Times Square bow tie now one of the world’s most expensive shopping areas

The Times Square bow tie, at Broadway Between West 42nd Street and West 47th Street, has made it onto a list of the world’s most expensive shopping stretches for the first time, Crain’s reported, with rents averaging $1,350 a square foot, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield.

“Times Square is the center of the world and it has become another place where retailers want to express their identity,” said Gene Spiegelman, executive vice president with Cushman & Wakefield.

Rents on East 57th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues have also been increasing rapidly, the findings show, rising 20 percent to $1,200 a square foot year-over-year. Fifth Avenue, as usual, ranked as the most expensive shopping street in the world for the 10th year in a row, averaging $2,250 a square foot in the year ended June 30 — a 22 percent jump from a year earlier. [Crain’s]