The Top Ten Spaces to Watch in 2010

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With only a few days left in 2009, it's time to look back at a year of dizzying highs and crushing lows, a year when every empty storefront held a pop-up shop and every sidewalk a sample sale line. Folks, it's the annual (three years running!) Racked Recap. This week, we'll be reliving our biggest and brightest (and saddest and darkest) moments, from the best collabs to the worst pop-up shops. Take a deep breath of the sweet, sweet nostalgia.

2009 saw the demise of a great many New York retail entities; but there's always a silver lining in the world of retail. Every closure offers promise of a grand opening—count down with us as we reveal the top ten spaces to watch in 2010.

10.) Duane Reade in Williamsburg: Finally, Williamsburg gets a chain drug store that one doesn't practically require a kayak to access. We're all for independent shopping—but there are certain corporate influxes that just make life easier. Bring on Bank of America!

9.) Isabel Marant and Jérôme Dreyfuss: This corner in Soho will be all in the family—as Isabel's full-priced and diffusion collections become available right next door to her hubby's coveted leather handbags.

8.) Raf Simons Eyes Soho: So, we don't know where or when—but who wouldn't be excited to see a Raf shop in New York? God knows he has his fingers in enough pies to stock an entire space?

7.) Levi's in MePa: There ought to be one shop in the neighborhood we can afford.

6.) Forever 21 in Times Square: Maybe once this 90,000 square foot space opens in the tourist mecca of Times Square sometime in 2010 we'll finally be able to get a fitting room in one of their other more modest Manhattan locations.

5.) Brooks Brothers Goes Budget: Rumors are swirling over the vacated Brooks Brothers flagship in midtown. Will we get more of Top Shop's pricey knock-offs or Uniqlo's less-pricey basics? At least we know it won't be a Hollister.

4.) Limelight Marketplace: It's never going to be a club again—it might as well be a New York City take on a suburban mall: quirky, architecturally significant, and stocked with unique items, hard to find brands, and random entertainment.

3.) Anthropologie at Chelsea Market: Say what you will about what Anthropologie stock and the clientele purchasing it—this space is going to be spectacular.

2.) A Second, and Third, Trader Joe's: Many of us have given up on saving money on goat cheese bries and lightly salted pecans because the lines at Manhattan's first and only Trader Joe's are often totally soul-crushing. But, there is hope—additional locations in Chelsea and Upper West Side might diffuse the hordes?If only slightly.

1.) Nordstrom Rack: Soon our Union Square meeting place will be restored (just browse discount denim instead of DVDs). Plus, we once unearthed a Ralph Lauren pique polo embroidered in spiders at a Rack in Chicago—Enough said.