"What we see doesn't look so bad," said Joanne Podell, executive director in Cushman & Wakefield's retail services group and chair of REBNY's retail stores committee. Introducing the report during a panel discussion at a REBNY luncheon yesterday, she noted that despite the turmoil in the capital markets, "retail is holding up."

Of the 17 retail corridors examined in the report, Fifth Avenue between 49th and 59th streets commands the highest average asking rent of $1,400 per square foot as of the end of Q3. That's up 12% from an average of $1,250 in Q3 2007--and rents along that corridor range from $1,200 to $2,500 per square foot. Benjamin Fox, president of Winick Realty Group, noted that the higher figures usually represented smaller spaces.

Substantial year-over-year increases were seen for the Hudson Street corridor--up 62.5% from $75 to $120 per square foot--and West 34th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues--up 38% from $464 to $643 per square foot. Slight declines were seen for the Third Avenue corridor between 60th and 72nd streets--down 6.3% from $305 to $287-- and Fifth Avenue between 14th and 23rd streets--off 8% from $298 to $276. Steeper decreases were recorded for Broadway south of Chambers Street--off 16.6% from $301 to $251 per square foot--and Broadway between Houston and Broome streets--off 13.8% from $501 to $432.