Lower Manhattan shines among otherwise mixed retail report

Retail rents in Lower Manhattan jumped 23 percent in the spring of 2011
compared to the fall of 2010, according to a report released today by
the Real Estate Board of New York, and apparently that’s because of the  news coverage World Trade Center construction has garnered. “Lower
Manhattan has been receiving national and international attention as a
result of the progress at the World Trade Center site. The rise in
asking rents for retail space shows that retailers are looking to
capitalize on the increase in pedestrian traffic expected there in the
years to come,” said Steven Spinola, REBNY’s president.

The average rent in the Financial District was $184 per square foot and
for all space below 14th Street was $104 per square foot, the report
shows, positive signs for the Downtown market. But the story was much
different north of 14th Street. With the exception of 86th Street on the
East Side, and Fifth Avenue in the 40s, asking rents declined in the
island’s other major retail areas. Asking rents on Madison and Fifth
avenues in the 50s, Madison Avenue from 57th to 72nd streets, and Times
Square declined from the fall, and while prices rose in Flatiron and
Herald Square compared to the fall, they remained below the asking
prices from spring 2010. REBNY’s findings were roughly similar those in a Cushman & Wakefield study cited by The Real Deal last month. TRD