NEW YORK CITY-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement yesterday of a city ad campaign aimed at attracting tourists to Lower Manhattan coincided with the news that asking rents for retail are on the rise in the area.

The campaign, created by NYC & Co., the city’s official marketing and tourism organization, will be officially unveiled on May 24 at a travel conference in San Francisco. A NYC & Co. spokeswoman declined to give details to GlobeSt.com ahead of Tuesday’s unveiling. A release from the city, however, indicates that the campaign’s retail component will include 20% off offers at some Lower Manhattan shops and restaurants, as well as other incentives to drive tourist traffic to the area.

The upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11 and the news that Conde Nast will move offices to 1 World Trade Center have placed increased attention on the neighborhood. As the campaign was being announced, word came that asking prices for retail rents are on the rise in the area as well. The Real Estate Board of New York’s Spring Retail Report cites a 23% surge in asking rents for the shopping corridor on Broadway, from Chambers street to Battery Park.

“There was a lot of talk about Conde Nast going downtown early on,” Michael Slattery, SVP at the REBNY, tells GlobeSt.com. “The hope is that that announcement will also spur movement of other tenants downtown.” Slattery says that tourism is a main driving force behind higher asking rents.

Michael Stone, a senior director on Cushman & Wakefield’s retail services team, also says that rising asking rents are a function of the tourists who daily flock to the area. “We’re representing two spaces on Broadway and what we’re seeing is that the Broadway market is trending upward, mostly due to the anticipation of the completion of the Fulton Transit Station and the World Trade Center site,” Stone says. As redevelopment at the WTC site continues, Stone anticipates retail rents continuing to rise as well.

“It’s pretty certain that the asking rates are going to rise down there,” he says. “There is more retail being built as part of the redevelopment of the World Trade Center and probably additional retail at the World Financial Center. Broadway is continuing to repurpose itself and as the Fulton Transit Center nears completion I think that you’ll continue to see better retail both south and north of Fulton Street.”