By Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Despite a slow economic recovery, the rents landlords are asking for in retail spaces in key Manhattan neighborhoods have been steadily rising, according to a new report.
Since fall 2009, rents for retail space in Times Square climbed a whopping 107 percent on average, from $891 to $1,700 per square foot, according to the Real Estate Board of New York's (REBNY) Fall 2010 Retail Report.
REBNY President Steven Spinola said that because asking rents are lower than they were during the real estate boom years, more and more retailers had the "opportunity to locate in corridors that they wouldn't otherwise be able to break into."
"As a result of these opportunities in premier retail areas, the retail space market has become competitive again and average rents are rising," said Spinola.
Other neighborhoods that showed significant growth over the last year include the following:
- Bleecker Street between Seventh Avenue South and Hudson Street, where the average asking rent increased 38 percent, from $352 to $486 per square foot.
- Broadway between Houston and Broome streets, where average price per square foot jumped nine percent, from $483 to $526.
- Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd streets, where asking rents rose an average of 14 percent, from $919 to $1,049 per square foot.
For retail spaces across the borough of Manhattan, the asking rent rose an average of four percent from Spring 2010, to $118 per square foot.
"This is the trend that we hope will eventually spread into other city neighborhoods."
Shopping areas that are still trending downward include the following:
- 125th Street, river to river, where the average price per square foot decreased 8 percent from Spring 2010, from $127 to $117.
- Fifth Avenue between 14th and 23rd streets, where asking rent dropped an average of 11 percent from Spring 2010, from $285 to $255 per square foot.
- West 34th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues, where the asking price per square foot dropped 16 percent on average since Spring 2010, from $500 to $419.
The biggest drop was East 86th Street between Lexington and Second avenues, where the average asking retail rent dropped 19 percent from Fall 2009, from $363 to $293 per square foot.
Michael Slattery, REBNY's senior VP, said he didn't believe the downward trend on East 86th Street had anything to do with the Second Avenue Subway project.
"Sometimes it's just the nature of the space," he said.