1456 First Avenue (credit: PropertyShark)

A yoga studio has leased the former ground-floor storefront of Blockbuster Video at 1456 First Avenue between 74th and 75th streets, Newmark Knight Frank Retail announced today.

House of Jai Yoga will take the 2,360 square feet of space at ground level, in addition to 1,800 square feet on the lower level. The rent for the 10-year lease was not immediately available. The studio will offer a variety of types of yoga instruction, which include prenatal, kids, and teen classes. According to the studio’s Facebook page, it will open in a few weeks. [more]

From the November issue: Twenty-Ninth Street, between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, is a block in transition. Once dominated by knock-off purse dealers and wholesale perfumeries, this diverse stretch is now home to a hip hotel and pricey new boutiques.

It’s also the site of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque, and the scents of halal now mingle with those of Stumptown Coffee, the Michelin-starred Breslin Bar & Dining Room, and the Pakistani and Indian restaurant Gourmet Palace. A few doors down is the church where Donald Trump married his first wife, Ivana.

The block, residents and brokers predict, is poised for a development explosion. Local landlords say they are now raising rents for tenants, and receiving countless inquiries from developers, restaurateurs, and retailers looking to move onto the block.

“There [are] not that many areas left to develop right around Fifth Avenue,” explained Larry Rich, senior vice president of marketing at the brokerage Core, who often shows apartments in the area. [more]

Urban clothier Nida just signed a lease for a 2,100-square-foot space at 571-573 Hudson Street, between West 11th and Bank streets in the West Village. Nida — in its first New York location — will occupy 1,050 square feet on the ground and 1,050 square feet in the basement, and the store is scheduled to open this winter. Robert K. Futterman & Associates represented the tenants, while Newmark Knight Frank Retail represented the landlord, 571 Hudson Street Corp. “Nida was looking to find an ideal location to serve as its East Coast
presence and the West Village was a viable option, with its incredible
storefronts and visibility,” said Karen Bellantoni, executive vice
president at RKF. TRD [more]

From the July issue: Nearly a dozen retail vacancies dot
Broadway between Houston Street and
Astor Place. In recent years of economic excess, the strip languished
in the shopping shadow of its neighbors — trendy Soho to the south and
bustling Union Square to the north.
But in today’s sagging economy, Noho, with its rents half the price
of areas like Soho, could draw new retail blood such as apparel
tenants, gourmet markets, and European brands that would have
previously turned their noses up at the area, brokers said. Still, the
economy and bleak national retail picture are stalling the
neighborhood’s resurgence. Due to market conditions, “so many retailers
have pulled back,”
said Jeffrey Roseman, a principal and executive vice president at
Newmark Knight Frank Retail. [more]