NYC’s Retail Market Shows Resilience

The average availability rate for NYC retail space has reached a new low in the post-pandemic world, the Commercial Observer reports. Just 15.4 percent of prime retail space was available on average during the first quarter of this year, a new retail market report from JLL (JLL) found.

That figure is nearly half of the 2021 average rate of 28 percent, and well below the average rate of 21 percent recorded during the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to JLL.

Helping boost the market are such luxury brands as Kering, Louis Vuitton and Rolex, the CO reports, particularly along upper Fifth Avenue, where Kering paid $963 million for a retail condo at 715-717 Fifth Avenue in January. The Fifth Avenue corridor has the highest average asking rent in the city by far, at $2163 per square foot for ground-floor space.

The retail market is tightest on Madison Avenue between East 57th and East 72nd streets. Availability rates there dropped to just 5.9 percent this past quarter, a record low for the luxury stretch, according to JLL.

In terms of average asking rent, the Flatiron District is on the opposite end of the stick from upper Fifth Avenue, at $248 per square foot, the lowest recorded by JLL in the city for the quarter. SoHo — which has been a strong market post-COVID — also had relatively low average asking rents for Manhattan, at $281 per square foot.

Click here for the Commercial Observer report.