Restaurant applications jump 25%

As rents fall in the city, more
restaurants are looking to open. There was a 25 percent jump in
applications for new restaurant permits in New York City during the
first three and a half months of the year, compared to the same time
last year, according to the New York City Department of Health. The
Real Estate Board of New York says the average asking rent for all
available retail space in Manhattan fell 11 percent between fall 2008
and spring 2009. “This is an opportunity they haven’t had before this,”
Faith Hope Consolo, director of retail leasing and sales at Prudential
Douglas Elliman, said. “All the major retailers [and] all the banks took the
space before. It was so expensive. Now you can make a reasonable deal.”