REBNY Report: Retail Holds Up

NEW YORK CITY-Manhattan’s overall asking rents for ground floor retail space are down 3% to $129 compared to a year ago, according to the fall edition of the Real Estate Board of New York’s semiannual report. However, the report notes year-over-year increases for several of Manhattan’s prime shopping corridors, and members of REBNY’s retail report advisory group said Wednesday they’re optimistic about 2009.

“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.