Foreign retailers are flocking to Manhattan, gobbling up prime storefronts

Don’t be fooled by those empty storefronts because retailers are fighting to find space in prime Manhattan neighborhoods.“Where there is good product there is competition for it,” said Matt Chmielecki of CBRE. In Soho, prime corners on Prince and Spring streets have been lapped up, while nearby Broadway is getting tight.The space crunch is forcing tenants to look further south.The Flatiron is also tight, but Club Monaco is leaving a 19,170-square-foot location on the ground and lower levels at 160 Fifth Ave.

It’s being marketed through Brandon Singer at Retail by Mona with a ground asking rent of $450 per foot.   Downtown dwellers will rejoice when the French department store, Printemps, opens this year in 55,000 square feet at 1 Wall St. Among those still looking for spaces are the Miami imports, Carrott Express and Pura Vita.

Retailers seeking storefronts should head for Lexington Avenue near Bloomingdale’s and along West 34th Street, where there are more vacancies and lower rents. “We were sure that Barney’s closing was going to be the end of Madison Avenue and yet it is another example of small stores generating activity,” said Steve Soutendijk of Cushman & Wakefield.If the large Barney’s at 660 Madison is cut into smaller stores, Soutendijk says they would quickly lease due to demand in that East 60th Street area that straddles the world of offices and luxury apartments.Nearby, the office building at 625 Madison is being demolished and rebuilt by Related as a 1,220-foot-tall, 66-story, 101-unit luxury condo tower designed by SLCE architects with its eastern blockfront between East 58th and 59th streets, set to be chock full of new stores.“They are already having conversations and not opening until 2027,” Soutendijk said.“It will be great physical space with new storefronts and signage and it will be an incredible blockfront.”A block north, between East 60th and 61st streets, Gary Barnett is razing 655...