This morning at the MetLife Building, we snapped CBRE's David LaPierre and Andrew Goldberg (one naughty, one nice). Andrew says the retailers planting global flagships in Manhattan are driving retail investment sales price growth at a faster pace than in other markets. In Times Square, David says, leasing a building's signage and retail space to the same tenant (as opposed to leasing it to signage biz operators) helps the landlord monetize the signage better by attaching it to a credit tenant, he says. Many retailers, in turn, are selling minutes on those signs to non-competitors to decrease occupancy costs.
Richard Hodos (left, whom we snapped with Travis Yuengst and Susan Kurland) says a look at former WTC retail tenants (J. Crew and Victoria's Secret) hints at which retailers would be interested in the secretive Westfield's block (opening in '15) in the new WTC. No leases have been signed, Richard says, but Apple has been in the press, and the name Tiffany was thrown around. (Then again, that name always gets hinted at during the holiday season.) He adds that there are multiple LOIs for each space there. The nearby Brookfield Place's retail offerings, meanwhile, are almost fully leased and will start opening in a year.
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