Causeway Bay in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is hanging on to its lead over New York City as home to the priciest retail space in the world, according to a report from CBRE Group cited by Reuters.

The flashy shopping hub has 50 percent higher retail rent than similar districts, including Manhattan’s most expensive retail stretch, Fifth Avenue from 49th to 59th streets. In high-end shopping areas in Hong Kong, the city averaged $4,328 per square foot.New York took second place among the most expensive global retail markets, with its prime rents averaging $2,970 per square foot, Reuters said. [more]

From left: Soho retail and Peter Brant

A retail rent in Soho has topped $1,000 per square foot, a new benchmark for Downtown, Crain’s reported. [more]

Times Square

Retail rents for Times Square are starting to give Fifth Avenue a run for its money, according to Crain’s. Rates in the tourist hub reached as much as $2,400 a square foot in the fourth quarter of last year, a 42 percent increase from 2011′s final three months. Last month, the Sunglass Hut inked a deal with Vornado Realty Trust for 1540 Broadway, between 45th and 46th streets,  at $2,025 a square foot. [more]

Bed Stuy retail shops

Bedford-Stuyvesant’s retail market is starting to heat up, with big and small tenants alike moving into the area, the Wall Street Journal reported. Recently large retailers, such as Walgreens, Sprint and McDonald’s, have expanded in the central Brooklyn neighborhood, as have small businesses like My Arena lounge, the Busy Bee Bagel Cafe and Alice’s Arbor, a new restaurant. [more]

A Mandee location at 3860 E. Tremont Avenue in the Bronx

The retailer Big M, owner of  low-priced chains Mandee and Annie Sez, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday afternoon, after Hurricane Sandy shut down its stores in New York and New Jersey, Crain’s reported.  The Totowa, N.J.-based company cited both assets and liabilities of between $50 million and $100 million. It owes money to more than 1,000 creditors. Big M operates at least 15 Mandee stores in New York City, several of which were on hard-hit Staten Island. In total, the Big M operates 84 Mandee stores, 35 Annie Sez stores and 10 Afaze stores…. [more]

From the December issue:  With parts of the city still damaged in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, it’s a little hard to get into the holiday spirit this year. Still, real estate professionals said they expect a strong holiday-shopping season — bolstered by locals and tourists alike — to push Manhattan retail rents higher and shrink availability, at least in the city’s prime retail corridors. “I think all of us in retail have a lot of confidence coming into the holiday season,” said Joanne Podell, executive vice president in retail at Cushman & Wakefield. That confidence is not unfounded. [more]

One New York Plaza

Brookfield Office Properties’ One New York Plaza is planning a gut renovation of its 31,000-square-foot, sub-level retail concourse, known as the Plaza Shops, in an effort to attract new tenants, the New York Observer reported. One New York Plaza — Lower Manhattan’s southernmost skyscraper — located at the intersection of South and Whitehall streets, was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, pumping out some 23-million-gallons of water after the storm.

“All of the water was removed within six days, and now those yellow ducts are feeding warm air to completely dry the space out,” Matt Cherry, a spokesperson for Brookfield Office Properties told the Commercial Observer.  “Obviously the retail was on the concourse level, which was hit hardest by the storm.  We basically demolished the space, so the status of that right now isn’t certain.” [more]

From left: Wade McDevitt and the World Financial Center

Brookfield Office Properties is pushing back the opening of its revamped World Financial Center retail space by nearly a year, retail insiders say; the relaunch had been scheduled previously for the fall of 2013.

The reopening date for the vast majority of the 200,000-square-foot, $250 million retail project is now August 2014, sources familiar with Brookfield’s plans, said. Two small portions of the project, the dining terrace and the Pavillion, an underground passageway that connects the PATH train station to the World Financial Center, are still slated to open in 2013. [more]

Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, and Mary Ann Tighe, REBNY chairperson

Average asking rents are continuing to climb in some major Manhattan retail corridors due to high demand and a limited availability of space, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s fall Manhattan retail market report, which was released today. Overall in Manhattan, however, asking rents were down 4 percent from the spring and 2 percent year-over-year due to prime spaces already being occupied by tenants.

One of the areas that stands out is lower Fifth Avenue, between 42nd and 49th streets. In fall 2012, average asking rents ticked in at $1,021, up 13 percent from the spring 2012 figure of $900 and a cool 51 percent increase from the same period last year when the average came in at $675. [more]

From left: Richard LeFrak, Rob Speyer and Haim Chera

Increasingly low interest rates are driving commercial property prices through the roof, leaving investors vulnerable when rates inevitably climb back up, real estate pros said today at the Bloomberg Commercial Real Estate Summit.

The $380 million sale of a prime retail condominium inside the St. Regis New York hotel is just one high-profile example of sky high prices, they said. Swiss luxury-goods company Richemont North America bought the 24,800-square-foot condo from a partnership led by Crown Acquisitions, Goldman Properties and the Feil Organization for $15,100 per square foot, it was previously reported. [more]