Fastest-growing average asking rents were seen on Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th streets, which rose 71% to $1,400 per square foot, while those on Bleecker Street between Seventh Avenue South and Hudson Street rose 30% to $456 per foot, according to REBNY's Spring 2010 Retail Report. Year-over-year increases of 49% and 41%, were seen in the aforementioned Broadway/Seventh Avenue corridor and on Fifth Avenue between 49h and 59h streets, where they now average $2,300 per square foot.

While other retail corridors saw smaller gains, the association's retail advisory group says it's encouraging that most of the corridors surveyed have enjoyed increases rather than decreases in rents since the fall of 2009.

As leasing activity picks up, "inventory within prime corridors is diminishing due to this increasing demand," the report states. Fifth Avenue, East 57th Street and Times Square now face what the report calls "an inventory squeeze," while the previously quiet Madison Avenue corridor has shown "a burst of activity, resulting in the absorption of a substantial amount of the available space." The report cites the return of large-scale, high-rent transactions, such as Uniqlo's record-setting lease at 666 Fifth Ave., as "another sign of growing confidence in the market."