Fifth Avenue

From the October issue: Fifth Avenue in the 40s is in retail flux. Nearly a dozen spaces on the
10-block stretch are vacant or on the market, including the former
Circuit City store and the former indoor mall at 575 Fifth Avenue and
47th Street. Meanwhile, new tenants like LittleMissMatched, the upscale
children’s apparel store, have recently entered the area. The strip includes the gateway to the Diamond District, along with the
eastern edge of Rockefeller Center, and is dotted with camera and
souvenir shops, as well as low-end food merchants. It has long been the
dowdy stepsister to Fifth Avenue in the 50s, which is lined with tony
tenants such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany and Bergdorf Goodman. But in recent years, the stretch started attracting higher-end retail
tenants, such as American Girl Place, Build-A-Bear and Aldo, the shoe
store. In fact, many expected it to keep getting fancier. [more]

 The former Kira Plastinina space on Broadway (left) has been rented, while the Satellite space on West Broadway (right) is on the market

Shuttered stores on Broadway and West Broadway in Soho mean very different things, retail brokers say. On Broadway, between Canal and Houston streets, most of the shuttered
stores are currently being renovated and new tenants are moving in,
while on the same stretch of five blocks on West Broadway, the closed
stores are seeing little activity. Retail brokers say Broadway has had several new deals in the past few months. In addition to Escada taking Ann Taylor’s space at 560 Broadway and Bebe leasing the former Staples space
at 488 Broadway, a Spanish apparel company recently signed to take over
Kira Plastinina’s store at 594 Broadway. And off the avenue on Prince
Street, a menswear designer just signed for a space, according to Karen
Bellantoni, an executive vice president at Robert K. Futterman & Associates. [more]