The Real Deal New York

From the March issue: Retailers seeking space in Manhattan are used to scanning avenues and side streets for vacant storefronts. Yet in the next several months, four examples of a rarer type of retail property — multi-level vertical space — are making debuts on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. While vertical retail spaces are common in other large North American cities, outside of department stores here like Bloomingdale’s and Filene’s Basement, as well as large bookstores, such space is rarer in Manhattan. Yet now, because of sharp increases in Manhattan rents, brokers say that more tenants are looking for spaces that allow them to lease smaller ground-floor areas while also spreading onto other levels — above or below ground — where rents are less expensive.