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Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road long term leased to foreign companies, JPMorgan/ Lehman/ Carlyle Group others, will groups bid 50-year lease of "Alligator Alley" highway FL.
"Ten to 20 years from now infrastructure could be larger than real estate." -A. V. Andrews, head of portfolio strategy at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, J. Anderson "Willing To Lease Your Bridge" NYTimes 8-27-2008]
Some the weakest and most speculative large NYC residential [apartment] property buy-outs by trust-equity firms, who then re-financed based an false and inflated returns claims [impossible turn over of stabilised units to market rate] are moving towards default.
The financiers want to buy up "assests" - the national infrastructure. Gonna make congestion pricing look like charity to you. BEWARE- look what they did to housing and the real estate market!
| Shop and Drop? | ||
| Watch out for...*Street vendors -food carts rip you off for your change especially tourists. Counterfeit designer wares on busy streets. all around town* *Shops on 5th Ave in the 30s and in Penn Sta area. flowing with everything from cheap rugs to refurbished electronics making suckers out of tourists* *Health club-gyms [BALLY TOTAL FITNESS noted as worst] slipping you into ironclad nearly non-breakable long contracts* *Some taxi drivers, yes fully licensed, who know you don't know you're way and not unusual to take you for a ride from a few blocks extra, to the very few more serious rides into trouble* | ||
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JULY 21 2009 [Haughney: Stores 'Go Dark Where Buyers Once Roamed' NYTimes]: Manhattan storefront vacancies are 'estimated' 6.5% and expected to pass 10% next year -in the "outer Boroughs: It is getting worse; 7% in the best cases, 25% to 40% in hardest hit neighborhoods! 5th Ave. 42st-49st/[Rock. Ctr] is 15.3% vacant! Fall 2008/ early 2009: Madison Ave 60s vacancy rate rose past 12%. Many remaining independent boutiques in bad shapes or closed. Asking rents for vacant spaces range from $600 to $1500 sq ft. As the sky is literally falling, Mayor in furtherance of 'green' goals and encouraged by P-C groups such as Natural Resources Defense Council and precedents of such taxes in EUROpe and S.F., wants a You wanna give them the money? Soho: In 2008 Broadway completed a "Star Is Born" coup over West Broadway. Multiple vacancies on W Bway, still very high prices but foot traffic, plus no talks about absence of galleries [traffic] while Broadway has everything from Bloomies on, and no more problem with cachet.Summer/fall 2008:Retail space hotter than residential market...may be peaking. Real Estate Trusts and groups were still buying up 'hot' retail locations at record prices especially in the "meat market" area and the 5Av strip. Only at hottest commercial areas like meat market/High Line and upper Madison Av etc. are still then umm, partying/ spending "like its 1999!" Those store rents on far w14 -High Line area rose 4x to 5x in 5 years. Elsewhere, new owners bring in more deep pocketed chains and the luxury-group purveyors, drive up our prices further and appeal to tourists and 'hipsters' more and more. STARBUCKS hunkered down mid 2006 -[from amNew York via REALDEAL.com] as it hits 200 NYC locations, they realise they can save some money by downsizing some locations and may close some! Starbuck makes sure it takes as many spaces as it can barely support to keep competitors from getting established- -2002-2006 on [The Starbucks strategy-] Proliferation of drug chains in NYC - esp. Expanding CVS, RiteAid/ Eckerd and DUANE READE in NYC into 2006-07; in the downturn DUANE READE finally had to close some. How much have chain stores penetrated NYC? Top of nationals here are Dunkin Donuts with most [341] and Starbucks is no. 4 [235] in from Center for An Urban Future figures-8-1-2008 in the NYC papers SO for Dunkin, Subway, McD, Starbucks, Duane Reade, Baskin-Robbins, Rite Aid, Radio Shack, GNC and Payless are 2,139 here... S.I. has LEAST of these chains! Of course there are MANY other chains here besides these so group counted the combined grand TOTAL 5,716! I think this does NOT include the 1,599 NYC bank branches of a count in 2007! *NOV 2008: Walgreens Times Sq opened. this is its 11th in Manhattan and 53rd NYC location.* Banks took busy corners in Manhattan, filling prime space to keep competitors out, rather than opening in underserved areas in the boroughs and usually replacing multiple small local shops at each location. CHASE is no. 1 [NYC boros 278 branches] and aggressively added branches grew by 389 locations even though they closed 45, they built 95 in the "metro area" and acquired 339 (Bank of NY and more) [-DailyNews 8-11-2008] 2004-2007, while Citigroup only added 3 or 4 a year! These excess BANK branches drove up other retail rents and consumer prices beyond the "regular" official inflation. Banks paid up to 50% OVER market rate to keep out other retail from best corner spots. They with landlords eliminated smaller established stores. When will the shake-out start?-oh early 2008 with 'stop' in new Manhattan branch leasing to CLOSINGS of some branches DEC 2008 on..CHASE was no. 1 with 127 in Manhattan.
WORSE than ol supermarkets? BEWARE of expired food, medicine, baby formula at the 'drug store' chains! NY investigators found very widespread sales of these expired items at CVS and Rite Aid "even after warnings" so are gonna sue ..[JUNE 2008] Settlement with Rite Aid announced DEC 4 2008 includes $1mil penalty and follow up self-inspections. Next up - CVS. Can the Devil make Macy*s do it? It could just kill that store. Vornado and Related Co DEC 2007 seeking publicity and more justification for the W side mega development said they MACY*s was offered a move to new space W of Penn Sta. Then they would have THAT whole block too, in their takeover of the area to build same ol new office-retail-condo-hotel towers. *Upgrade of Empire State Bldg coincides with upgrades of retailers on w34 between 5 - 6 Ave. Anyway, JCPenney in lower levels of Vornado's Manhattan Mall opened July 2009. JUN 2008-Six stores closed, at least 6 more maybe to close, in trouble from 2 AVE 91-96st torn up for subway construction that may never be finished anyway! This will cost the taxpayer - looks like grants and tax relief are being arranged for them. APR 1 2006-NY State sales tax [4%] on clothing less than $100 eliminated. But APR 2008 State legislature passed "Amazon' internet sales tax, effective JUN 1. 14st chic swept towards its StuyTown east end thru 2008. and now? *Scorn of Plenty: WEST 57 st chic? NYObserver JUN 16 2008 said its coming no matter what-and that removal [in 2006?] of the "awful" McDonalds was just a start..R. Lefrak gonna insure his existing investment at 40w57st and make more money by upgrading growing portfolio his and some partnering w/ Vornado Realty which now includes 29, 30, 31, 33, 40, 49, 50 w 57st. Meanwhile, Macklowe ParkAv- 56/57st mega site of the Drake Hotel 40, 44, 50 most or all those are gonna come down..for a really huge tower probably using rights from 42, 44, 48 and 50e57st [NYObserver 7-7-2008]. *Skys the limit-What about for YOU? Retail rents Columbus Av, Tribeca doubles in last three years Meatpacking and W Village they TRIPLED! High-pop fashion boutiques proliferate on BLEECKER taking up any vacancies with the exception of KIMs video -until late summer 2008 and some closing of the last few old time stores with no takers by boutiques, yet. There are some on vacanies in meat market area with retail/restaurant turnovers such as on Gansevoort with huge rent increase closed FLORENT JUN 29 2008!
The vacancies On Christopher were *mostly* filled in with new by a still changing cast of fashion, tattoo, fortune teller and porno joints and new ethnic-[Peruvian, Indian, Cuban etc] little restaurants. I miss long-gone Bellardo, David's Pot Belly and [for the 'community'] ancient Kiss My Cookies, Christopher St Pizza, All American Boy, Clyde's on Bleecker [now Manatus] over 20+ years later- and a slew of other ol restaurant in the area I now barely remember the names of [Sandolino's, anuyone!]! Not to mention the Sheridan Sq. Gym (-providing pre-Chelsea boy street muscle.) *OH NO- so hot its burning out - STARBUCKS opened on HUDSON-w10 [1 block up from Christopher] in newly renovated bldg several months after Brooklyn Industries "Atelier" opened at ol gay porn "the bookstore" at Christopher-Hudson a block away in renovated walk up.*
Upper Broadway to w96st shopping in midst of disruption and change. Landlords grabbing onto "upscale" market. A large number of individual stores already closed, some are kept vacant in anticipation of lea$es with chains like GEOX and American Eagle anticipated.
Make-Over of PINTCHIK Blvd? Biggest local landlord we hadn't heard about, Pintchik family of the paint-hardware stores. Their oldest? store has been on FLATBUSH-Bergen since 1940 they acquired many properties up and down that Ave. Feeling the time is right, -no doubt spurred on by sale of some of their property at the Atlantic Av umm end of Flatbush Av to Forest City Ratner for the Atlantic Yards, NYSun 2-7-2008 said they are going to accelerate improvements, additions and retail upgrades, then build new buildings on other of these properties bordering Park Slope and Ft. Greene. Luxe chain stores and services and more apartment coming in. Rents going up, nearing $3,000 on 2-br now. Great? Almost.
NETHERLANDS:
STATEN Is FERRY - S.I side. No retail, no food in 20,000 sq ft of retail NYC controls in the renovated terminal after 3 years+ "bidding process". NYC is out $1.5mil a year! Through summer 2009 there was only 1 newsstand [a Post Office substation] exists. One problem was there were no utilities put in for the retail in the renovation! So SI borough Pres budget put in $1.3mil early 2009 top fix that. MAYBE by end of 2009 8 of 10 retail spaces will be leased, if you take the word of the city. Looking for high rents and expecting tnets to build out and hook up their spots, dDid they/ you think the place was Stuyvesant Town [see MORE->]? And all the Mayor cared to go to there for himself was to inaugurate the huge and 2 hugely expensive fish tanks in the middle of waiting area [with a hard time keeping those exotic fish alive.] Dare to take the ferry and stay to sightsee S.I.! There is a new tiny tourist kiosk and new part time bus tour . | ||
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