NRC gets retail overview.While Manhattan stores are filling up with a seemingly endless supply of national retailers, Edward A. Friedman, president of Newmark Retail Services, warned the National Realty Club members there are still retailers going out of business. National and international retailers have the ability to support New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. stores, he noted, even though a local room and pop may not. Everyone wants to be in New York City, he observed to the group, gathered at the 60 East Club for their May luncheon. Friedman told REW n. 1. A row. later, "The leases are being made and there is a perception that if we come out [of the downturn], this is the place to be." While there are some room and pop stores, they are not necessarily making money. "It's a whole mixed bag as to who's doing the business," Friedman said. "It's the haves and the have nots. It's that much of a difference. There is so much action in the retail market only because there is so much optimism." While the Wall Street area store vacancy rate is down from 18 percent to 15 percent, and there are more people working there today than 20 years ago, there is still a psychological problem, Friedman noted. "They have been almost so brainwashed brain·wash tr.v. brain·washed, brain·wash·ing, brain·wash·es To subject to brainwashing. n. The process or an instance of brainwashing. that they are going to be laid off, that they are not shopping down there," he said. Nevertheless, shops in the World Trade Center have been leasing to noted national retailers like Banana Republic banana republic n. A small country that is economically dependent on a single export commodity, such as bananas, and is typically governed by a dictator or the armed forces. and the Gap and achieving higher rents than ever observed there. The World Financial Center is "thriving," with a number of new leases. Even the Lower Broadway Lower Broadway is a street that is a focal point of Nashville, Tennessee. The street runs east and west between Interstate 65 and the west bank of the Cumberland River. corridor is seeing stores like Cosmetic Plus, New World Coffees and Payless Shoe Stores. Greenwich Village had "its share of problems," Friedman said but now the area around Sixth Avenue and 8th Street is starting to stabilize. In the Noho area, Astor Place has few vacancies, he added. Union Square and in particular the corridors up into the Flat Iron district are also seeing increases in rents. Further north, Madison Avenue continues its mall renaissance and Friedman sees the area as a less costly alternative to the prime section of Fifth Avenue that runs from 42nd to 57th Street. Even so, the highest rent is achieved on the 57th Street block that runs between Fifth and Madison Avenues. "Tenants are coming in because of the density of population," he explained. Warner Brothers is expanding its Fifth Avenue store. "They can't handle what they are doing today," he said. In another sign of the ever-surging retail market, Gianni Versace is leasing the former Olympic Airways space that had been available for the past six or seven years. Sixth Avenue, he noted, "is a very, very hot retail area," as is Times Square. "More people want to be in that area in the buildings that are not being demolished," he explained. To serve as a reminder that retailers go out of business, Friedman read off a list that included Job Lot, Kiddie kid·die or kid·dy n. pl. kid·dies Slang A small child. kiddie Noun Informal a child City, Trader Horn, Martin Paint and Preferred Seating. Retailers that are expanding in the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of marketplace include Cosmetics Plus, Duane Reade, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 360 stores in 42 states (as of 2006). In early 2007, the first location to be opened in Canada will be at the Vaughan Mills mall in Toronto. , 9 West, Discovery Zone and Starbucks. CVS (1) (Concurrent Versions System) A version control system for Unix that was initially developed as a series of shell scripts in the mid-1980s. CVS maintains the changes between one source code version and another and stores all the changes in one file. is opening at 8th Avenue and 24th Street in an expansion from the suburbs. "There are a dozen tenants I haven't mentioned that are looking," Friedman added, as he predicted a scarcity of stores. |
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