Pearl River Mart will be gone by the end of the year. The three-story Chinese department store’s been at its latest location, 477 Broadway, since 2003 but rising rents and the prospect of going online-only are reason to leave the three-story digs. The rent on Pearl River’s 30k SF is in the six figures, and Pearl River president Ching Yeh Chen tells Crain’s it’d jump more than five times if the lease were renewed in December. The store’s not likely to find a much better deal anywhere below Canal Street, where its owners are looking, since rents average around $80/SF in that part of town. And if they head north on Broadway, fuggeduboutit, as the saying goes: landlords are getting close to $1k/SF for retail spaces on Broadway in Soho. [Crain's]
