BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

Lower ManhattanCondé Nast, the mega-publisher behind such magazines as Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, holds several events per month at the Lambs Club on West 44th Street, two blocks from its 4 Times Square headquarters. It’s also been known to hold events at Michael’s on 55th Street, and a host of other venues.

Now, with the company having leased over 1.1 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center and saying goodbye to its old quarters, a new posh venue for its gatherings will have to be found, all of which has brokers asking the question: will high-end dining and retail come to Manhattan’s southern tip?

Retailers are hungry for Manhattan retail space at the moment, but lower Manhattan luxury stores may take time, said Steve Rappaport, senior managing director with SINVIN Realty. For that to change, a high-end retailer may need to stake a claim early on and wait for value to grow, Mr. Rappaport said.

“Will it happen? Yes. When will it happen? That’s difficult to determine,” he said.

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BY KARSTEN STRAUSS

This week, while brokers and retailers descend upon Manhattan for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ conference in New York, retail consultants John Harding and Richard Cohan, of the 34th Street Partnership, were meeting with eight to 10 representatives of brands, restaurants and stores each day to convince them to seek locations in the 34th Street area. Given the retail and brand presence already in place along the retail corridor, they may not have to try very hard.

Mr. Cohan, one of the organization’s retail specialists, lists B&H, Gap, Victoria’s Secret, H&M, Foot Locker and Zara as brands that have found a home in the area. There are also newcomers—Joe Fresh and Vince Camuto have set up shop between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and Timberland landed in the area last year, as did Uniqlo.

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BY AL BARBARINO

For more than five years, an exodus of the young and hip from the aluminum-siding-studded homes of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been flowing southwest into neighboring Bushwick. But now a nascent 80,000-square-foot retail and nightlife complex at 82 Bogart Street threatens to cement the neighborhood’s imminent transformation from underground hipness to mainstream retail success once and for all.

North Development Corp. acquired the 200-by-400-foot behemoth across the street from the Morgan L train stop in August for $12.15 million, and the developer plans to turn the building, which takes up an entire block, into a sprawling nightlife, retail and artist gallery complex on an otherwise underwhelming stretch in Bushwick.

Think Mall of America writ small and, to those involved, more independent minded.

“What we’re planning on doing is turning this into some sort of creative entertainment and retail venue,” said Andrew Clemens, a director of leasing at Massey Knakal, the firm selected to exclusively market the space. “Think a grittier Chelsea Market.”

While only in preliminary, conceptual stages, the plan is to break the property into multiple sections and feature bars, restaurants, artist galleries and studios, Mr. Clemens said.

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BY AL BARBARINO

With the long-awaited Barclays Center open and new residential and mixed-use development projects popping up across Downtown Brooklyn, a retail conundrum is growing along the 17-block Fulton Mall.

The national and in some cases high-end retailers moving onto the strip paint a stark contrast to the long list of mom-and-pops, local discounters and jewelry shops that once almost exclusively lined the street.

“There’s a big push to get more notable retailers and prestigious retailers to take notice of Downtown Brooklyn,” said Hymie Dweck, an associate director with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail. “Some retailers see that and they want to join the party.”

Tenants like Express, Aeropostale and Gap arrived after a Downtown Brooklyn rezoning in 2004 that made way for more commercial and residential development, and efforts by landlords and the city continue to attract national brands.

More recently, the small but growing organic grocery chain Khim’s Millennium Market—until now a fixture only in Williamsburg—signed on to occupy retail space at the base of Brooklyn’s tallest residential building, The Brooklyner at 111 Lawrence Street.

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BY AL BARBARINO

Jones Lang LaSalle has been retained as the exclusive leasing agent for the marketing and sale of the 11,115-square-foot retail condominium on the first two floors of a luxury residential building at 350 West Broadway in SoHo, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The two-story jewel box retail store is located in one of SoHo’s prime retail centers, between Grand and Broome Streets, with 80 feet of frontage along West Broadway. The space also features an exclusive, 1,500-square-foot terrace area.

JLL Vice Chairman Richard Baxter is marketing the space along with a team that includes Yoron Cohen, Yoav Oelsner, Jason Gold and Ryan Solomon.

“This is a very unique space because it’s a two-level glass jewel box, which is very unique for the area – it will command a premium because of that,” Mr. Gold said, adding that the JLL team anticipates a sale price between $26 and $30 million.

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