Reuben Brothers and Crown Onyx have begun moving on the next phase of their $200 million Esplanade play — the 128,779-square-foot retail complex at 150 Worth Avenue that the joint venture closed on in March. The new owners are signaling a year of “subtle” renovations through 2026 paired with a tenant-mix refresh, and the former Saks Fifth Avenue space — vacant since 2023 — is already cleared for redevelopment. Palm Beach’s Architectural Commission approved a redesigned facade for that wing in December, including new ground-floor storefronts and second-story windows, paving the way for the most visible structural change to the corridor’s anchor block in two decades.
The Anchor Block Reset
The Esplanade — built in 1979 and Worth Avenue’s largest single retail complex — runs from 150 Worth across the block, anchored by Carolina Herrera, Emilio Pucci, Piaget, and Hublot, with Lugano Diamonds on the high-jewelry end. Louis Vuitton departed in 2023 after roughly 40 years, and Saks Fifth Avenue followed in the same window. The Reuben/Crown Onyx plan resolves the Saks parcel through redevelopment rather than re-leasing the existing footprint; the December approvals replace the closed-off second-story facade with a fenestrated front that opens the building’s upper level for the first time since the 1979 construction.
The new ground-floor storefronts — the Architectural Commission documents describe two to three additional units carved out of the existing Saks shell — give the joint venture flexibility to bring in smaller-format luxury tenants rather than re-leasing the parcel as a single department-store box. Worth Avenue’s per-square-foot rents have been holding above $400 across most of the corridor’s prime frontage; the prior single-tenant Saks lease did not capture that pricing.
The Reuben Brothers Palm Beach Stack
The Esplanade purchase is Reuben Brothers’ second major Palm Beach play, following the renovation and February 2026 reopening of the historic Vineta Hotel — which the firm rebuilt and brought back into operation under the Oetker Collection management banner. The Vineta sits two blocks from the Esplanade on Cocoanut Row, giving the British billionaire investors a hotel-and-retail pairing on the highest-density block of the island. London-based Reuben Brothers, led by Simon and David Reuben, paid $200 million in partnership with Crown Onyx — the New York firm led by Stanley Chera and Brittany Bragg.
The seller, O’Connor Capital Partners, originally bought the Esplanade for $106 million in 2014. The 12-year hold delivered an 89 percent gross appreciation; the $200 million print sets a new high-water mark for Worth Avenue retail comps and is the largest single-asset Worth Avenue trade since the corridor’s 2007 cycle peak.
The Worth Avenue Tenant Cycle
The reposition runs alongside Acadia Realty Trust’s $43 million March acquisition of the Gucci-anchored building at 225 Worth Avenue, and the late-2025 lease signed by Colombian fashion label Silvia Tcherassi for the former Saks frontage. Reuben Brothers and Acadia together now control roughly 138,000 square feet of prime Worth Avenue retail.
For Palm Beach island residents the practical signal is the tenant pipeline behind the renovation. The Esplanade’s existing anchors — Carolina Herrera, Pucci, Piaget, Hublot, Lugano — stay through the renovation cycle. The Saks parcel, when delivered, will likely target a mix of new-to-Worth-Avenue brands rather than corridor-existing tenants, mirroring the approach Reuben Brothers took at the Vineta repositioning.
Closing the Loop on the Season
The Reuben/Crown Onyx investment thesis lines up with the Q1 2026 Palm Beach island data — single-family sales up 36 percent year-over-year, condo deals up 39 percent, average sale price climbing to $19.6 million — that signals sustained demand-side strength on the buyer base Worth Avenue retail serves. The 2026 renovation cycle is timed to deliver new storefronts and second-story program ahead of the 2026–2027 social season, which opens with the November Red Cross Ball.
From the Borro desk: the Esplanade reposition is part of a broader institutional capital cycle into Worth Avenue retail that pairs with the same buyer-base momentum showing up in Borro’s Sotheby’s May $422 million architecture on the asset side.
Related coverage: Esplanade’s $200 million sale and Gucci building’s $43 million trade reset Worth Avenue’s price floor. Acadia Realty Trust lands 225 Worth Avenue for $43 million.