"These latest additions reflect the spirit of modern luxury, where design, wellness and community intersect," RED Development managing partner Mike Ebert said when he announced Herman Miller, Alo Yoga, and La La Land Kind Café as the newest names joining Biltmore Fashion Park. It's the kind of line a developer says about almost any leasing announcement. Put the square footage next to it, though, and the sentence stops sounding like a press release and starts sounding like an accurate account of what's actually filling the space at 24th Street and Camelback.
Saks Fifth Avenue anchored that corner for more than thirty years in a store just under 92,000 square feet. Herman Miller's new showroom, opening in early 2026, is 2,060 square feet. Alo Yoga is taking 4,349. Nothing moving into Biltmore Fashion Park right now is sized to replace a department store. It's sized to be a walk from the front gate of Arizona Biltmore Estates, not a drive across town.
The Anchor That Actually Left
Saks Fifth Avenue's exit wasn't part of anyone's redevelopment plan for the mall. It was collateral from a bankruptcy filed a thousand miles away. Saks Global, the retailer's parent company, filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas federal court in January 2026, and the following month the Biltmore location was named as one of eight Saks Fifth Avenue stores closing nationwide as the company narrowed to its most profitable locations. The store had opened in 1995 in the former I. Magnin space and had anchored the center for three decades. The closure notice filed with Arizona Job Connection listed 67 employees losing their jobs, and legal analysts covering the bankruptcy projected the store would cease operations by late April 2026.
That timeline lines up with what's on the ground now. By mid-2026, published accounts of the center describe Saks as already closed, leaving Macy's as the last traditional department store anchor still standing. It's also worth sitting with what kind of loss this actually was for the property: Saks was the first major anchor to leave Biltmore Fashion Park since RED Development took full ownership from Macerich in 2024, which means the timing of the closure and the timing of the redevelopment are two separate stories that happen to be landing on the same corner at once.
What's Actually Filling the Gaps
None of the new leases signed since RED took over come close to backfilling a department-store-sized box, and that's the part worth paying attention to if you're the person walking past this mall on a Tuesday rather than reading about it in a trade publication.
| Tenant | Footprint | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Herman Miller | 2,060 sq ft | Arizona's first location, opening next to Ralph Lauren in early 2026 |
| Alo Yoga | 4,349 sq ft | Taking over the former My Sister's Closet storefront |
| La La Land Kind Café | 1,262 sq ft | Phoenix debut, near True Food Kitchen |
| FP Movement | Not disclosed | Between Rye 51 and Warby Parker, construction started this spring |
| [solidcore] | Not disclosed | Studio space near Alo Yoga |
| Lululemon (expansion) | 2,738 to 5,666 sq ft | Doubling its footprint between Williams Sonoma and Madison Reed |
Compare any line in that table to the 92,000 square feet Saks occupied and the pattern is hard to miss. RED Development isn't hunting for a replacement anchor. It's leasing in a completely different size class, aimed at people who might show up three times a week rather than once a season.
[solidcore]'s own senior director of real estate, Josh Rainey, said something similar when the studio's lease was announced: "Biltmore's upscale setting is the perfect home for us, offering a welcoming space where members can build strength, consistency and connection." Consistency is the operative word. A furniture showroom and a pilates studio aren't destination retail. They're the kind of thing you build for people who already live close enough to make it a habit.
The Calendar Says the Same Thing
The tenant mix isn't the only signal. Look at what the property has actually been hosting since RED took over, and the shift away from department-store gravity shows up there too.
Global Running Day drew nearly 1,000 attendees, organized by Lululemon in partnership with the Phoenix Run Club, Scottsdale Run Club, and BLK Arizona Run Club. The property served as the start and finish line for the 50th Annual Phoenix Marathon weekend, including the 10K, 5K, half, and full marathon, back in November 2025. Artlink's Art d'Core Gala returned to the property in its "Prismatic" form on February 28 of this year, officially launching the 38th Annual Art Detour, and the center also hosted the Arizona WineGrower's Festival in late March, an afternoon of tastings from more than 40 Arizona wineries.
None of that requires anyone to buy anything at Biltmore Fashion Park. It requires them to show up. That's a different kind of draw than a department store ever offered, and it tracks with the same audience the new leases are built for.
Up the Hill, the Rhythm Never Needed to Change
None of this reinvention has touched Wrigley Mansion, sitting on its hill above the resort, and that's worth noting precisely because it hasn't had to change. The mansion still runs Geordie's Restaurant and Lounge, Jamie's Wine Bar, and Christopher's, where James Beard Award winner Christopher Gross has been serving tasting menus for years. Thursday Night Jazz is still a fixture there, a classic-atmosphere evening with cocktails and dinner overlooking the city. Every January, the mansion runs Festivin, a four-day wine festival that this year, running January 15 through 18, brought together Gross, Geordie's Executive Chef Nick Kennedy, Wine Director Daniel Webber, and Master Sommelier Myles Trapp for a run of chef-and-sommelier pairing dinners, plus a Grand Tasting with more than 150 wines available to sample.
Wrigley Mansion has never depended on what's leasing next door. It's proof that the neighborhood's real gravity has always come from a small number of specific rooms rather than square footage of retail, and it's a useful contrast to how much has shifted just down the hill in the past two years.
What This Doesn't Change
Living in Arizona Biltmore Estates still means being close enough to walk to a furniture showroom, a pilates studio, a wine festival, and a jazz set that predates every lease RED Development has signed since 2024. The anchor swap at Biltmore Fashion Park doesn't threaten any of that rhythm. It just changes what's on the ground floor of a building most residents pass on the way to somewhere else, and for now, that ground floor is being built for people who are already close enough to use it every week rather than people driving in for a department store that no longer exists.
If you're weighing what daily life actually looks like in this pocket of Phoenix, or you're already here and thinking about what's next for your own property, Lauren Ellington knows this stretch of the Biltmore corridor block by block. Reach out for a confidential conversation about the neighborhood, or request a free home valuation to see where your property stands today.
