Times Square stands tall as retail rents slip across Manhattan

Neighborhood rents dropped as much as 18% in Q2

Times Square (Credit: Wikipedia)
Times Square (Credit: Wikipedia)

Retail rents are sliding south across the city, bar one exception: Times Square.

Almost all of Manhattan’s main shopping corridors each took a steep retail rent decline in the second quarter of 2018, when compared to year-on-year averages, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report cited by Commercial Observer.

Cushman found the most prominent retail spots took the hardest hits, including Upper Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Soho and Herald Square.

Times Square, however, recorded an increase in average ground-floor rents spike up from $1,977 per-square-foot to $1,993, for the area bordered by Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and West 42nd and West 47th streets.

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Michael Azarian, senior director of retail services at Cushman, told the outlet that a recent entry of new tenants in Times Square, including Lionsgate Entertainment at 11 Times Square and the National Hockey League at 20 Times Square, had been a significant drawcard for the area.

Meanwhile, Upper Fifth Avenue between 49th and 60th streets, recorded an 18 percent year-over-year drop from $3,295 a square foot to $2,694. One other retail-heavy district, Union Square West and Flatiron District, flatlined in retail ground-floor rents, remaining at $421 a square foot.

It comes following a rough first quarter, where retail rents dropped as much as 18.4 percent in the city’s prominent retail strips.  [CO] — David Jeans