Soho shines in Manhattan retail’s road to recovery 

There were two tiers of Manhattan’s retail recovery in the third quarter: Soho and everywhere else.

The neighborhood counted 16 retail leases for 108,000 square feet signed last quarter, according to CBRE data reported by the New York Business Journal. The data came courtesy of the firm’s Manhattan Retail Figures report.

Soho trounced the other 15 other retail corridors in the borough. The area counted more than double the activity of second-place Grand Central, which saw four deals comprising 47,000 square feet. 

Across Manhattan, the average asking rents surged for the fifth straight quarter, notching a mark of $663 per square foot. There’s still a long way to go for Manhattan to reach its 2014 peak, when average asking rents 40 percent above last quarter’s levels.

Aggregate leasing volume also declined last quarter as an increase in available space met a slowdown in demand. Aggregate leasing volume dropped 2.6 percent from the previous quarter and 17 percent year-over-year.

Ground-floor availability increased for the first time in more than two years as more than 200 spaces were vacant last quarter.

The apparel industry was the biggest driver of deals, notching 19 for more than 156,000 square feet. Four of the quarter’s five biggest deals were in the apparel category, led by Banana Republic’s 30,000-square-foot short-term lease at Premier Equities’ 515 Broadway in Soho.

Retail is proving to be a bright spot during commercial real estate’s time of turmoil, not only in Manhattan, but across the country. In the second quarter, CBRE recorded its lowest national availability rate in its 18 years of tracking.

— Holden Walter-Warner

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