The Manhattan retail leasing market is still in a corrective period. The increased rents of previous years are receding. Deals are still getting done, but they favor parties willing to be flexible with deal structure, uses, asking rent adjustments, and increased concession packages. The correction may prove healthy for both the short and long-term viability of the Manhattan retail leasing market. Per square foot ground floor retail asking rents declined year-over-year in 13 of the 17 high profile corridors. The most resilient corridors to this trend were the Flatiron Fifth Avenue corridor, where the ground floor retail average asking rent rose 15 percent to $449 psf year-over-year; and the Lower Manhattan Broadway corridor,where the average asking rent increased two percent year-over-year to $374 psf.
