All but one of Manhattan’s major retail corridors saw increases in average asking rents this year, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s spring market report.
The biggest jump is along East 57th Street, where average rents soared 60 percent, to $1,600 per square foot, compared to the same period a year ago, according to the report to be released Monday.
A number of luxury residential projects are rising there, including Macklowe and CIM’s “toothpick tower,” at 432 Park Ave., and World Wide Group and the Rose family’s 250 E. 57th St.
The Upper East and Upper West side neighborhoods have been tracking similar rent increases, the report showed. Broadway from West 72nd to 86th is up 37 percent, to $390 per square foot, from $284 a year ago. On the East Side’s Third Avenue from East 60th to 72nd, rents are up 39 percent to $363 per square foot from $261. Both are major shopping areas.
In the Times Square tourist area along Broadway and Seventh Avenue between West 42nd and 47th streets, however, rents are flat at an already high $2,413 a square foot.
The most expensive Fifth Avenue stretch from 49th to 59th was up 4 percent, to $3,683 a square foot year-over-year. But stores from 42nd to 49th streets rose 17 percent to $1,700 a square foot as more affordable retailers found value in a similar number of feet on the street and building owners believed rents were too low for the traffic and sales generated.
East 86th Street from Lexington to Second avenues has also been transformed, with average rents at $456 a square foot, up 19 percent year-over-year.
