“The Fifth Avenue model seemed to work for a while, and then it got to a point where it just doesn’t work at this price anymore,” said Barbara Denham, a senior economist at Reis, a real estate data and analytics firm. “It got to the point where I think landlords were jacking up each new lease with higher and higher rent, and at some point, something had to give.”
Stores still line the avenue. But in recent years, a record number of brands along the upper part of the shopping strip have shuttered or relocated, including Kenneth Cole, Juicy Couture and H&M, according to an analysis from the brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield. From 49th to 60th Streets, the availability rate of leases — one gauge of turnover — reached 15.9 percent at the end of last year, up from 6.1 percent five years earlier.
Retail Payrolls Sustain a New Blow as Technology Alters Shopping Habits
Doors at many Macy’s, Sears and J. C. Penney stores may still be open, but some of the jobs they once supported are starting to vanish.
General merchandise stores shed 34,700 jobs in March, the government announced Friday, the single most disappointing figure in a generally disappointing jobs report.
After hitting a low point during the recession in December 2009, the retail sector has reliably been churning out more jobs. Though the Labor Department’s monthly employment summary provides only a snapshot of the labor market, this is the second month in a row that retail payrolls have registered substantial losses — a possible sign that larger structural changes are in the works.
