Manhattan, LA and Chicago lead retail investment sales

Manhattan came out ahead of the rest of the country in the retail investment market last year with a total transaction volume of $6.5 billion, according to a new report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Los Angeles was a close second, with sales volume of $6.2 billion, and Chicago was third with $3.1 billion. The figures all represent retail investment sales volume for the year ending with the first quarter of 2015.

The next biggest markets were Dallas ($2.5 billion) New York City’s outer boroughs ($2.4 billion) Miami ($2.1 billion), Atlanta ($1.9 billion), and Northern New Jersey ($1.8 billion).

The volume of all first-quarter transactions across the country was up 5 percent from last year to $24 billion, and the average per-square-foot price increaed to $230, a 14 percent increase, according to the report.

“As unemployment falls and incomes begin to rise again, Americans are cautiously loosening the purse strings,” said Gene Spiegelman, head of North America retail services for Cushman & Wakefield, in a statement.

“Improving demand across the country — coupled with an ongoing restraint in new supply — should keep investors interested for quite some time.”

Construction of new inventory is slow, decreasing to 43 million square feet currently under construction in the first quarter from 57.2 million in the first quarter of 2014. Retail vacancies decreased very slightly, half a percentage point to 6.1 percent.

Manhattan investment sales in general, not limited to retail, hit $55.8 billion in 2014. [PRESS RELEASE] — Tess Hofmann