The fall-off in sales at US brick-and-mortar stores is starting to hit Manhattan’s pricey commercial real estate.

Building owners across town are being forced to cut their rents as sales slow and retailers become cautious, a report due out Monday reveals.

Retail rents in 10 of 17 top Manhattan shopping corridors are getting marked down — some by as much as 16 percent, the report shows.

Rents first showed signs of weakness last fall after a building spree created an apparent glut of available ground floor spaces — but the discounting has accelerated as vacancies multiplied, according to the Real Estate Board of New York Spring Retail Report.

While discounting of rents is a theme, REBNY’s report emphasized that retail real estate in New York City remains fundamentally strong and that the slowdown was occurring in both the national and global marketplaces.

Two bright spots in Manhattan were downtown — the Financial District and the World Trade Center area are booming, the report found.

“The changing economic landscape has not been immediately felt across all Manhattan corridors, but our Retail Advisory Group suggests that the next twelve months will be a decisive period in which we may see more asking rent price adjustments,” John H. Banks, III, REBNY president, said in a statement.

Among specific areas:

  •  Soho has struggled the most as new building owners tried to get top dollar without success. With many vacancies and subleases available, average asking rents have now fallen 16 percent on Broadway between Houston and Broome streets — from $977 to $824 per square foot.

“Retail has been resistant to repricing but before you call ‘The End’ you have the ability to adjust pricing to see how it impacts demand,” explained Gene Speigelman, vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield.

  •  Average asking rents along West 34th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues declined 11 percent — from $1,000 to $890 per square foot — but for a different reason. There, lower-priced spaces were coming onto the market.
  •  Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd streets saw rent drop 3 percent — to $1,644 per foot from the $1,700 per foot. Exclusive brands have delayed leasing new space at the same time newly available higher-priced spaces have been brought to market. But more space with lower asking rents tempered the drop.

 

In addition, other examples of strength downtown include:

    •  Along Lower Broadway between Battery Park and Chambers Street however, asking rents for ground floor retail space leaped 39 percent — from $234 per foot in the spring of 2015 to $326 per square foot now as large spaces are few and far between.

New residents and businesses in the immediate area — as well as those in Downtown Brooklyn and South Brooklyn that can take advantage of the Financial District’s new transportation hubs — attributed to Lower Broadway’ s strength, REBNY said.

  • Meanwhile, the tony area of Bleecker Street between Seventh Ave. South and Hudson Street had asking rents that bumped 7 percent to $513 per foot from $481 per foot in the spring of 2015.