From the November issue: New York is, of course, the shopping (and eating) capital of the country — if not the world. But what do the latest concerns about a double-dip recession mean for the countless stores, restaurants and shops packed into Manhattan?

In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to Manhattan retail brokers about how the retail market — which tanked in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown — is holding up.

Brokers said they are seeing strong rents and activity in prime areas like Fifth Avenue, Time Square, Soho and the Upper West Side. But, they say, secondary and tertiary submarkets are hurting, with continuing declines in asking rents and increases in vacancy rates. [more]

From left: Jeffrey Roseman, executive vice president at Newmark Knight Frank, Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, and Madison Avenue

At least 60 new retailers have opened on Madison Avenue’s northern strip since January 2010, including high-end stores like Bottega Veneta with its $30,000 purses, the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District told the Wall Street Journal. An additional 10 new stores are under construction. Fifth Avenue also makes positive strides, as demand increases.

It’s a notable comeback for the avenue, which lost multiple high-profile tenants in the recession, including Christian Dior and Yves St. Laurent, driving the vacancy rate up to 15 percent at the worst of the market. Rents, which had soared to $1,500 a foot during the boom, also collapsed. [more]

From left: 11 Times Square, 9 West 57th Street and 1333 Broadway (building credit: PropertyShark)

While global economic concerns have landlords of vacant U.S. retail spaces scrambling for any tenant, in Manhattan, landlords are patiently awaiting the perfect tenant for their trophy spaces, the Wall Street Journal reported.

For example, it’s not for lack of interest that the 55,000-square-foot retail space in SJP Properties’ 11 Times Square, at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, has sat vacant for two years. Rather the developer wants to land a big-name and raise the profile of the one million-square-foot tower. [more]

Many of the spaces that used to be the locations of 50 Off Track
Betting Corporation parlors throughout the city have not found new
tenants since the OTB declared bankruptcy and closed down in December, the
New York Times reported. Many residents are happy that the clientele
associated with the parlors in Forest Hills, Queens, Sunset Heights,
Brooklyn and the Upper West Side and other places has left. But
landlords have found marketing the spaces is challenging. The majority of
the outlets now have for-rent signs on them. [more]

From left: Newmark Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman and 23 Wall Street

Cushman & Wakefield has lofty expectations for the three-story, 150,000-square-foot retail space it was retained to market in July at the intersection of Wall and Broad streets, the former headquarters of JP Morgan.
According to the New York Times, the building is currently owned by China Sonangol, but was built in 1914 by J.Pierpont Morgan with pricy pink Knoxville marble and a three-story bank vault, composed of nickel steel, armor, concrete and cast steel and a 52-ton door — unusual features that have brought attention from potential retailers looking to enter the growing retail and residential scene in post-Sept. 11 Lower Manhattan. [more]

Jeff Sutton and 747 Madison Avenue

Prominent Manhattan landlord Jeff Sutton and SL Green Realty have just entered into a contract to buy another high-profile fashion store at 747 Madison Avenue, the New York Post reported. The purchase price is close to $65 million, sources said.

The store, which is at the base of Colony House residential building near East 65th Street and currently houses fashion label Valentino, has 6,700 square feet on the first floor and a 3,100-square-foot lower level currently used for storage, according to data from CoStar.

The expiration of Valentino’s 10-year lease within the next year provides an opportunity for a rent hike, the Post said.  [more]

The Yankees are making a play for another Times Square shop. The baseball franchise just inked a 15-year deal at the landmark 1501 Broadway, also known as the Paramount Building, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to Newmark Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman, who represented landlord Paramount Leashold LP in the deal, the new, 2,000-square-foot space will be a team store when it opens a few months from now, selling Yankees paraphernalia and game tickets. [more]

Kenji Ota (top) and Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark Knight Frank and the Pearl Hotel at 233 West 49th Street

E & E Grillhouse recently signed its first Manhattan lease in the Pearl Hotel at 233 West 49th Street in the Theater District. The 2,300-square-foot raw space had an asking rent of $150 a foot, according to Kenji Ota of Newmark Knight Frank, who represented the tenant but declined to provide the actual price being paid. The Pearl, whose landlord is the Empire Hotel Group, is a small boutique hotel which opened earlier this month. E & E Grillhouse, a steakhouse, will be the hotel’s only restaurant space and is expected to open in spring 2011, Ota said. Empire Hotel was represented by Newmark’s Marc Frankel, Ben Birnbaum and Jeffrey Roseman. TRD
[more]

Could Uniqlo be moving in at 31 West 34th Street?

Just four months after signing one of Manhattan’s most valuable retail deals ever, Japan-based apparel chain Uniqlo is in discussions to lease two or more floors at 31 West 34th Street, one block from Macy’s, according to two sources [more]

Jeff Winick

From the May issue: Drugstore chain Duane Reade had a problem: A competitor was sniffing around a large space across the street from one of its best Midtown locations on Sixth Avenue near West 57th Street. Officials at the store enlisted its broker, Winick Realty Group, to take care of the situation.

Several months later, not only had the competitor disappeared, but Duane Reade had taken that site at 100 West 57th Street for itself.

That’s partly thanks to Winick Realty’s founder and CEO, Jeff Winick, who used back channels to help secure the site for the drugstore. Winick’s aggressive, take-no-prisoners style seems to win him accolades from clients but has created fierce enmity among his competition.

That style has been on full display for the last few weeks in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan, where two former Duane Reade executives are on trial for fraudulently pumping up earnings reports, partly through allegedly bogus real estate transactions involving Winick. [more]