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Buoyed by the construction and lease-signing progress at the World Trade Center, the imminent opening of the Sept. 11th Memorial & Museum and 9 million tourists, downtown property owners have been bumping up retail rents.

Lower Manhattan average asking rents on April 30 soared an eye-popping 36 percent from the year-earlier date, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s Spring Retail Report, which is due out today.

Meanwhile, asking rents in more mature areas, including the priciest parts of Fifth and Madison avenues, in and around SoHo and in Herald Square, plateaued or declined as luxe retailers grabbed the best locations last fall and potential renters are now balking at steeper prices being demanded for less desirable spaces.

Rents in the area defined as the corridor along Broadway from Chambers Street south to the Battery jumped to $184 a square foot, a 36 percent hike since last spring.

“The rise in asking rents for retail space [downtown] shows that retailers are looking to capitalize on the increase in pedestrian traffic expected there in the years to come,” said REBNY President Steven Spinola.

The REBNY report found rents along East 86th Street between Lexington and Second Avenue increased 2 percent since last spring to $333 a square foot, and they rose 5 percent on the West Side along Columbus Avenue between West 66th and 79th streets to $255 a square foot.

Times Square asking rents were up 14 percent to $1,600 a square foot.

While the suddenly more desirable Fifth Avenue area from 42nd Street to 49th Street had asking rents bump up 21 percent to $515 a square foot over the past year, rents in the priciest corridor, from 49th to 59th Street, slipped 2 percent to $2,250 a square foot during the same period.

Among the decliners, Madison Avenue rents from 57th to 72nd streets dropped 4 percent from a year ago to $919 a square foot, and the Herald Square area, along West 34th Street from Fifth to Seventh avenues, saw rents drop 9 percent, while Broadway from 72nd to 86th streets fell 6 percent.

Similarly, SoHo saw rents decrease 11 percent to $498 a square foot from $563 in spring 2010.

The spring report comes as Condé Nast finalized a long-awaited 25-year lease agreement this week as anchor tenant of 1 World Trade Center.