This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Map of SoHo, by CitiDex
Yesterday I wrote about the exploding rents of SoHo Mall, and there were some interesting comments, specifically:

To see a jump from 70 bones a sq ft to 200 within 6-12 months has to have something more than location involved. I wonder if there was competition for the new space and it became a bidding war?? Sounds like a research project!!

So this got me thinking: what is the theoretical maximum leasable square footage in what is now, the SoHo Mall?
First, some ground rules:

• SoHo is generally considered to be bounded by Houston on the north, Lafayette on the east, Canal Street on the south and the Hudson River to the west.
• I am defining the SoHo Mall as the area bounded by Houston on the north, Crosby St on the east, Broome on the south and Sullivan on the west.
• Why? Because those are the areas I feel are more “mall-like.” And, because I’m lazy those blocks are all the same size.
• I might be less lazy in the future and change the size of the SoHo Mall, but this is good for now.
• I will only be calculating the first floor as the most desirable, knowing that often times the cellar and the second floors of existing buildings are often used in commercial retail.
• I will finally use an efficiency factor of .85 to take into account walls, stairs, elevators, etc which always eat into ground floor retail space.

OK, for those following at home, the SoHo mall (for this exercise) looks like this:

SoHo Mall
Inside the SoHo Mall boundaries, there are 21 blocks of roughly the same size: 200′-0″ x 375′-“0 which gives us an average block area of 75,000 SF, which gives us an estimated area of:
1,575,000 SF
Multiply that by the .85 efficiency factor and we get:
1,338,750 SF
Now to the fun part: let’s see what the owners of the SoHo Mall take in yearly from commercial retail rent. Which, when using the average cost-per-square-foot provided yesterday of $66/SF and the “premium” number quoted as $200/SF, we get this:

• $88,357,500 (@ $66/SF)
• $267,750,000 (@ $200/SF)

Nice! Of course, not everyone is paying the premium, and many commercial tenants are paying “sub premium” rent because they were smart and locked their rent down with a 5-10 year lease (but watch the yearly escalation costs!).
This was a fun exercise, if you have any comments leave it below. Nonetheless: Congratulations owners of the SoHo Mall! I’m sure you are hoping you have some lease renewals coming up so, don’t you?

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

untitled, originally uploaded by Keisuke Omi
Looks like the New York Times woke up, and figured out that SoHo Bounces Back as a Fashion Center:

Before Sept. 11, 2001, SoHo seemed on the way to emerging as one of the most prestigious shopping districts in Manhattan. But after the attack on the World Trade Center, many retailers eventually left their stores after it appeared that shoppers had abandoned the district.
Now, SoHo is on the rise again, particularly among foreign clothing retailers seeking to establish stores in New York.

I’ve been calling the areas around Broadway, Prince, Spring, and Green the SoHo Mall for ‘nigh on two years now. But no bother, let’s get into some real retail porn.
The article lists rent between $62-$70/SF for the area, and gives specific rents for the following stores:

• 69 Greene Street occupied by Bo Concept at 7,000 SF @ $385,000 ($55/SF) leased in 2005
• 71 Greene Street occupied by Phi at 7,000 SF @ $450,000 ($62/SF) leased in 2006
• 546 Broadway occupied by Uniqlo at 50,000 SF @ $3.5 million ($70/SF) leased in March 2006

But get ready for this:

Mr. Staav and another senior managing director with Lansco, Christine Emery, both retail specialists in the SoHo area, recently assisted the landlord at 92 Greene Street, a 50,000-square-foot loft condominium building under construction on a former parking lot, in two leasing transactions with foreign designers. Evisu, a Japanese jeans maker, took 3,200 square feet, and Cotélac, a French women’s clothier, leased 2,500 square feet.
The asking annual rent for both spaces was about $200 a foot. “Just two years ago, the area was dead,” Ms. Emery said. “Now we’re seeing a return to pre-9/11 rents,” which were about $500,000 a year for a 3,500- to 4,000-square-foot space on Greene Street.

$200 a square foot! That exceeds Ms. Emery’s pre-9/11 rental rates which were $125-143/SF!
Looks like the SoHo mall is staying for good.