News
BK ATTRACTS HIGHER-END RETAIL
January 23, 2009
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| Brooklyn's retail market continues to grow, despite eroding fundamentals in other areas of New York City. We stopped by Marcus & Millichap's downtown Brooklyn office to chat with regional manager J.D. Parker, who's only blocks away from the Fulton Street Mall, the third-busiest retail corridor in the city. Not too shabby, considering it follows 34th Street and Times Square. |
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| Downtown Brooklyn's rezoning, including Fulton Street Mall, and is attracting higher-end, non-discount/urban retailers that continue to sign leases or show interest in the area. This roster includes Midtown mainstays Morton's Steak House, Urban Outfitters, H&M, Trader Joe's, The Apple Store, and Barney's. Williamsburg is also a strong performer, recently attracting Ricky's NYC to a space at 192 Bedford Ave. at $150 PSF. J.D. expects more downtown tenancy turnover to high-end retail throughout '09 and '10, so now's the time to stock up on those $10 shoes. |
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| J.D. with colleages Matt Fotis, Andy Dorf, and Zach Felson. Some national retailers are closing shop (Brooklyn lost a new Circuit City and a few Starbucks), but that shouldn't have much impact as the market is still underserved, J.D. says. Rents are holding strong, although flat, and retail investment sales continue to be a hot commodity, even though there's a bid-ask gap. But if fundamentals do start to decline, J.D.'s proven no mountain's too high for him: he just returned from scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, his first climb. We'd call him a show-off, but we're too impressed. |
