Manhattan's retail landlords are adjusting to the new normal
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- Retail rents across Manhattan continued to fall in 2018’s second quarter.
- Midtown South’s office market surpassed Midtown in asking rents for the first time.
- New York City has 16.4 acres of undeveloped land in its central business district — more than other coastal cities including Miami, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
- Bay Area tech firms continue to pour into New York City and other places.
Retail landlords adjust to new norm
Retail rents across Manhattan continued to fall in 2018’s second quarter, but leasing activity is picking up as landlords come to terms with the market, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield. “We’ve seen more velocity,” said Steve Soutendijk, a retail broker at the firm. “There’s definitely been a shift in landlords’ expectations.” Along Madison Avenue, where rents fell by 9.2 percent year over year, 16 new stores opened in the first half of the year. And two new deals, Puma’s lease at 609 Fifth Avenue and Forever 21’s lease at 435 Seventh Avenue, debunk the notion that the era of the flagship is over, Soutendijk argued. Those deals are “reflective of the fact that tenants still need flagship stores to showcase their brand,” he said. Flatiron was the strongest market in the second quarter, with asking rents remaining flat at $421 per square foot and the availability rate dropping by 3 percentage points to 12.7 percent. Soho, on the other hand, continued to struggle. Rents there fell by 12.6 percent to $418, second only to Upper Fifth Avenue, while availability inched up to 24.5 percent.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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