Times: Greenland Forest City seeking record rents for Pacific Park retail (next to construction sites)
I don't completely buy the premise of Merchants Wait for the Promise of Vanderbilt Avenue. And Wait. , in today's New York Times, which focuses on how delays in the residential buildout of Atlantic Yards have affected merchants who paid high rents on the anticipated influx of many new customers. The essence: Retail rents have been rising in anticipation that the project will change the character of the stretch of Vanderbilt that runs from Atlantic Avenue to Grand Army Plaza. Hair salons and hardware stores have been replaced with artisanal bakeries and farm-to-table restaurants. Some storefronts have remained vacant as landlords wait for higher-paying tenants. Even some newer stores have struggled to survive, according to the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council and Ms. [Ellen] Fishman, president of the Vanderbilt Avenue Merchants District. After all, some businesses, like Ample Hills ice cream, are going gangbusters, as noted in the article. Timing questi...