Retail rents are pushing up along Broadway in the Financial District as area building owners prepare for the World Trade Center tourist invasion and the new commercial buildings now visibly pushing into the skyline.
Already, the Downtown Alliance has counted over 9 million visitors passing through the area, up by 2 million from the year before. The September 11th Memorial and Museum is scheduled to open on the 10th anniversary of the attacks this year and should prompt even more visitations.
“When the Memorial opens it will be a sigh of relief,” said Christine Emery of the Lansco Co. “It will be very sad — like the Vietnam Memorial — but it will be a place for people to go to remember. And they have to eat and shop.”
Over the last year, the Real Estate Board of New York found the corridor along Broadway from Chambers St. to the Battery had a 36 percent uptick in retail asking rents to $184 a foot. Asking rents are up 23 percent just since last fall.
“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 Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, which released its Spring Retail Report last week.
Emery, who represents retail spaces at 15 Broad St. by the New York Stock Exchange, noted that when Tiffany and Hermes opened, rents had surged to about $400 a foot but had come down to around $200 a foot after the “crash.”
“Before the crash we had letters of intent from every major retailer,” Emery said. “We are hanging in and trying to cobble things together with the right use and the right ‘approachable’ retailers.”
But some brokers say their clients are still waiting to see what will happen at the World Trade Center concourse mall.
Westfield Properties is still negotiating with the Port Authority to jointly own over 400,000 square-feet in the base and underground concourses of the World Trade Center. Westfield would manage and lease the mall area, which is expected to become a destination while serving daily commuters, office employees, local residents and visitors. That agreement could be signed this summer — or not.
Brookfield Properties is also expected to reveal plans for a more vibrant outdoor presence at the Vesey Street entrance to the World Financial Center to brokers at the International Council of Shopping Center’s event in Las Vegas this week.
Additionally, a joint venture of SL Green Realty Corp., Harel Insurance and Jeff Sutton is building a new Pace University dorm at 180 Broadway that will have nearly 30,000 square-feet of retail in three base floors.
That space is just south of the upcoming Fulton Street Transit Hub which will be another people magnet for the area.
L&L Holdings, which owns 195 Broadway across the street, also has extensive plans for retail space in the base of its landmark building.
