Bus terminal's retail revamp.

The city's retail brokers are excited over reports that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to revamp its 42nd Street bus terminal.

"This will finally anchor Times Square to the west and will encapsulate the whole neighborhood into one big, safe, exciting, dynamic neighborhood," said Ben Fox, executive vice president and principal at Newmark Retail.

Located on Eighth Avenue, across the street from the site of the future New York Times Co. building, the Port Authority apparently plans to cash in on the increased office traffic that development will bring.

Although its busy commuter traffic and proximity to Times Square have" kept the terminal's retailers busy in recent years, the area has been considered among the seedier and underdeveloped parts of the city for some time now.

Retail tenants have tended towards lower-end stores that appeal solely to the vast number bf commuters that use the terminal each day. However, the terminal's plans to renovate its building and retail space should attract mid-range, national retailers to the area, changing the area's look and people's perception of it.

"It has come up from being a porno area, scrappy and homeless and now it will just be another great shopping area in the city," said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail leasing and sales division at Prudential Douglas Elliman. "It'll look like 34th street."

Indeed, the Port Authority is aiming to bring in high-end new tenants such as Wholesale Foods and Target and existing tenants will be expected to gussy up to keep in line.

Once the renovations are completed, rent for retail space in the terminal could go up from $150 per s/f to between $200 and $250 per s/f.

"If it brings new traffic and it brings a better shopper, everybody benefits, especially if it's a national tenant who advertises," Consolo said. "Shoppers won't just be commuters or those in Times Square. There will be more traffic and more buyers for all surrounding retailers."