Retail records: A behind-the-scenes look at the biggest Manhattan leases of 2012

From the January issue: As tourists continued to flock to Gotham in record numbers, New York City retail saw a banner 2012: Nordstrom announced it would take 285,000 square feet of space at Extell’s under-construction One57 tower, and one of the retail condos at the base of 666 Fifth Avenue sold to Vornado for $707 million. In the third quarter of last year alone, retail rents shot up 30 percent in the Herald Square area and 23 percent both on Upper Fifth Avenue and in Times Square, according to data from the CBRE Group. And the Lower Fifth Avenue market — the stretch from 42nd to 48th streets that has recently seen higher-end retailers replace souvenir shops — continued to burgeon, adding clothing designers Joe Fresh, Ted Baker and Aritzia to its list of increasingly up-market tenants. [more]