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New Developments in the News

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

SoHo artist-in-residence regulation resurfaces for area mortgages; Asking rents for retail spaces on the rise in top shopping districts.

Laws that favor artists as residents in the city’s lofts are being referenced again. While the laws were created to allow artists to live and work in former industrial buildings in areas like SoHo as their use for manufacturing declined, the real estate boom favored anyone who could pay top dollar when square footage became involved, and most artists were eventually priced out of the neighborhood. Banks have repeortedly been requiring certification that applicants citing the laws are actually artists, though this may be due to the fact that lenders have recently become far more strict with mortgage applicants overall.

The Retail Advisory Group of the Real Estate Board of New York has reported that asking rents for available retail space in Manhattan has increased by 4% since spring of 2010, and that asking rents in major retail areas like Midtown and sections of the East Side (Fifth Avenue in particular) have increased by as much as 10%.