One Square Foot of Fifth Ave Retail Space Is $3,400+ Per Year

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

And you thought your rent was out of control. The Real Estate Board of New York released its fall retail report this week, and—not surprisingly—rents have increased in 13 of 17 corridors compared to the same period last year.

Neighborhoods that saw the biggest gains include East 57th Street between Park and Fifth Avenues with a 41% bump to $1,250 per square foot to year. Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd Streets saw a 24% increase to $1,709 per square foot, and the Flatiron District (so hot right now) had a 23% increase to bring rents to $403 per square foot.

Notably, the poised-for-a-retail-breakthrough Harlem saw an 18% increase in retail rents, bringing the area to an average of $130 per square foot per year—just under the Manhattan average of $149.

Driving that average up is Fifth Avenue between 49th and 59th Street, which had the highest average rents by far at $3,420 a square foot—a modest increase of 8% over last year—with the stretch of Broadway in Times Square coming in a distant second at $2,317.

· Real Estate Board of New York [Official Site]
· Brookfield, WTC Shopping Cause Retail Rents to Rise in FiDi [Racked NY]
· Retail Rents on Fifth Avenue Topped $3,100 in 2013 [Racked NY]