the term is still sometimes used to refer to that area, the ultra-wealthy are no longer moving there.
"In the '80s and '90s, Millionaires' Row was New York's Central Park West," Melissa Rubin, a broker-advisor for Compass in South Florida, told Business Insider, adding that the homes were elegant and the affluent flocked to the area.
Now, you can easily buy a condo on Millionaires' Row for under $1 million, and "it is not a location where the affluent are gravitating to," Rubin said.
According to Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman, it has to do with money getting younger.
"Those buyers - in their 30s and 40s - are strongly concerned by walkability," Goldentayer said. "That is why communities like the Venetian Islands have boomed the last 5 years because of their proximity to the hip Sunset Harbour neighborhood."
On a recent trip to Miami, I spent an afternoon walking the stretch of Collins Avenue once dubbed "Millionaires' Row." Here's what it looked like.