Manhattan’s Retail Pain Worsens With Fifth Avenue Rent Slide

The picture’s getting bleaker for some key Manhattan shopping districts. Lower Fifth Avenue, running from 42nd to 49th streets, had the biggest drop in retail asking rents in the second quarter, sliding 30% from a year earlier, according to a report by brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. SoHo and Madison Avenue were among areas with declines of more than 14%. Landlords were struggling even before the pandemic as more consumers embraced e-commerce and large retailers went bankrupt, leaving gaping vacancies along Manhattan’s shopping corridors. The pain only worsened after measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 shuttered stores for months starting in March. Read more at Bloomberg.