Always something new in world's greatest city.

New York is the greatest city in the world to walk around its varied streets, explore the unexpected, and make new discoveries all the time.

These days one new discovery could be the new addition to the Museum of Modern Art and its Danny Meyer restaurant, "Modern".

One can head into MOMA to view the "Highline" exhibit which showcases the plans for the transformation of the long abandoned tracks that run along 10th Avenue from 34th Street south to Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District.

It is here where Andre Balazs is building his new Standard Hotel, a more economical version of his Mercer Hotel in SoHo. Also, Theory, the apparel company, is building its flagship showroom/retail store on Gansevoort between Hudson Street and Ninth Avenue. For a European feel, walk the cobble-stoned blocks around Pastis on Ninth Avenue and Little West 12th Street.

The grittier the streets get, the livelier the trek north from the Chelsea Market. Visit the exciting Maritime Hotel on 9th Avenue and 16th Street and then head west up 10th Avenue past the Park Restaurant with its rooftop sunset views. Or explore the assortment of contemporary art galleries that have left SoHo and migrated to the blocks between 19th and 26th Streets between 10th and 11th Avenue in Chelsea.

SoHo may be less rarified today, but those merchants who have replaced the galleries are finding that SoHo is more compelling than ever despite its transformation into an urban shopping destination, with many of the major national players in close proximity to one another.

Yes, the chic and more imaginative fashion choices such as Marc Jacobs, Marni, Issey Miyake, and APC are still here, but the mainstays such as Club Monaco, Bloomindale's, and H&M are ringing up sales seven days a week.

And if you go to the very West Village, residential development is quite strong as evidenced by projects like Morton Square, the three Richard Meier Towers, and the Related proposed development of the former Superior Ink Factory. In time, more retail tenants will be there too, to cater to these new and affluent area residents. Change in the retail landscape now includes Brooklyn, the Bronx, and upper Manhattan. These areas appeal to and attract a broad spectrum of people that a generation ago might have migrated instead to SoHo, the East Village, and the Lower East Side.

All this has created an opportunity for other areas to be "retail reinvigorated".

Back in Manhattan, the Avalon Bay Chrystie Place development on Houston Street and the Bowery, anchored by a Whole Foods Supermarket, is a grossly underserved area that stretches all the way to the East River and is undergoing a retail and residential boom.

My wish list. Instead of a stadium in the West 30's, let progress move along in a more "organic" fashion. Is anyone really convinced that a stadium will foster more development of the kind New Yorkers want to see?

The waterfront is one of the greatest assets of this city.

With a push for the extension of the number 7 subway line to link workers and residents to the heart of midtown, you can create instant access and meaningful development with retail certain to follow.

At this moment in time, the conversion of many former office buildings downtown into residential property serves to fuel the growth of retail that has been long absent.

If there is one unifying theme to activity in New York it is that we are a more vibrant city than ever before and this is the place where people want to live to experience life to the fullest!

BETH GREENWALD, DIRECTOR,

NEWMARK RETAIL, LLC.