The Macy’s in Herald Square is getting a four-year, $400 million renovation, the company announced this morning.

The renovation will begin in the early spring and continue through the fall of 2015, and all the while, the store will remain open. The project includes adding 100,000 square feet of shopping space — bringing the total selling footprint to 1.2 million square feet — by re-purposing stock and office rooms and extending the mezzanine. The entire structure at 154 West 34th Street is about 2.2 million square feet. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

Spanish fashion retailer Mango is opening its second New York location at 7 West 34th Street this fall, DNAinfo reported. Although a spokesperson declined to comment on an exact opening date, staff at the store’s Soho location said it will probably be in early September.

Mango is just one in a string of upscale retail tenants coming to the area, DNAinfo reported. Japanese clothing store Uniqlo is set to open its third New York store on the stretch and Levi’s and Timberland footwear store just opened in May.

As The Real Deal previously reported, new stores are a boost for the landlords on 34th Street, who have seen an increase in rental rates and property values. There are 11 landlords on the block between Fifth and Sixth avenues who rent to approximately 30 retailers. Top owners are SL Green Realty and JEMB Realty, which own the two large properties, at the western edge of the street. [more]

The city is dropping its plans to build a 34th Street pedestrian plaza between Fifth and Sixth avenues in Manhattan in the midst of mounting criticism from the community, the Bloomberg administration announced yesterday. The project, which would have barred automobiles on the block between Herald Square and the Empire State Building and established bus-only lanes separated by concrete barriers on either side by the end of 2012, will now be revised and unveiled to the public March 14, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told the New York Times. [more]

Developers Douglas Durst and Harold Fetner are set to break ground on a $350 million skyscraper on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 30th Street, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Durst Fetner partnership will begin construction within a year, as they conclude negotiations with Pelli Clarke Pelli, the team behind another high-profile planned Midtown tower, 15 Penn Plaza. Durst Fetner Residential, which closed on the construction in late December 2010, was angling to buy the site for six years, sources say. [more]

One of New York City’s most iconic retailers may soon sport a new look. The Macy’s flagship store at 151 West 34th Street on Seventh Avenue is considering a major aesthetic overhaul, according to Women’s Wear Daily, including a renovation of the sales floors and the 34th Street entrance. The cosmetic update for the 108-year-old Herald Square mainstay is rumored to have been in the works for a long time, but the recession reportedly put the effort on hold. No word yet on the cost of the renovations or when they might begin.

The city is seeking proposals for an expansion of its Times and Herald Square pedestrian plazas across the city, yesterday asking community non-profit groups to submit ideas for neighborhoods including Murray Hill and the Upper East Side in Manhattan, Astoria, Queens and Borough Park, Brooklyn. The Lincoln Center area is also a likely candidate, with groups already plotting an expansion of Dante Park and an upgrade to the open space near Martin Luther King High School at West 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. This isn’t the first time the Department of Transportation has asked for such proposals, having approved 32 applications in a first-round process in 2008, but it is the first time the agency has sought proposals since Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced earlier this year that the trial plazas in Times Square and Herald Square would be there to stay. Groups have until June 30 to submit their proposals, and accepted plazas would be slated for construction by July 2012. [Post]

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is sticking with Seventh Avenue this year, but the parade’s future may be further east, and the shift has Times Square hotel and restaurant owners jittery. Large hotels are hesitant to take advance Thanksgiving reservations without the promise of a parade view, and the companies that own Times Square signs cannot set their rates without knowing whether the space will be televised on that day. Last year, the parade moved from Broadway to Seventh Avenue to accommodate the city’s new pedestrian plazas, which, at the time, were temporary. The 2009 parade traveled down Seventh Avenue from 59th to 42nd streets, hitting Times Square before veering onto Sixth Avenue and making its way to Herald Square. It included four extra turns, and with the pedestrian plazas now becoming permanent, Macy’s is worried about safely maneuvering the signature helium balloons through the more complex route in years to come. On the other hand, the Hotel Association of New York City said moving the parade to Sixth Avenue would mean a projected loss of $40 million in hotel room revenues, given that there are more than twice as many hotels on Seventh Avenue as on Sixth. [Crain’s]

From left: Pret A Manger is moving in on the corner of 29th Street and Seventh Avenue and Fresh & Co. is a recent addition to the neighborhood on the corner of 30th Street and Seventh Avenue

Once thought of as a transit hub for travelers moving in and out of Penn Station, a strip of Seventh Avenue is slowly gaining retailer clout. Brokers say the stretch of retail from 29th to 34th streets is improving because of shifting real estate values, large development projects on the horizon and the influence of one property owner: Vornado Realty Trust. In the last few months, the quality of retailers in the area appears to have shifted. Fresh & Co., an upscale — primarily lunch — eatery, opened several months ago at the corner of 30th Street and Seventh Avenue. Pret A Manger, meanwhile, has plywood up on the corner of West 29th Street. And, within a couple of months after Supermac macaroni and cheese joint’s closing last November, a new vegan sit-down restaurant opened in the location on Seventh Avenue between 29th and 30th streets. And, as these high-end eateries crop up, some retail experts say that the neighborhood is turning a corner. [more]

Retail real estate data indicated a mixed bag for Manhattan businesses this fall, as asking rates for storefront space fluctuated wildly across the island. The report showed that some neighborhoods declined, correcting from all-time high rates, while others fared better. The borough’s most venerated high-end shopping neighborhoods are holding on, even in the rough economy, with surprisingly strong numbers, according to the Fall Retail Report released today from the Real Estate Board of New York. Overall average asking rents for Manhattan retail space dropped 9 percent to $117 per square foot. The Fifth Avenue shopping corridor between 49th and 59th streets saw average asking rents for ground-floor retail space at $2,050 per square foot this fall, up 46 percent from fall 2008, while asking rates in the Meatpacking District went up 23 percent to $375 per square foot, and Soho rates jumped 12 percent to $483 per square foot.
The rates run contrary to widely reported negative news on retail lease rates in the city. Other key shopping regions, including Times Square and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th streets, saw moderate year-over-year increases in their average asking rents for autumn this year as well, according to the report. TRD [more]

Times Square (left) and the Flatiron District

The average asking rent for all available retail space in Manhattan
fell 11
percent between fall 2008 and spring 2009, the first meaningful decline
since September 11, 2001, according to the Real Estate Board of New
York’s spring 2009 retail report. Some areas, however, saw rents increase. Ground-floor average asking rents
in Times Square increased
71 percent between spring 2009 and the same time last year. The average asking rent in the area — on Broadway and Seventh Avenue, between 42nd and
47th streets — where Forever 21 and American Eagle are opening,
reached $1,381 per square foot this spring, up from $809 during the
same time last year. The median asking rent jumped 79 percent, to
$1,450 a foot from $809. TRD

[more]