Fifth Avenue NY most expensive for business

New York’s Fifth Avenue has retained its position as the world’s most expensive place to set up shop, with a single square foot of retail space costing €1,100 to rent.

New Bond Street, in London’s West End, came in fourth in the league table.

A square foot there costs just €536.50.

At €424.70 per square foot, Dublin’s Grafton Street was in sixth place in the figures released by real-estate company Cushman & Wakefield.

Fifth Avenue’s most exclusive stretch, from 52nd to 59th Streets, includes Trump Tower, Tiffany’s, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and newcomers Apple Computers and Nokia.

The former Asprey store at Trump Tower, at 56th Street, may become the world’s highest-value retail lease, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The company’s executive director in New York, Gene Spiegelman, said: “The world’s top brands are jostling for position in this prime stretch of retail.

“This is not just about sales at the till, but about the brand value of retail real estate.

“In a world of advertising clutter, we see companies increasingly leveraging their brands through real estate, and Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue is a prime example of this trend.”

The street’s closest competitor is Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, which costs €901.60 per square foot.

The Avenue de Champs Elyseés in Paris was in third place in the annual Main Streets Across the World survey, at €640.80.

Cushman & Wakefield tracked retail rents in the world’s top 233 shopping locations in 47 countries around the world.