Smaller retailers pop up in prime locations

As large, national chains that can no longer afford high rents are vacating prime retail space, smaller chains and restaurants are taking advantage of lower rents and opening up in locations that were once reserved for national retailers. As landlords look to rent space out to smaller businesses that are seeking to expand or open a first location and that have expendable cash, neighborhoods such as heavily trafficked Soho, where rents last year surged beyond $125 per square foot, are now offering rents below $100 per square foot. In Tribeca, where rents have fallen an average of 30 percent, property owners are also offering several incentives, such as months of free occupancy and early termination clauses, which allow tenants to test certain locations. David Barreto, a retail broker at Cast Iron Real Estate, said that in today’s market, landlords care more about solid tenants than about getting the highest profit.