Rents grow in half of Manhattan retail corridors

Buoyed by H&M lease, "Lower Fifth" comes into its own

Of any retail submarket, Herald Square experienced the greatest growth in average asking rent quarter-over-quarter, according to numbers CBRE released today. That neighborhood saw rents increase 30 percent quarter-over-quarter, to $657 per square foot, the report shows.

Other New York City retail hubs also fared well. In fact, six out of the 11 hubs the report monitors saw rent increases, as the New York Observer first reported. Downtown Manhattan rents grew 28 percent in the same period, to $213 per square foot, and Lower Fifth Avenue (between 42nd and 49th streets) and Times Square both saw rents increase 23 percent, to $1,118 and $2,221 respectively, the numbers show.

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A 57,000-square-foot lease by apparel retailer H&M at 589 Fifth Avenue has been a boon for the stretch of Fifth Avenue often referred to as “Lower Fifth,” along the avenue in the 40s, the report notes.

“The line between 42nd to 49th Streets and 49th to 59th Streets is vanishing,” Jedd Nero, executive vice president at CBRE, told the Observer. “Tourists don’t stop at the invisible border at 49th Street,” which previously marked the barrier to the Fifth Avenue stretch, which has traditionally been the city’s — and often the world’s — priciest retail corridor. [NYO] –Guelda Voien