Retail real estate investment trusts will drop up to five cents a share in the first quarter, thanks mostly to retailer bankruptices, according to a Jefferies & Co. analysis cited by Crain’s. Shopping center vacancies are expected to rise to 11.1 percent this year, the highest mark in two decades, and liquidations of retailers like Borders and closings of Harry & David and AnchorBlue are adding to shopping center woes. The safest bets, according to the analysis, are upscale malls like those owned by Simon Property Group and Taubman Centers. [Crain's]

Billionaire hedge funder William Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital Management, has added a $22 million Bridgehampton estate to his personal portfolio. According to the Post, the eight-bedroom beachfront home sits on six acres with a tennis court and views of Sagg Pond. The Corcoran Group’s Susan Breitenbach had been marketing the property for just under $26 million. But while Ackman may have scored a deal on the East End, his bet on bookseller Borders fell flat yesterday, when the company filed for bankruptcy. Pershing’s stake — it bought 5.1 million shares of the company in 2006 at between $18 and $20 per share — will likely be wiped out in the reorganization, Bloomberg News reported. [Post] and [Bloomberg]

Soon-to-be-shuttered Borders locations, from left: 576 Second Avenue and 100 BroadwayBorders filed for bankruptcy this morning, saying it will close at least 200 stores around the country — including close to a dozen in New York and New Jersey — and possibly 75 more, according to the Journal. All of the stores closed will be superstores, Borders spokesperson Mary Davis told the Associated Press. Manhattan locations to be shuttered include 461 Park Avenue, 576 Second Avenue and 100 Broadway, in addition to other New York locations in Westbury, Scarsdale and Commack, plus New Jersey outposts in Fort Lee and in the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. Comments

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With Barnes & Noble shifting its focus to e-books and Borders on the brink of a bankruptcy filing, it would seem an inopportune moment for the comeback of the independent bookstore in New York City. But according to Crain’s, more than half a dozen such shops have opened across the city over the past couple of years, and they’re actually doing quite well. Among the new shops are Posman Books, which opened a second, 2,000-square-foot location at Chelsea Market in September 2009 and is now in the process of inking a 10-year deal with its landlord at that location after bringing in more than $1 million in revenue in its first year. [more]

Three non-profit organizations have signed full-floor leases at 147 West 24th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, according to landlord the Moinian Group. Meanwhile, the city began a $266 million remediation project on a Staten Island landfill today, and a Riverdale, N.J. shopping center welcomed Best Buy as a new tenant. Click here for more. TRD [more]

The national book retailer Borders has slashed by 18 percent the price
to sublease the space it rents in a commercial cooperative space that
developer Cohen Brothers Realty purchased this month in the Ritz Tower
in Midtown.
Last year Borders offered to sublease four floors of retail space it is
renting in the tower at 465 Park Avenue at 57th Street, for $4.3
million, sources said, in anticipation of closing the store. Now, Borders is asking $3.5 million per year for the site, according to
Robin Abrams, executive vice president of Lansco, which has been
marketing the lease in coordination with DJM Realty of Long Island
since June. [more]

Condominiums in Brooklyn, including BellTel Lofts, One Hanson Place and Oro, still have empty retail spaces. Two of the buildings have lost out on national retailers — BellTel was in discussions with Starbucks, and One Hanson Place lost Borders as a tenant — and now retail brokers are focusing on attracting local tenants. According to Lawrence Lee, vice president with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Bracha Group, which represents BellTel, said they are looking for a locally owned lounge, restaurant or small grocer. Paul Rich of TerraCRG, who is marketing Oro’s space, said people have approached the company to open a diner or restaurant in the space. And at One Hanson Place, the 15,000-square-foot ground-floor space is being rented for weddings and special events. According to Caroline Pardo, director of leasing at Two Trees Management, “There are definitely more mom-and-pops looking right now than big national tenants.” [Post] and [Post]

From the May issue: Manhattan retailers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The
continued freeze in consumer spending is forcing some retailers to do
the once-unthinkable: close desirable Manhattan locations, including
flagship stores — which are valued as much for the marketing boost they
provide by being located here as for their actual sales. Retailers, however, can’t just go dark, for they are often bound by
leases that render them unable to walk away without paying huge
penalties. As a result, high-profile national chains such as Ethan
Allen, Home Depot and Borders are turning to subleasing to unload
spaces that are prominent but costly. 

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