Pity the Retail Landlord

Right now retail tenants are squeezed by high rents, competition from e-commerce and costs like rising wages. Eventually, the costs will get passed on to the owners of retail properties, even in top submarkets like New York City’s West Village.

“Eventually, landlords will find the costs of allowing their spaces to remain vacant too high, and will sharply cut rents,” said columnist Greg David. “Some could do so in a panic or even lose their buildings. Reporters will find a new group of New Yorkers to portray sympathetically.”

Retail property managers resist cutting rents because their leases are so long — often 10 years. But retail tenants — like the restaurant Annisa, closing in May in the West Village — are under pressures that won’t ease anytime soon.

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