While it may be time to start wringing your hands about the housing market — who’d have thought you could actually lose money on a Manhattan apartment? — as far as retail rents are concerned, it’s boomtown, baby. New figures from the Real Estate Board of New York are in, and, as the Observer’s The Real Estate reports, the average asking rent for a space on a major Manhattan retail corridor has jumped 12.5 percent over the last year. Ground floors on Madison Avenue are up 26 percent, to $1,000 per square foot. (Hang in there, beloved In-House Nosh Cafe!) Other insanity?
• Retail rents on Seventh Avenue in midtown are up 42 percent, hitting $479 per square foot.
• West 42nd Street is up a crazy 50 percent from last year, to $300 per square foot.
• Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District jumped 28 percent, to $263 per square foot
• Even 125th Street rents are up 15 percent, to $100 per square foot.
• And Fifth Avenue in midtown, although up a mere 27 percent, takes the cake with the retail rents averaging $1,035 per square foot.
Another Report, Another Rise in Manhattan Retail Rents [The Real Estate/NYO]
This Isn’t Their Moment [NYM]
