Manhattan Commercial Real Estate, in a few words.

Just to confirm one of my previous posts about the future of retail, this little update came out yesterday on The Real Deal:

Sixteen different food and beverage businesses signed leases in Manhattan between June 11 and July 10, according to The Real Deal’s monthly retail lease report. The fashion industry retailers, meanwhile, nabbed the most square footage during that time, according to the report, snapping up 81,700 square feet. The food and beverage industry was a close second, leasing up 79,415 square feet.

Basically, what it means is that food and clothing are dominating in recent retail leasing activity.

The reason is pretty simple: as many products switch from physical retail locations to on-line stores, physical retail locations are only needed by product lines that require physical interaction to be purchased, which is mainly food and clothing.

Now, you would think that a recession will affect restaurants and retail destinations as clothing. It did, in the beginning, but consumers spend in different ways and smart businesses adapted to their “new” clientele.

Regarding the market in NYC, this might also be a signal for landlords: they should focus on businesses that require physical interaction in order to be sold…

Peter Videv is a Commercial Real Estate Advisor with Sperry Van Ness, a national Commercial Real Estate Brokerage