From left: Bradley Mendelson, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield; Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies; Amira Yunis, executive vice president of Newmark and Jason Pruger, Executive Managing Director at Newmark

New York retail brokers and principals are making late appointments and boarding flights over the next few days in preparation to attend the world’s largest retail real estate show in Las Vegas.

Most of the city’s real estate professionals who focus on leasing and sales of store spaces will be at the International Council of Shopping Centers global convention known as RECon, from Sunday to next Wednesday, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The attendee list is a Who’s Who of New York City retail, from landlords like Vornado Realty Trust, Crown Retail Services and Forest City Enterprises to brokerages like Cushman & Wakefield, CB Richard Ellis and Northwest Atlantic. [more]

From left: From left: Newmark’s Jason Pruger and Kenji Ota; Laura Pomerantz of PBS Real Estate; and 28 West 34th Street (source: PropertyShark)

Trendy boot and clothing manufacturer Timberland signed a lease last week to open a store on West 34th Street off Herald Square, on the same block where Japanese apparel giant Uniqlo has been eying space for a new location.

The company known for its rugged footwear inked the 10-year lease for 2,400 square feet of ground floor space (and 2,000 square feet of non-retail cellar space) at 28 West 34th Street Feb. 11, brokers who worked on the deal said. The space was formerly occupied by Prato Fine Men’s Wear. [more]

After leaving New York City last year, the gourmet grocery chain Balducci’s is planning to make a comeback, scouting out several locations for small, quick-service stores, as well as for a 10,000-square-foot flagship store, Crain’s reported. Balducci’s, known for its selection of meats, cheeses and Italian delicacies, currently operates six locations in New York state, Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland, in addition to three quick-service shops at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Balducci’s closed its two last Manhattan locations in Chelsea and the Upper West Side in April 2009. The store also had an outpost on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village from 1972 to 2003. Starting this fall, it is planning to open as many as three small Midtown locations, ranging from 1,000 square feet to 2,000 square feet in size. For its larger flagship store, the chain is looking at “affluent, dense residential neighborhoods” such as the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, said Jason Pruger of Newmark Knight Frank, who is representing Balducci’s, together with colleague Ross Kaplan. [Crain's]

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Manhattan retailers are jumping on cheap storefront real estate, according to industry experts, as commercial landlords slash prices to entice renters. Retail vacancy in the borough hovered above 10 percent in the third quarter this year, according to Crain’s, and small and large retailers are seizing their newly found leverage in the market to upgrade to larger and nicer spots. CVS, for example snagged a 1,200-square-foot spot at 1241 Lexington Avenue, next to an existing location, after the deli that had been there shut down. The expansion at 84th Street marked a 20 percent growth in space. Jason Pruger, a senior managing director at Newmark Knight Frank Retail, said this is a classic example of how stronger retailers are behaving in the market. “The opportunities came, and CVS took them,” Pruger said. “Landlords are eager to capitalize on giving as much space as they can to top tenants.”