Is NYC’s retail bubble about to pop?

From the July issue: When 685 Fifth Avenue hit the market two years ago, investors practically lined up around the block. The building’s roughly 25,000-square-foot retail space — which sits on the corner of 54th Street — came with 152 feet of frontage in the heart of Manhattan’s most profitable shopping district. Best of all, the property’s only retail tenant, Gucci, was about to leave, allowing any buyer to sign a new tenant in a neighborhood where asking rents were growing at an annual average of 8 percent. [more]